Fetish pour Homme 
Roja Dove (2012)

Stardate 20190616:

An attempted clone of BelAmi at more than twice the price of vintage shaker bottle.
Why would anyone buy this is beyond me.

Men's scents owe a lot to the iconic and legendary Bel Ami by Hermes. For many of us the benchmark leather scent, it is one I have come to love and think of as something as close as possible to a signature scent as a frag-head can get to.

Fetish by Roja Dove fails to impress on originality right away. Its opening notes are a relatively good interpretation of that original smoky-leather-chypre called Bel Ami that we all know and love. I for one wouldn't be able to distinguish the two early on in a side-by-side comparison.

The similarities unfortunately end there. The heart contains bucket loads of cypriol - perhaps Roja Dove's scent DNA - which makes the scent reminiscent of moth-balls. By the dry down, the smooth and crisp vetiver note joins the party and the curtain draws to a close. There is sadly no encore.

There is a well-known obsession among niche perfumers recently to rip-off classic scents and this reeks of a lack of originality. Uninspired is an understatement. What else could they do? Roja has intentionally borrowed the top from Bel Ami and then made a complete hash of the rest. Surely if you're going to make a copy, you should do it right? Or improve it at the very least?

I am surprised a house that is obsessed with bling is able to create a fragrance with such a bland and uninspiring heart and dry down. With this level of cypriol, it makes me wonder who Roja thinks he's kidding.

The current edition of Bel Ami should be in every man's wardrobe and costs a fraction of Fetish. Fetish (and it's not too distant cousin Puredistance M) are redundant in this sense and all fragrance enthusiasts, including any millionaire readers, should steer clear of this one.