Bucephalus XI by Armaf

I finished the previous bottle, which smelled like Aventus and lasted forever, but this new one is very weak and has lost its longevity. I don’t know if Armaf reformulated it, but they’ve ruined it, what a shame. I can’t figure out what’s going on with perfumers or brands; they’re ruining every perfume that was worth keeping. The atomizer is a disaster and sprays almost to the bottom of the cap, so perfume gets trapped underneath. Also, some units come out poorly sealed: not only does it leak if you lay it down, but the contents evaporate (almost better, because that way it oxidizes and gives a rancid note, which paradoxically improves this formula).

I have it and for it to resemble Aventus you need a very fine nose, I don’t have one. I have the original and this doesn’t resemble it at all, it just smells a bit like pineapple around, but they have nothing to do with each other. It’s a good perfume, smells very well, whatever you want. It lasts a ton, six hours or more. When I run out because I use it, I’ll buy more.

Ucephalus XI: disappointment or hit? I read comments saying it’s a clone of Aventus, much better than the ‘black beast’, cleaner, and now that I’ve tried it, I wonder: do those people really know the King? Or did they try those legendary 2011 or 2013 batches and swear it smells the same? My disappointment comes from so much desire to know those formulas and have them say it smells like this. I would prefer a thousand times the current formulas (2017-2018) that I actually know. Deep down, I know they let themselves be carried away by what they read. It’s not a bad fragrance, but the hype, the attempt to resemble, and that gorgeous bottle (here the quality leaves much to be desired) made it sell even at double the CDNIM price. It’s a citrus fragrance without that sharp acidic hit of the black beast; a green wood note comes out right away trying to give a smoky touch, but it’s not well executed. In the background, you can smell a bit of vanilla. As I said, it’s not bad and has good longevity; it lasted me more than six hours, even though I suffer from low performance. In my opinion, out of all the clones, it’s the one that resembles Aventus the least. The bottle quality isn’t the best, I could even say it’s the worst atomizer I’ve seen, and I have plenty to compare. If you’ve already tried it and like it, go ahead. Greetings.

Another version of Aventus by Armaf, here they swap the pineapple for a vanilla note that gives it a curious twist. You can see the resemblance to Club de Nuit but with its own nuances. The sillage and longevity are weaker, hovering around 6 hours.

It resembles Club de Nuit Intense Man quite a bit, but with more fruit and less smoke; the sillage and longevity are a bit shorter.