When I first started my collection journey, one of the picks that everyone on YouTube always kept talking about was Rasasi Hawas. Over and over again I kept seeing it on everyone’s hit list and, of course, I had to try it. Let me say, the fragrance wasn’t my cup of tea necessarily, but I was thoroughly impressed with the massive amount of performance and projection from such a low-priced fragrance. I’ll rank the current offerings in order of appearance this time around.
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Rasasi Hawas For Him – 6/10
Like I mentioned above, this one wasn’t my jam and still isn’t as of writing this blog. It’s a very youthful fragrance with that bubble-gum sweetness that’s just very overpowering. Top notes are apple, bergamot, lemon and cinnamon. Middle notes are watery notes, plum cardamom and orange blossom. Base notes are ambergris, musk, patchouli and driftwood. I’m not sure I smell any of the spiciness of this fragrance at all. Mostly the fruitiness and ambery musk is all I detect on my nose. Performance is massive for the price, and I could still smell this on my hand the next day after testing. Taking its roots and punches from Invictus Aqua, it’s a really nice casual summer scent, but just not for me.
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Rasasi Hawas Ice – 6.5/10
I know what you’re thinking. There’s no way this one can’t be as bad as the first one. You’re right, it’s only slightly better. The note breakdown is so close to the original that it’s almost uncanny. So uncanny that my nose honestly couldn’t tell the difference. Had I NOT put the decants on separate sides of my desk so I knew which side was on which hand I honestly would have given the reviews in reverse. There’s not really any discernable difference to my nose. Top notes are apple, Italian lemon, Sicilian bergamot and star anise. Middle notes are plum, orange blossom and cardamom. Base notes are musk, amber, driftwood and moss. The performance and projection are also identical on both the Ice version as well as the For Him version. Too similar for me to tell any differences, moving on.
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Rasasi Hawas Black – 8.5/10
NOW we’re talking! This fragrance is KILLER! Something about this fragrance keeps my nose coming back for more and I can’t quite tell what it is. I think this fragrance takes a lot of ideas from Terre d’Hermes and Creed Aventus. Very loud with the citrus and the earthy notes make this fragrance a definite choice without question. Top notes are bergamot, pineapple and grapefruit. Middle notes are cedarwood, patchouli and jasmine. Base notes are oakmoss, woody notes and amber. Performance on this one is beast and for the price it’s just a no-brainer. Again, you all know my thoughts on grapefruit in fragrances – I hate the fruit to eat but if you mix it right in a fragrance it’s absolutely amazing, especially in summertime. I won’t say this is an exact replica of Aventus because this topic has come up time and time again. Aventus is Aventus, and clones try to be them, but you can’t match materials. If you make a Toyota, and then make a Lexus, you can’t deny that they are similar in a sense that they share the same parent company. But you CAN determine that the Lexus is much better quality because they use better parts versus the Toyota. Same reference happens with Aventus clones. They smell similar but will never match the quality. This fragrance is an all season and all situation fragrance so it’s perfect for a front-row spot in anyone’s collection. Definitely try this one out for yourself and let me know what you think.
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Rasasi Hawas Fire – 7.5/10
Fire is an aromatic fragrance that you’d think would give off the same essences as By the Fireplace from Maison Margiela would, but you’d be wrong. The name is really throwing me off because it’s not spicy, it’s not warm and it’s not ONLY meant for the fall or winter seasons. It’s just like every other fragrance they make – good for any time, any season, any situation. But the name “Fire” doesn’t equate to the notes…at all. Top note is clary sage, middle notes are Egyptian jasmine and marine notes, and the base notes are amber, ambergris and mineral notes. If ANYTHING, with these notes the fragrance should be called “Water”, no? Mineral notes, marine notes, clary sage…these make no sense. Maybe they mean the fragrance itself is fire? I mean, it’s not bad. I think out of the four I’ve tested though; the performance is the least on this one but the scent it really nice. I’m being particularly harsh on the name of the fragrance but honestly, it’s not bad. Definitely worth a try for sure.
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Rasasi Hawas Elixir – 6/10
I can hear the distain in your voices now. “You mean to tell me that he gave an Aventus dupe an 8.5 out of 10 but this one only a 6?” Yes. Here’s why. I’ve been overly vocal in the past about not liking clones. I’ll give you my rant in in my final thoughts, but let’s continue with my thoughts on this fragrance first.
I sprayed this on with high anticipation that this would be a banger, and it was…for all the wrong reasons. The second I smelled it I knew what it was. So much so that I went to my collection, grabbed Jean Paul Gaultier Le Male Elixir and sprayed on my arm and tested both spots – same result. They are as identical as they come. The notes are close. I mean so close that I’ll put the comparisons here:
Top Notes
JPG – Lavender, Mint
Hawas – Mugwort, Bergamot, Spearmint
Middle Notes
JPG – Vanilla, Benzoin
Hawas – Dark Chocolate, Lavender, Benzoin
Base Notes
JPG – Honey, Tonka Bean, Tobacco
Hawas – White Musk, Tonka Bean, Vanilla
I mean, it doesn’t get any closer than this. It’s dead even! If we’re reviewing the scent alone, and JPG didn’t exist, this is an 8 all day. The scent is great, and the performance is also good, but copying someone else’s homework I was always told was a no no. Rasasi should be put in detention.
Final Thoughts
When I first started with fragrances back when the top hits were Acqua di Gio EDT, Fahrenheit and Polo Original (yes, green bottle, gold top) there were dupe companies even back then trying to sell you a cheap knockoff for less value and attempt to make it smell similar. They weren’t as big of a company as say Rasasi or Montblanc, but they existed. My best advice is - If you want to have a good collection, I mean a GOOD collection, stay away from dupes. They don’t last as long on the shelf or on your skin.
If you paid good money for an Aventus fragrance and someone asks what you’re wearing, you say Aventus loud and proud my dude! You just dropped a lot of money into a fragrance that you should be proud to own. But, if you wear a cheap knockoff and someone who is familiar with Aventus smells it and asks what it is and you give a weird name of a fragrance nobody ever heard, well then yeah, I’d give a weird look too. Because, to me, a fragrance that gets cloned countless amounts of times should be proud that everyone wants to essentially BE them, but at the same time, nobody can match them and so it should only be an idea and not a reality. For me, buying clone fragrances is as bad as buying a Gucci bag from a street vendor in NYC. It may look the same, and possibly even smell the same, but we all know it’s not.
Rasasi makes some really good fragrances, and while they’re dupes, they smell really good, and they are super close to the originals. Their performance is great and to be honest, if you don’t have Aventus money, then go for Hawas Black (my favorite pick from Hawas so far). The fragrance community is an open community filled with noses of every shape and size and every sniffer is different. That’s what makes fragrance collecting so intriguing is the ability to smell something that YOU like that someone else may smell differently to you.
