Dossier: The House That Made Designer Dupes Mainstream

Dossier is the house that made “inspired by” respectable. Sergio Tache founded it in 2019 on the idea of printing the luxury reference on each product page, and it has since moved from online-only into CVS stores. Its names tell you the family (Ambery, Woody, Floral) and the main note. Of the ten below, Woody Tobacco follows its original most closely.

Which Dossier Perfume Matches Which Original?

We checked Dossier’s note lists against the originals’ published notes. Some line up closely. Others share a name and a mood and not much else.

Dossier	Its named original	How close are the notes?
Woody Tobacco	Margiela Jazz Club	Nearly identical
Woody Chestnut	Margiela By the Fireplace	Very close
Woody Sandalwood	Le Labo Santal 33	Close
Ambery Vanilla	YSL Black Opium	Close, with licorice
Ambery Cedarwood	Mugler Alien	The jasmine-and-amber core
Floral Marshmallow	Kilian Love, Don’t Be Shy	The same sugared white flowers
Woody Sage	Jo Malone Wood Sage & Sea Salt	Saltier and fruitier
Ambery Saffron	MFK Baccarat Rouge 540	Darker and more resinous
Powdery Vanilla	Phlur Vanilla Skin	A brown-sugar vanilla
Woody Oakmoss	Chanel Coco Mademoiselle	Loose: no grapefruit or lychee

Ambery Saffron: Baccarat Rouge 540

Ambery Saffron is Dossier’s Baccarat Rouge 540, and the loosest of its big copies. It has BR540’s saffron and jasmine with cedarwood, and then goes its own way: orange blossom, plum, oakmoss, fir balsam and amber. Plum and fir make it darker and more resinous than Kurkdjian’s airy, sugary original, closer to a warm room than a cloud.

That’s not a bad thing if you find BR540 thin or too sweet. One detailed review loves its smooth warmth and restrained sweetness. If you want the candyfloss itself, ALT’s Crystal is closer, and our BR540 dupe list compares the options.

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Woody Tobacco: Jazz Club

This is the closest match Dossier makes. Woody Tobacco lists lemon, pink pepper and neroli, then rum, dried fruit and blond woods, over styrax, tobacco leaf and vanilla. Jazz Club has the same top and base, with clary sage and vetiver where Dossier puts dried fruit and blond woods. Rum and tobacco over vanilla is the smell of a bar with leather chairs. If you’ve wanted Jazz Club and balked at the bottle, start here.

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Woody Sandalwood: Santal 33

Woody Sandalwood follows Santal 33’s path: violet leaves and cardamom, then orris, Ambrox, cedarwood and cypriol, over musk, sandalwood and amber. Like the original, it’s the dry, slightly leathery kind of sandalwood, not the creamy kind. The reviewer above finds it dry and sharp, and that’s the Santal 33 style. If you wanted soft and milky, our sandalwood list has better options.

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Woody Sage: Wood Sage & Sea Salt

Woody Sage lists fig tree, grapefruit, marine notes and ambrette, then clary sage and amberwood. Fig and sea salt lead, and the sage sits behind them, so it smells more like a beach walk than a herb garden. The same reviewer gets forest and salt air from it and likes layering it under sweeter perfumes.

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The Rest of the Range

• Woody Chestnut has By the Fireplace’s chestnut, clove and cade smoke over vanilla and Peru balsam. Very close on paper.
• Ambery Vanilla is Black Opium’s coffee, white flowers and vanilla, with pear and a twist of licorice on top.
• Ambery Cedarwood is Dossier’s Alien: jasmine sambac, cedarwood and amber, with a sweet, almond-like heliotrope base.
• Floral Marshmallow takes Love, Don’t Be Shy’s marshmallow, neroli and orange blossom and dusts white flowers with sugar.
• Powdery Vanilla is aimed at Phlur’s Vanilla Skin: brown sugar and vanilla with sandalwood and musk.
• Woody Oakmoss names Coco Mademoiselle, but its list has no grapefruit or lychee, the two notes that make Coco Mademoiselle sparkle. Club de Nuit Women is the closer cheap option.

Where Does Dossier Fit?

Dossier is the easiest dupe house to buy from: clear names, the reference on the page, and now a shelf in a pharmacy. ALT and Oakcha cover many of the same originals as stronger extraits. Our guide to dupe houses explains how they work and where the legal lines are.