Armani Code Sport Athlete Giorgio Armani 2012

Mint/Citrus bomb, this is an underrated gem from Armani, very good summer scent, it smells kinda generic yet very unique, i don't know why is it limited edition! it deserves more hype

Scent: 8/10
Longevity: 9/10
Silage: 6/10
Summer day scent

Everyone knows it... these little cute creatures make their way into the engine compartment of a car, gnaw at the cables, and every car owner is dismayed at the next start of the vehicle.

Nowadays, there are ultrasonic devices against the marten that create a fine orchestra in the rodent's ears. However, there is also an old home remedy... toilet blocks!

These are supposed to help keep the marten from causing trouble in the engine compartment.

Or you simply throw the bottle of "Armani Code Sport Athlete" into the engine compartment or after the marten. The little creature will definitely flee.

The new Armani Code named "Sport Athlete" was pushed on me today at the Türkisen for testing. You can test anything, but this little water is something truly awful after a long time.

Sprayed on the skin, the athlete opens with a piercing citrus note that reminds one of a cleaner based on this. Base, fits well, let's get right to it, if there even is one. In this citrus accord, a disgusting fecal smell mixes in. It smells like horse manure and the scent must be quickly rubbed off on the jeans.

Another new fragrance that nobody needs... not even the animal world.

One should never say never. Until now, I have always viewed Armani fragrances a bit critically, and this massively synthetic one has never really appealed to me. As a 17-year-old, I thought Emporio Remix and Armani Code were pretty cool, but as I continued to sniff around, not so much anymore.

When there are sporty fragrances in a scent line, you automatically start comparing the two. Both offer plenty of mint. But it's two completely different kinds, and that's the point.

While with the "normal" Sport variant, you can smell from 100 meters away that an Armani fragrance is coming, the Athlete variant seems to deliberately avoid that. The synthetic aspect in the first Sport variant has really been taken to the absurd, which is completely missing in the Athlete variant. I had to check the bottle twice while testing and verify that the letters A, R, M, A, N, and I were really there. But they were indeed there.

So, diving into the scent progression:
The beginning reminds me of a colorful fruit salad, and the individual components can be sniffed out. But it quickly reaches a closing time, and the mint says, "Alright, it's my turn now." "Everyone, take a whiff."

Because the heart is truly pure mint; nothing else is added, except for the freshness from the top note. While it's no longer discernible in all its details, it nicely enhances the mint. A peppermint tea fresh, so to speak. The desert dwellers swear by peppermint tea, as far as I know, to cool themselves down. Therefore, this scent does have some justification for existence in summer. I found the mint in the first Sport variant quite cool, but it was just too high-tech packaged. Although I wonder how one arrives at mint in the Sport variant of Armani Code. I would have expected a bergamot fireworks... well, never mind.
So the mint spreads out, and the mint-enhancing freshness slowly fades, while the base pulls the fresh mint into woody mint. So, in my nose's opinion, the mint undergoes a transformation: first fresh mint due to the top note, then woody mint due to the base note, a sort of metamorphosis.

I also found it a bit atypical for Armani that this scent falls outside the current high-tech program. For Acqua di Gio Essenza, the fragrance molecules Cascalone and Paradisone were specifically developed, and in the first Code Sport variant, Ambroxan or something like that. Correct me if I'm wrong about that.

Points are deducted for longevity. Rather weak. And the creation doesn't project in the first 2 hours like one would expect from other Armani fragrances. Everything feels somewhat atypical for Armani. Price-wise, it's also rather steep, and I believe the Athlete variant is only available in a 75 ml bottle.
So overall, this scent isn't something that blows you away, but the fact that it breaks with the Armani schema I found quite interesting. And it's not the maximum innovation either, but a nice and pure mint creation that is definitely cool in summer (literally), and doesn't stand out unpleasantly anywhere. I'd say it's a scent of laid-back elegance.