Bond No 9 TriBeCa Dupes

#1Jo Milano Paris Game of Spades Royale

Shares with the original: Cacao, Jasmine Sambac, Cedar, Caramel, Ambroxan, Moss

Seven notes against seven, and they are the same seven — cacao, hazelnut, jasmine sambac, cedar, caramel, ambroxan and moss. There is nothing in Royale that is not in TriBeCa. An owner who has both is equally direct: an excellent dupe, with the same thick cocoa butter and the same dirty ambroxan underneath, which is the specific combination that makes the Bond distinctive rather than just another chocolate fragrance. It sits at 90 rather than higher because that is one voice. Nobody has published a longer side-by-side, and the Jo Milano line as a whole draws a wide spread of longevity reports — anywhere from three hours to eleven depending on who you ask. The economics are the real argument here: TriBeCa is 470 dollars for 100ml from Bond's own boutique. A second owner, who has four fragrances from this line, adds the most useful description of the difference: Royale is a less soapy take on TriBeCa with a touch more density, well rounded and without the loose ends he finds in many Middle Eastern clones. He also notes the jasmine is what keeps it unisex — without it, it would lean masculine. A warning that applies to the whole Game of Spades line, not just this bottle: a buyer of the nine-piece sample set from a reputable retailer reports that the scents did not match the notes printed on the box or listed on Fragrantica, that several were headache-inducing, that one had no scent at all, and that Jo Milano never replied when asked whether the set was genuine. Full bottles draw far better reports than that, so this may be a problem specific to the sample sets or to one bad batch — but buy from a seller who takes returns.

Sources: Owner-of-both comparison · pyramids from Bond No 9 official copy and Fragrantica