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Today, let's talk about Giorgio Armani, one of the best-known, most respected designer fragrance houses in the game.
They've released some of the biggest lines and most significant fragrances of all time.
The bestselling fragrance of all time is an Armani fragrance – the original Acqua di Gio.
So, I thought, why not rank what I think are the top five best Armani fragrances that you can get right now?
Now, anytime you do something like this, I mean, you could ask like 50 people and come back with probably 40-50 different answers.
Even if you have the top five fragrances matching, they're going to be jostled around a little bit.
You know, maybe somebody's number five is somebody else's number one.
But these are my five as of right now.
If you ask me in a month, could it be different?
Yes, it could. I'm sure it's the same with you guys.
Maybe one day you think, “Ah, this fragrance is perfect,” then another day you're like, “Ah, I'm not feeling that. I'd rather wear this instead.” But as of right now, this is the top five.
A couple of caveats come with this list.
I am not including fragrances that are discontinued and impossible to find unless you want to buy them at a jacked-up price on eBay.
As a result, some of my favorite scents are automatically excluded from the list.
Armani, seriously, what's going on?
Some of the best-smelling designer fragrances ever from Armani, and then they just discontinue them. It's disheartening.
So, no discontinued ones that are hard to find.
Well, that's essentially the only exception.
Honorable Mentions
These I think are good enough that they should be talked about at least a little bit, even if they're not in the official top 5.
We'll run through them pretty quickly.
Aqua Di Gio Absolu
Now, this one I was not a big fan of when it came out because it doesn't smell like Aqua Di Gio.
It, at the time, drew more comparisons to Paco Rabanne's Invictus.
It is fresh. It's going to appeal to younger guys.
Big compliment puller.
Nice versatility with this one as well.
Good sweetness. The only issue is the similarity to Invictus. Some people are not going to like it because of that.
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The Original Armani Code
A modern classic that has truly earned its status as a masterpiece.
It still works well today.
It doesn't smell dated.
It's got a nice, sexy scent profile to it.
Nice for an evening out. Good for a date fragrance.
Nice performance. Big compliment puller.
There's a lot to like about Armani Code.
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And now, the final honorable mention before we move into the official top 5.
Emporio Armani Diamonds
This is, I would say, easily the least well-known of the fragrances that we're going to talk about here today.
There were flankers in this line, so it is a fully fleshed-out line of fragrances if you want to call it that.
But still, Diamonds never caught on like Code or Aqua Di Gio or anything else that we'll talk about in this article.
When you first spray the fragrance on, it has kind of a synthetically sweet, fresh feel to it.
But quickly, it settles down into a creamy, kind of sweet cacao fragrance with a bit of woodiness in there as well.
Smells pleasant.
But once it starts to dry down, it's very good.
Came out in 2008, so years ago, but still works well.
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5- Aqua Di Gio Parfum
Essentially, this is a replacement for Aqua Di Gio Profumo, which for a lot of people in the fragrance world, was their favorite Aqua Di Gio.
A bit more mature Aqua Di Gio with that bit of incense in there, which allowed it to be used in cooler weather more than the original Aqua Di Gio would have been.
Not as floral as the original Aqua Di Gio, but more modern, and more masculine. That was Aqua Di Gio Profumo and Aqua Di Gio Parfum, like I said, is just a replacement for Profumo.
Is it the same? It is not. Does it feel the same niche? It does.
It has a little bit of a green feel to it around the edges.
As I said, more masculine than the original Aqua Di Gio. It doesn't have those florals.
It has kind of an herbal feel to it, a little aromatic feel with rosemary that's in here. And then you have that light incense wafting throughout.
I would rather wear Aqua Di Gio Parfum over the original Aqua Di Gio nowadays.
That being said, I'm a big Aqua Di Gio fanboy. I always have been.
The original Aqua Di Gio was my signature scent for a long time.
So, I've always liked Aqua Di Gio, and I'm not taking anything away from the original Aqua Di Gio.
It's just, it is maybe, you know, over the decades, been a little bit played out, and compared to what is popular nowadays, I think that Aqua Di Gio Parfum is just a better reach.
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4- Emporio Armani Stronger With You Leather
Now, this one, I kind of went back and forth with Stronger With You Oud, Stronger With You Leather. And maybe I should have just combined them into this spot at number 4, but ultimately decided to go with Stronger With You Leather.
Now, there is sort of a potential issue for some people with the Stronger With You flankers, and also some of the Aqua Di Gio flankers, in that a bunch of them are pretty similar.
So, if you take Stronger With You Leather and spray it side by side with Stronger With You Oud, there are differences, but at the same time, they're also, like I said, pretty close.
They're not two flankers that are wildly doing different things.
So, this one, Stronger With You Leather, is doing what Stronger With You does the best. It has that nuttiness to it. It has vanilla. It has spices.
And it has, of course, the addition of leather. So, that chestnut that Stronger With You is well known for, it's prominent here as well.
It has that gourmand feel to it. It has that warmth, that sweetness, that kind of sexy, alluring feel.
Big compliment puller, huge performance.
The leather here is not an off-putting leather, not animalic. It is more of a sweet, appealing leather note.
Frankly, none of the Stronger With You flankers, the exclusive ones, the Middle Eastern exclusive ones, take their additional note and, like, really pummel you with it.
Because there's Stronger With You Leather, Stronger With You Amber, and Stronger With You Oud.
The oud in Stronger With You Oud is not an animalic or medicinal oud; it's pretty easygoing as well.
But I think, of the three exclusives – amber, oud, leather – leather is probably the one that I would recommend first.
However, with this one being an exclusive edition, it will be harder to find.
Typically, you'll want to look for this at discounters, and even then, it's not going to be super cheap. Although to be fair, Armani fragrances, in general, are not super cheap.
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3- Armani Code Parfum
Now, Armani Code EDT, I think, is solid as well.
But for me, I just like Armani Code Parfum a little bit more.
So, there are a lot of good things about this fragrance. First off, it has a magnetic cap, which is nice.
But then the fragrance itself offers great versatility. When it first came out, I thought it would be pretty heavy, dark, more of a fall-winter-time-only fragrance.
However, in actuality, it's nice and fresh off the top.
When you first spray this on, it's clean, fresh, and a little powdery, but well done.
The Tonka is there from the original Code, but it's not as dark. Frankly, I think the original Code Eau de Toilette is the more mysterious of the two.
This one is more clean, slightly soapy, and a bit powdery. But at the same time, it has a nice sweetness and warmth to it. Very classy and sophisticated. The iris in here is well done – it's not overwhelming or makeup-y.
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2- Stronger With You Absolutely
So, as of right now, like, who knows? Maybe something comes out next year that just blows this away.
But as of right now, this is my favorite Stronger With You.
And Stronger With You, they rarely miss with their flankers.
But the reason for that is probably what I talked about before. Their flankers are not massively different.
So, if you like how Stronger With You in general smells, then each one of their flankers that comes out, you'll be like, “Oh, I like this too. It's not really different, but I like it.”
But for somebody else out there, Stronger With You Intensely might be the best one, or Stronger With You Leather or Oud. Just depends on how those little tweaks they make to the fragrance work for you.
So, you got a lot of the same notes here – the chestnut, the vanilla, the cedar. But this one adds in rum. Captain Jack Sparrow would absolutely say this is the best one.
The rum adds a really nice additional sweetness, more akin to the chestnut notes found in most of the Stronger With You fragrances. It's a gourmand, nutty, warm sweetness that's quite edible.
But the rum just gets splashed in here and adds this higher-tinged kind of sweetness that falls over the whole thing from the opening into the dry down.
It elevates it, makes it more interesting, and gives you something else to kind of focus on with the fragrance.
Again, amazing performance, lasts forever, projects like a beast in fall and winter time. It will get you unsolicited compliments.
It's a killer release for the evening, especially in fall and winter.
This is close to, like, as good as you're going to get.
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1- Acqua di Gio Profondo
This is my favorite Aqua Di Gio. If I'm going to wear just an Aqua Di Gio in spring summertime, it's probably going to be this one.
Sometimes I'll switch it up with, like, Profondo Lights, which is also impossible to find now, but I do, for sure, prefer Profondo over the Acqua di Gio EDP.
Profundo has a really nice green edge to it, more minerality.
Not so much that floral feel from the original Aqua Di Gio.
Much more modern, and very clean with a little bit of classiness to it as well.
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Conclusion
Alright. Those are my top 5 Georgio Armani and Emporio Armani fragrances as of right now, with a few little mentions over here.
I think all of these are worth smelling.
All of these are worth knowing about.
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