The Trained Nose

Black Lacquer against Black Eau de Toilette

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.
Tom Ford

Black Lacquer

Oriental Woody · lasts about 5.7 h
Comme des Garcons

Black Eau de Toilette

· lasts about 9.9 h

How close, and when

Across a whole wearing, Tom Ford Black Lacquer and Comme des Garcons Black Eau de Toilette 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
66% heart · 1–3 h
79% drydown · 3–8 h
Measured across all twenty-four facets, from the notes below — not from the families on the boxes. They share 1 of 17 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 — Black Pepper
Black Lacquer only — Ink, Rum, Vinyl
Black Eau de Toilette only — Frankincense, Incense
heart
Black Lacquer only — Apricot, Ebony Wood, Elemi, Peony
Black Eau de Toilette only — Birch, Leather, Licorice, Pepperwood
base
Black Lacquer only — Frankincense
Black Eau de Toilette only — Cedar, Vetiver