The Trained Nose

Herod against Divine Vanille

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.
Parfums de Marly

Herod

· lasts about 12.0 h
Essential Parfums

Divine Vanille

· lasts about 10.4 h

How close, and when

Across a whole wearing, Parfums de Marly Herod and Essential Parfums Divine Vanille are close. They are nearest during the drydown and furthest apart in the opening, which is the part a single figure would average away.

64% opening · 0–1 h
86% heart · 1–3 h
87% drydown · 3–8 h
Measured across all twenty-four facets, from the notes below — not from the families on the boxes. They share 4 of 21 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 — Cinnamon
Herod only — Pepperwood
Divine Vanille only — Black Pepper, Clary Sage
heart
both — Incense, Osmanthus
Herod only — Labdanum, Tobacco Leaf
Divine Vanille only — Pomarose
base
both — Musk
Herod only — Amber, Cedar, Cypriol Oil or Nagarmotha, Iso E Super, Vanilla, Vetiver
Divine Vanille only — Madagascar Vanilla, Patchouli, Siam Benzoin, Texas Cedar, Tonka Bean

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.