About Us
Rated by the People Who Wear Them
The Sniff Test is an independent UK fragrance comparison site. We track 12,926 affordable clone alternatives for 5,965 designer and niche perfumes, scored across four dimensions by the people who buy and wear them. No fluff. No paid placements. Just honest comparisons so you can find a scent you'll love without spending a fortune.
How the ratings work
The scores on this site belong to the community. Anyone with an account can rate any clone in the database across all four dimensions, and every rating submitted feeds straight into the number shown on the comparison table — no moderation queue, no editorial override, no vendor input.
A listing that nobody has rated yet still needs to show something, so it opens with an indicative score set by the vendor's own grade tier — A++, HQ, Premium, Deluxe and so on. Treat that as a placeholder rather than a finding. Vendors grade their own products and naturally grade them generously, which is exactly why community votes are what the system is built to collect.
As ratings arrive, they take the score over. The opening figure carries the weight of 5 votes, so a clone with 5 community ratings shows a score that is half the community's, and one with twenty ratings is roughly four-fifths theirs. Rate enough of them and the placeholder disappears from the arithmetic entirely.
This is the part of the site that gets better only if people take part. If you own a clone we list, rating it is the single most useful thing you can do — it moves the number for everyone who looks it up afterwards.
What the four scores mean
Every clone is rated on a 1–10 scale across four dimensions:
A note on scores with few ratings behind them: most vendors publish their own grading systems — A++ or HQ typically corresponds to a similarity of 8–9, Premium to 7–8, and so on — and a listing opens at roughly what its grade tier implies. Those opening figures come from vendor claims, so they skew optimistic. Read any score with scepticism until the community has weighed in on it, and add your own rating if you can.
The vendors we cover
We currently carry data from 4 listed vendors. Each has different strengths, pricing, and product types — understanding the differences helps you shop smarter.
One of the UK's longest-running clone vendors. Strong catalogue of both oil and spray formats, with particular depth in designer flankers and popular mainstream fragrances. Their HQ-grade oils are generally consistent and their spray range has improved markedly in recent years. A solid first stop for most UK buyers.
A newer UK entrant with a rapidly expanding catalogue. Generic Perfumes tends to be competitive on price and punches above its weight on niche and Middle Eastern-inspired fragrances. Their A++ tier has surprised on similarity scores; worth checking if Perfume Parlour doesn't stock your target fragrance.
Specialises in oil-format clones, with particular strength in oud-heavy and Middle Eastern fragrance families. If you're chasing Amouage, Creed, or any of the big Arabic houses, APO is often the best place to start. Smaller catalogue than the others but high hit-rate in their specialist categories.
The largest single catalogue in our database, with 5,515 current listings. US-based but ships internationally. Particularly deep in mainstream designer fragrances and has solid coverage of niche houses. Prices are USD and shipping to the UK can be less economical, but the range is unmatched for filling gaps the UK vendors don't cover.
More vendors are added as we verify their catalogues and pricing. If you have experience with a vendor we don't yet cover, we'd love to hear from you.
Independence, affiliations & intellectual property
The Sniff Test is independently operated. Brand names and comparisons do not imply endorsement, sponsorship, or approval by the original fragrance brands or rights holders. No vendor pays for better ratings, improved placement, or inclusion in the database. Vendors are ranked in our comparison tables purely by the scores their products earn.
Trademarks, brand names, product names, logos, and images remain the property of their respective owners. We use brand and product names only to identify the fragrances being discussed, reviewed, or compared. References to alternatives, impressions, clones, or similar products do not imply any connection with the original brand or rights holder. If you believe any material has been used improperly, contact us and we will review it promptly.
Our Generic Perfumes links use the affiliate code sniff, and we may earn a commission when you buy through them at no extra cost to you. Our Amazon links cover decanting and storage supplies and original fragrances where we have verified the exact product. We may also earn a commission on those purchases. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Other clone vendor links carry no affiliate tracking. No commercial arrangement has ever influenced a rating or a vendor's placement.
If we find a vendor's catalogue has errors or their pricing has moved, we update accordingly. Scores move on their own as community ratings come in.
Get in touch
Found an error? Think we've missed a fragrance or a vendor worth covering? Have a rating that doesn't match your experience? We want to know.
The most useful thing you can do is rate the clones you already own — that goes straight into the scores everyone sees. If something else is off, or a listing disagrees with your experience in a way a rating can't capture, tell us the fragrance, the vendor, the grade, and what you found.
You can reach us at [email protected].
