The Trained Nose

Rive Gauche against Eau de Calandre

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.
Yves Saint Laurent

Rive Gauche

· lasts about 7.5 h
Paco Rabanne

Eau de Calandre

· lasts about 8.6 h

How close, and when

Across a whole wearing, Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche and Paco Rabanne Eau de Calandre are very close. They are nearest during the drydown and furthest apart in the opening, which is the part a single figure would average away.

84% opening · 0–1 h
91% heart · 1–3 h
92% 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 22 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 — Bergamot, Lemon
Rive Gauche only — Aldehyde, Honeysuckle, Peach
Eau de Calandre only — Geranium
heart
both — Iris, Jasmine, Lily of the Valley, Rose, Ylang-Ylang
Rive Gauche only — Gardenia, Geranium, Magnolia
base
both — Amber, Musk, Oakmoss, Sandalwood
Rive Gauche only — Tahitian Vetiver, Tonka Bean
Eau de Calandre only — Cedar, Vetiver

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.