The Trained Nose

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Sauvage against Spirit Absolute

One number per era rather than one number overall — two fragrances can be near-identical at the opening and different things by the evening, and an average hides exactly that.
Dior

Sauvage

Spicy Fresh · lasts about 5.7 h
Read the entry Centre the map here
Swiss Arabian

Spirit Absolute

· lasts about 7.0 h
Read the entry Centre the map here

How close, and when

Across a whole wearing, Dior Sauvage and Swiss Arabian Spirit Absolute are all but the same thing. They hold the same distance from each other all the way through, rather than converging or parting as the hours pass.

99% opening · 0–1 h
97% heart · 1–3 h
99% drydown · 3–8 h
Measured across all twenty-four facets, from the notes below — not from the families on the boxes. They share 11 of 13 materials, which is worth holding beside the figures: a pair can share almost nothing and still converge, because different materials can smell of the same things.

What AKIN predicts

AKIN predicts these two are alike, and the evidence behind that is substantial.

Two signals sit on this page and are never averaged: what the note pyramids measure these two to share, and what AKIN’s resemblance graph predicts. Where they part, that is the finding rather than a fault.

The pyramids, side by side

Compared by material rather than by spelling, so a note recorded two ways is not counted as a difference.
top
both — Calabrian Bergamot, Pepper
heart
both — Geranium, Lavender, Patchouli, Pink Pepper, Sichuan Pepper, Vetiver
Sauvage only — Elemi
Spirit Absolute only — Elemi Resin
base
both — Ambroxan, Cedar, Labdanum

Other comparisons worth reading

Pairs involving one of these two where the notes are fully recorded on both sides and AKIN has enough evidence for the pair to be worth reading.