Emporio Armani - Stronger With You Giorgio Armani 2017

From the advertising campaign this and the female version 'Because It's You' seem to have been marketed as perfect his & her gifts. Well, seeing as I'm a single straight man (and quite handsome according to my late grandmother, so form an orderly queue ladies, please calm down!), I decided to buy this for myself instead of waiting until hell froze over to get it as a gift from a female admirer! :D

This lovingly created fragrance seems to get more than it's fair share of hate in frag-Com. Why? Well in my opinion it's because of the type of scent it is (popular with the masses a la 1 Million et al) rather than the smell and quality of the fragrance itself! Upon sniffing Stronger with YOU for the first time you are hit with a strong sweetness, which some may find off-putting. Give it a chance though and it can quickly become enchanting, addictive even. SWY is said to be unoriginal and rather deja-vu and yes it does smell familiar but at the same time it's like a much (much) better version of something familiar. I also find this fragrance, even though it smells brilliantly contemporary, has a timeless quality to it. The way it was created it seems more of an overall scent or composition in a similar way to many 'classic' fragrances from the past rather than one of those where you pick out each note and so easily classify a scent as a leather or tobacco frag and so on, so this is possibly another reason why it's written off as synthetic crap. Oh and it doesn't contain one of the current trendy notes such as leather, oud or strong iris.

In my collection I find this to be like a cold weather variant of lovely Legend Spirit by MontBlanc, perhaps that's due to them both containing pink pepper, cardamom and a sweet woody vibe. Whatever it is they are both immensely uplifting scents that please both the wearer and people around them! Yes, surefire crowd-pleasers make no mistake. Where SWY surpasses LS is on performance, (MontBlanc please release an intense version!), whereas has acceptable performance SWY projects on the higher end of moderate with decent sillage and fantastic longevity (10+ hours). The heart-warming glow of this fragrance will keep you company for hours & hours with it's beguiling, candied chestnut and vanilla dry-down (with an ever-present cardamom giving it that spicy lift). If you care about compliments on your fragrance (I don't) then you will be extremely happy with this one.

I often when I visit stores the tester bottles for this fragrance seem get a huge amount of interest and are often nearly empty, a sign of it's obvious popularity. I'm not a niche snob but usually rather more of a under the radar/cheapie snob (contradiction in terms!) but on this occasion this popular designer product deserves praise of the highest order, from the quality of the beautifully crafted yet simple bottle to the rich amber coloured liquid held within. A must try. And try more than once you maybe pleasantly surprised.

Timeless.