Hany Hafez is the owner of Alexandria Fragrances, originally from Egypt, but currently residing stateside. He hosted a giveaway through a Facebook Fragrance group and I was lucky enough to win the above-pictured fragrance, Cacao Dreams. He offered two options but being a chocolate fan I couldn’t resist going for Cacao Dreams. I guess there is no better time than no to add a **Disclaimer: I received the discussed fragrance gratis through a giveaway. I have not been paid for my review. All opinions expressed are my own. Receiving this for free did not sway my opinion, I would have opted to say nothing if I didn’t enjoy this fragrance. Okay… now that we got that out of the way…
I have never tried anything from Alexandria Fragrances prior to receiving my first bottle. I had no idea what to expect other than a fragrance claimed to please chocolate/gourmand fans.
Opening: Chocolate Gourmand lovers rejoice! This is a very sweet fragrance. The opening reminds me of tootsie rolls. If you left a big bag of tootsie rolls in the heat and put your face in for a big whiff…. that’s what this is like.
Once this dries down: This reminds me very much of Montale Chocolate Greedy. If you were a fan of Chocolate Greedy and never picked up a bottle because of the price then you should definitely look into this juice! There are some differences between the two: this has a boozy/smokey vanilla, a nice spice to it and a very sweet in your face chocolate feel from beginning to end; whereas Chocolate Greedy reminded me more of milk chocolate milk in the beginning with some coffee that settled into what reminded me of a Dunkachino from Dunkin Donuts.
Longevity: I have to give it to Hany on this one, the longevity is excellent. I got a full day worth of wear on bare skin without a base. I could still smell this on my clothes two days after wearing. Chocolate fragrances are notorious for fading away, fast; this outperformed a lot of my other chocolate fragrances and for that, I am a fan.
Projection/Sillage: I have not been stopped while walking down the street, yet. I can say that this fragrance does leave a wonderful trail behind and the scent-bubble is strong- easily 2-3 feet. I must mention that I am a heavy sprayer, averaging 6-12 sprays… so lighter sprayers might have different performance.
Feedback from friends and family: I received a lot of positive feedback while wearing and spraying this fragrance. The most common comment being “you smell like something delicious to eat”. Without telling people the name they could not tell me that it was chocolate, most lay people just said you smell delicious. After telling friends and family the name of the fragrance the common reaction was “ahh, that’s it”.
Overall: Cacao Dreams makes for a wonderful year round fragrance. It is totally unisex. A true delight for chocolate gourmand lovers. Again, if you enjoyed Montale Chocolate Greedy then you need to check this one out. Alexandria Fragrances offers a lot of dupes for popular niche and designer fragrances. The prices are excellent, especially considering the performance. Again, this is based on my experience with only Cacao Dreams; however, reading through what others have to say about his other fragrances, feedback seems to be unanimous. I can confidently recommend Cacao Dreams and will be exploring some other offerings from this line soon!
How you can get your own bottle: Go to the website: https://alexandriafragrances.com/
Fragrances are made from the highest quality compounds available. They are all IFRA certified and are the same compounds used by the top designer and niche houses on the market today
Samples
5ml =7$
30ml=34.99$
60ml=59.99$
Shipping included 🙂
Have you tried anything from Alexandria Fragrances? I would love to hear from you!
Longevity
9.2
Projection/Sillage
9.1
Price/Value
9.7
Versatility
7.8
Great review I will definitely be following! I love the Cacao and you are spot on in everyone loves it but doesn’t know why until you tell them it’s chocolate!
I wonder what someone who is into fragrance would say if they didn’t know what it was ??.