Stronger With You Absolutely is a men’s designer fragrance released in 2021 by Emporio Armani.
In this article, I'm excited to walk you through the entire experience of Stronger with You Absolutely.
We'll start with the presentation, the aesthetics, and the bottle design, which is always a delight.
From there, we'll venture into the heart of the fragrance, dissecting the intriguing notes and the unique character it brings to the Emporio Armani's Stronger With You line.
But the real question is, how does Stronger with You Absolutely compare to its sibling, Stronger with You Intensely, which has already garnered a dedicated fan following?
We'll explore the similarities and differences between these two fragrances, helping you make an informed decision on whether or not Stronger with You Absolutely is the right addition to your collection.
Finally, we'll address the performance of Stronger with You Absolutely, delving into longevity and projection to give you a comprehensive understanding of what to expect when you wear this fragrance.
We'll also consider its ideal seasons and occasions for a well-rounded assessment.
Presentation:
The box:
On the front of the box, you've got the name of the house, the name of the fragrance, the size, and the concentration.
Up at the top, you have the Emporio Armani logo.
Nothing on the sides other than this sort of copper band design.
And then on the back, you have your ingredient information.
On the bottom, you're going to find your batch code, and it is punched into the box.
The Bottle:
It's the same with all the Stronger with You fragrances, but I like the gradient here.
So you've got this dark, almost black coloration at the bottom, and then as it goes higher up, it clears out, and you get the nice dark ambry color of the fragrance that you can see through the bottle. Looks good.
You have the name of the fragrance and, the name of the house on the front, with nothing on the back, and nothing on the sides.
On the bottom, you have your sticker with your batch code.
What does Stronger With You Absolutely smell like?
Let's first unveil the fragrance notes:
Top notes: Rum, elemi and Bergamot
Middle notes: Lavender and Davana
Base notes: Madagascar Vanilla, Chestnut, Cedar and Patchouli
When you first spray on Stronger with You Absolutely, you get a little bit of a rum splash in there, and it does have that Stronger with You DNA. It's unmistakable.
As soon as you spray it on, you pick up that chestnut pretty much right away.
It is not as sweet as Stronger with You Intensely. That's the one I'm going to compare this to the most because that's the fragrance that I feel like it's closest to, and most people if they're going to make a buying decision in this line, it's probably between those two.
And I'm not saying it's devoid of sweetness because Stronger with You Absolutely does have a good amount of sweetness to it.
It's just not on the same level as Stronger with You Intensely as far as the sweetness goes.
It's also got a little bit of a balsamic feel. When you first spray the fragrance on, the bergamot here, you don't get too much of it, just a little hit of freshness as soon as you spray it on.
But that goes away pretty quickly. You're gonna catch a little whiff of lavender as it dries down, but the main thing you're going to get here is chestnut and vanilla. Good amounts of that.
And that chestnut is going to help tie this in with all the other fragrances in the Stronger with You line because that is kind of the focal point. That's what everything in the line hinges on, is that chestnut and utilizing it in one way or another.
So sometimes you see it as a glazed chestnut with maybe a little more of a sticky, sweet, sugary tinge to it, and other times it's just a chestnut used in more of a warm, kind of comforting type of way.
This is not a fragrance that goes drastically in a different direction. I would say of all the fragrances in the Stronger with You line, the one that sticks out the most as being the most different is Stronger with You Freeze. And they're Stronger with You, Stronger with You Intensely, and Absolutely are all pretty closely related.
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Rum Accord and Spices:
So let me talk a little bit about that rum accord because I think that's where my mind went initially when I saw the note breakdown, and I was like, “Oh, this is going to be darker, more mysterious, boozy, rich, opulent, perhaps.”
So, the rum accord that's utilized here, it's not a very strong rum.
And if you've smelled fragrances like “Straight to Heaven” by Kilian Paris, you have a good idea of what a boozy sort of rum note can smell like in perfumes and the effect that it can have on the composition.
And in this fragrance, yes, I do pick up on some spices.
And I know cardamom was a spice that was found in the original.
I'm not getting as much of it in this fragrance; I'm sure it's still in there because I know the formula has not been tweaked that much.
It does appear to be a little bit darker if I'm being honest. But I feel like there's like a cinnamon spice somewhere in here.
So it has the chestnut, it has a tonka bean, it has that coumarin feel, it has the vanilla, it has a little bit of that cinnamony quality. But it also has a little bit of lavender in the heart.
Now, the lavender is not overly strong, and it is drenched by all of these other sweeter, sort of saccharine gourmand ingredients, which is great because I think lavender can go in a few different directions, but it is disguised quite cleverly in this fragrance.
Lack of Organicness:
But in terms of the rum accord that's used in the opening, it doesn't smell like a realistic rum to me.
And if you've smelled real rum or if you're familiar with the spirit itself, you know it has a very sharp and biting odor profile.
And nothing about this fragrance is sharper or biting. It comes across as rather smooth and gentle.
Now, it is strong in terms of the aroma, and the overall aroma that it conveys.
I mean, it is a loud perfume because it has a lot of base-heavy ingredients.
And so it doesn't seem ethereal or wispy or anything like that. But it has this lack of organicness in the opening.
And I think I was expecting a little bit more of a sharper rum note or rum accord, and I didn't necessarily get that in this fragrance.
Now, the citrus doesn't play too much of a role as far as my nose is concerned. I feel like, yes, there is a little bit of that citrusy tendency in the opening just to add the sparkling appeal to the fragrance. But, of course, as it is in other perfumes, it's very short-lived.
Comparing Intensely and Absolutely
So between Stronger with You Intensely and Absolutely, I've already said that Intensely is the sweeter of the two, and that's the case.
And when Stronger with You Absolutely was first announced, they said, “This is the strongest, most powerful, most beast mode, most out-of-control Stronger with You ever.”
So we had to be thinking at that point, “Man, it's the most beastly Stronger with You, and Stronger with You Intensely is already a heck of a performer, right?”
So maybe Stronger with You Intensely is peak Sylvester Stallone, and then that would make Stronger with You Absolutely peak Arnold Schwarzenegger, just in terms of performance because they were saying, “This is the next level.” And guess what? They lied.
The stronger of the Stronger with You fragrances is Intensely. It last longer. It projects more. It's more in your face. It's more aggressive.
Absolutely is a bit softer. It's smoother. Things are more rounded out. But if you're talking straight-up performance, Intensely is better.
More Different Than You Think
Also, Intensely makes use of that toffee note or toffee accord, and you're not going to find that really in Absolutely.
This leans more to that chestnut; this is more of the toffee.
I would also say, Stronger with You Intensely, it's a little bit spicier, whereas Absolutely, is going to be a little bit darker, a little bit more balsamic, like I said in the opening, especially compared to this one.
And I would say that Stronger with You Absolutely is a little bit more balanced because while it doesn't have the same level of sweetness, Intensely does. It is still sweet. It's just offset a little bit by some of the other notes going on.
So Intensely leans way into that sweetness, you know, and Absolutely reins it in.
Redundancy Issue
So is it redundant to own Absolutely if you already have Intensely or the original Stronger with You? I would say for a lot of people, the answer is yes.
It's gonna be a little bit redundant. So some people are going to look at these and say, “You know, I want that sweetness. I want an intense performance. I want a more youthful kind of approach. Give me Intensely. That's what I want, you know. I think it's better, even though they're pretty close. That's what I want.”
Other people are going to say, “No, I like that it's a little bit smoother. I like that it's not as aggressively in your face. I like that it's not as heavy-handed with the sweetness. Give me Absolutely.”
So this is going to be one of those things that's a little bit like Armani Code Profumo and Absolu, where they're pretty closely related, but people seem to choose one or the other.
You know, they say, “Well, I think Profumo's better because it's louder and it's sweeter and it's more attention-grabbing.”
And other people say, “No, no, I like Absolu. It's a little bit more grown-up. It's a little bit smoother, richer, whatever, you know, whatever arguments you make.”
The same thing kind of happens here with these two. And big surprise, they're both Armani, even though this is Emporio Armani, not Georgio Armani.
Performance:
In terms of longevity off my skin, it's good. We're talking 8+ hours, just not as good as Intensely.
And in terms of projection, I'd say that's really where Intensely shines more than Absolutely.
They're both really solid. They're going to stay on your skin for a long time, but Intensely project further and for longer.
Absolutely, it's still not a weak fragrance off my skin, just not as strong as Intensely.
I would say Absolutely is above average in terms of projection, but it projects for an hour and a half, whereas Intensely is going to be pumping out for quite a while.
Seasonal Preferences:
In terms of seasons, this is going to be more of a fall/winter time fragrance, and this one's going to be leaning more toward nighttime use, but I say wear it during the day if you like it, wear it during the night as well.
Final Thoughts
Now, what do I think of it in terms of the whole line? Where would I put it? I would say as of this moment that I prefer Absolutely to Intensely, which is probably not a huge surprise because I also prefer Code Absolu to Code Profumo.
This is kind of a generalization, but I think if you like Code Profumo more than Code Absolu, you'll probably like Intensely more.
And I think if you like Code Absolu more than Code Profumo, you'll probably like Stronger with You Absolutely more.
Now, that's not going to be the same for everybody, but I think it's a similar kind of idea going on here.
So Stronger with You Absolutely, I like it. I think that for me personally, Stronger with You just keeps getting better.
It's one of those fragrance lines that each time I smell a new fragrance, I'm like, “Hey, I dig what you did here.”
It doesn't seem to deviate a huge amount from the original, you know. It's not like something drastically different.
Like I said, Freeze is probably the most different one so far. But with the little tweaks that they do each time, it makes sense. It's not something that comes out and it's just complete crap.
Stronger with You Leather, even though it's really hard to find that, is good stuff too.
So if you can scoop that up and you're a fan of the Stronger with You line, absolutely do so. Don't pay insane prices or anything. If you can find it for a decent price, pick that up too.
