Stronger With You Intensely is an Amber Fougere fragrance for men released in 2019 by Emporio Armani.
In 2019, It seems like it's been a year of flankers, with almost every single designer release being a flanker. In case you're unaware of what a flanker is, it's a new release within an existing line of fragrances.
So, for example, we have “Stronger With You” as the starting point. From there, you have “Stronger With You Intensely,” “Stronger With You Absolutely,” and so on.”
Presentation:
First things first, let's talk about the presentation.
Emporio Armani has maintained a sense of elegance with their packaging.
The box is adorned with the house's name and the fragrance's details, while a stylish design surrounds it.
The bottle itself, identical to the original “Stronger With You,” exudes sophistication.
Its thick glass and satisfyingly snug cap reflect the quality you'd expect from a luxury brand like Emporio Armani.
The deep amber color of the fragrance is a visual treat, setting the tone for what's to come.
What does Stronger With You Intensely smell like?
Let's first unveil the notes:
Top notes: Pink Pepper, Juniper, and Violet.
Middle notes: Toffee, Cinnamon, Lavender and Sage.
Base notes: Vanilla, Tonka Bean, Amber and Suede.
Now let's talk about this fragrance. In the first opening moments of “Stronger With You Intensely,” there's a little bit of powder, but that goes away off my skin quickly.
And that fragrance, “Stronger With You Intensely,” is sweet right away on my skin; the toffee in this fragrance gives off a caramel-like sweetness right off the bat. And it also mixes with a nice warm and spicy cinnamon note in the opening.
“Stronger With You Intensely” definitely gives off more of a gourmand-type vibe than the original “Stronger With You” does. Within about 15 minutes, “Stronger With You Intensely” off my skin is even sweeter than it is off the top; caramel toffee is banging at that point. It's projecting; it's a very nice warm, rich, dense kind of sweetness that works great in cool weather.
There's also a more typical vanilla and tonka base in “Stronger With You Intensely”; it's something that gets used in fragrances a lot; it's pretty common.
And those notes just kind of add a little bit of depth to the fragrance, and they help maintain that sweetness that this projects from the opening through into the dry down.
To my nose, the vanilla in “Stronger With You Intensely” is a little bit stronger than the tonka bean, so that makes it come across a little bit smoother and a little more rounded. It's a little bit less punchy to your nose.
Tonka, sometimes depending on how it's used, can come across as a little bit cloying, but this fragrance doesn't come across as overly cloying to me.
Also, there's a dollop of amber that's in this fragrance as you head into the dry down, and that just adds a little bit of warmth and a touch of resinous sweetness to kind of mix along with the already existing caramel, tonka, and vanilla sweetness.
This is not, though, what I would call a sugary scent, like not sugary sweet. There are a ton of sweet notes here, but they're more like the warm and spicy variety of sweet instead of the candied, sugary sweet.
And in the aftermath, there's also the tiniest touch of sage in the background of this fragrance as it dries down.
It just gives you this very hazy, soft touch of herbs and a slight peppery feel in the aftermath of the fragrance's scent.
It's kind of hard to describe, but after you've smelled something, you have kind of like a lingering aftereffect, you know, in your nose after you've picked up a fragrance.
You get the sage there. It's kind of like when you eat something, and you've already swallowed it, and you have an aftertaste, like for example, a diet soda leaves a prominent aftertaste in your mouth.
The sage here works in that kind of way; it's like an after-smell or something.
Now, on the far dry down, “Stronger With You Intensely” does start to get a little bit more powdery; it's not overwhelmingly powdery.
I would just say it has a powdery facet to it. And it's at this point in the fragrance's life that you start to pick up the suede.
For me, in the opening through to the middle of “Stronger With You Intensely,” the suede is pretty much buried underneath a lot of sweet notes, all those that we just talked about.
But once those sweet notes start to tone down and lose some of their strength, the suede starts to become more prominent, and you can start to pick it up.
This suede here has a slight musky tinge to my nose, and it provides kind of a counterbalance to all those sweet notes in the dry down. It helps give the fragrance a little bit of a darker feel.
Once you hit the dry down, at this point in the fragrance's life, there's certainly still some sweetness there; it's just not as in-your-face.
If I were going to describe this one in just extremely Cliff's Notes form, I would just say it's very warm, sweet, and pleasing.
If you do not like sweet fragrances, if you're a guy who goes for more masculine things, you don't like your fragrances with just sweet note after sweet note after sweet note, this one's probably not going to be for you.
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Comparison between Stronger With You Intensely and the original Stronger With You:
Another thing that may catch a comparison a little bit of flak for this fragrance is the similarity that it has to the original “Stronger With You.”
There are differences, of course; otherwise, this one shouldn't even exist at all. But there are similarities, to an extent; you could say “Stronger With You Intensely” is just taking the DNA of “Stronger With You” and making some tweaks and changes here and there, adjusting the knobs a little bit, and then you have a new fragrance.
But realistically, that happens with flankers all the time, so that shouldn't be surprising to you.
So let me go over some of the most prominent changes or differences between these two fragrances.
“Stronger With You Intensely” is less powdery than “Stronger With You” off the top, and it is sweeter than “Stronger With You” off the top as well.
To my nose, “Stronger With You Intensely” comes across a little bit better blended, a little less harsh or rough around the edges as it dries down.
“Intensely” has a richer or sweeter warm feel to it, whereas “Stronger With You” has kind of a drier sweetness with a more noticeable herbal feel.
“Stronger With You Intensely” gets rid of the chestnut note from “Stronger With You” and replaces it with toffee, and “Stronger With You Intensely” replaces the cardamom note from “Stronger With You” with juniper.
Just as a very simple way to put it, “Stronger With You Intensely” comes across as a sweeter, more gourmand, slightly darker take on “Stronger With You.”
How long does Stronger With You Intensely last?
And as well, as far as performance goes, “Intensely” is better off my skin than the original.
“Intensely” lasts 8+ hours off my skin without issue, and it projects very solidly for the first 2 hours.
The original is not a weak performer or anything like that; “Intensely” is just a little bit better.
When To Wear Stronger With You Intensely?
As far as when you would wear this fragrance, I'm gonna say cool weather, fall, and winter; that's gonna be your best bet.
It is a little bit more of a nighttime fragrance than it is a daytime fragrance, but you can wear it in either one.
And this is a pleasing type of fragrance, so really, you could wear it year-round.
But just me personally, it's not something I would want to reach for in summer, you know, when it's really hot out, and you're wearing a fragrance that has a sweet note after sweet note after sweet note after sweet note; in situations like that, it could get cloying.
Conclusion:
Now, it may be redundant if you already own “Stronger With You” to buy “Stronger With You Intensely,” mainly because you would use those fragrances in a lot of the same situations.
But if you like “Stronger With You,” or you think that the changes that have been done here interest you a lot more than the original, then definitely check out the new one.
Do try to give it a sample if nothing else.
As far as my taste goes, I like “Stronger With You Intensely” more than “Stronger With You.”
If you told me that I could keep only one, it would be “Intensely” for sure.
For me, the sweetness that you get here from the toffee, the vanilla, and the tonka bean, along with the suede and the bits of spice, make it more appealing to me than the original.
