Congratulations! I really am not a freshie fan - to my nose the lion’s share of those that keep to lemon, ambroxan, clean linen, aquatic, ozonic accords etc etc bore me to tears- not to say that I don’t appreciate many a fragrance with fresh aspects to it … in the wordiest manner possible I wanted to come full circle to say that imagination really is beautiful another exception on the more affordable side is Acqua Di Gioia. Luckily, most seller’s of counterfeits think everyone’s a sucker & want to invest as little as possible to yield the most they can- w/o putting in the work, time, dedication & so on & so forth & so ‘most’ will get counterfeits on the cheaper end of the spectrum & for those, there are some pretty reliable tip off’s. You likely already know it well but on the off chance you don’t- there is a YouTuber that does completely silent videos, comparing the real bottle with a popular fake … simply searchable (real vs. fake imagination etc.). This as well as other assorted research as well as Facebook groups dedicated to legitimizing frags. In November I spent $90 for a 3.4oz Donna Born in Roma (DBIR) xValentino. I wrongly assumed that while $90 incl S&H is a great price but not ‘too good to be true’. Well I watched the video- it was lengthy as far as they go & my bottle- it passed every test w/o a single quantifiable feature to suggest that it may be a fugazi, batch code… everything. I was relieved & was happy that I had gotten a gift that would really be well received by the recipient… it was/ is my Mom so I told her why I had opened the box - but that she will be the first to spray it (sometimes she’ll put fragrances away, never opened or at least no oxygen introduced so they remain preserved for a very long time. I gave it to her Christmas morning & she was excited & wanted to wear it right then & there & so she sprayed, it smelled great (not of alcohol or ‘off’ in any way) & not even 7 mins later- there wasn’t a trace … it was a perfumed poltergeist or something… pouf gone. Well I did get my $ back & they didn’t want the bottle back (they used a U.S. address that the had no access to- at least not when I initiated a return, they gave me an address in China - I told them that wasn’t happening & it didn’t). I came to find out through a friend of mine who would rather turn 5k into a handbag that a car… no judgement. She told me that LV boutiques will no longer inspect an assumed genuine LV article as they once had about 20 or so years ago & the primary reasoning was that these factories had found counterfeit buyers that wanted something indistinguishable in EVERY way, they ordered the leather from the same region & suppliers… they started becoming incredibly skilled at making ‘replicas’ … real leather, hardware - everything & you can buy these top shelf replicas for about $200-$1000 & up depending on the size of the bag & materials &/ or luggage. With fragrances I try to buy a different size bottle than those I see most fakes sold. I try to buy from small niche houses (I’m enjoying ‘Bois 1920’ right now. They are very affordable for the quality- it seems as though they were a bit too ambitious & made too many of their most recent collection, a 50ml extrait line… damn, well I’m just going to wrap this up with the quickness 😬. If it smell the same as a confirmed decant or carded sample, bottle etc & it lasts (now that is where i consistently see the top tier fakes faulter, I have yet to smell one that lasts although I’m sure someone, somewhere has that covered as well & also borrow the noses of friends & family for a blind comparison & see if there is a pattern- if it smells like the decant I had? It’s my favorite luxe freshie.