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How Scentome works

Fragrances

Every fragrance on Scentome is sold by at least one of 27 shops in the US and Canada. Each concentration, such as Eau de Toilette, Eau de Parfum or Parfum, has its own page, because they often smell different and have different alternatives. Notes are the ones the shop or brand lists for the fragrance.

Alternatives

An alternative is a fragrance people recommend as a stand-in for another, usually for less money. Scentome finds them in four places:

Each person counts once per pair, however often they mention it. Wording matters: "1:1" counts for more than "smells a bit like", and "nothing like it" counts against. Upvoted and recent comments count for more.

Each pair gets a confidence from 0 to 100%. It rises with every person, community list and shop that supports the pair, more so for strong wording, upvotes and recent comments, and falls with the share of what is said that disagrees. People are counted when they say it clearly about the two fragrances.

Each pair then gets one of four verdicts, the first whose rules it meets:

Dupe
Confidence of at least 80%, and support from at least two kinds of source, such as Reddit and a community list. At least six people across three threads, and at least half of the people supporting it call it a clone or a close copy. At least three people, and at least one in ten of its supporters, call it near-identical, and they outnumber those who call it close but not quite. Disagreement is no more than 15% of what is said.
Close match
Confidence of at least 60%. At least three people across two threads, and at least three in ten of the people supporting it call it a clone or a close copy. Disagreement is no more than 30% of what is said.
Inspired by
The maker names the original as its inspiration, or, with confidence of at least 40%, more than half of the people supporting it describe it as inspired by the original.
Similar
Confidence of at least 35%, from at least three people or from two kinds of source, with disagreement no more than 45% of what is said. Where both fragrances have accords listed, their accords must be broadly alike.

An alternative usually copies one fragrance. When it is already a dupe of or a close match to one original, a close match verdict for another original with under 80% of that confidence becomes Similar, and a Similar one with under half of it is not listed. Scentome's editor can also correct a verdict or remove a pair by hand.

Fragrances from the same brand are never listed as alternatives to each other. Every pair has its own page with the numbers behind its verdict and quotes from the comments and lists.

"Similar notes" on a fragrance page is a separate list: fragrances from other brands whose note lists overlap most with this one.

Which Reddit accounts count

Each account is checked against its Reddit history and what it has written in fragrance threads. An account is left out if it posts discount codes or promotions, pastes the same comment over and over, has the name of a brand it recommends in its username, or recommends one brand almost exclusively while posting almost nowhere else. An account that was less than 60 days old when it commented, or has under 20 karma, counts half.

Prices

Prices come from each shop's own site, for buyers in your country, in the currency the shop charges. Every price shown, on every page, was checked in the last half hour; a price that has not been checked since is not shown. Scentome checks the shops itself, every 20 minutes; looking at a page never sends a request to a shop. Sold-out sizes don't appear. Testers, full bottles sold without retail packaging, are labeled and listed apart. Prices are grouped by size, lowest price first within each size. Some links to shops are affiliate links.

Updates

Prices are checked every 20 minutes. Four times a day, Scentome adds new fragrances and sizes from the shops, reads new Reddit posts and replies and the community dupe lists, and updates every verdict.