Envy for Men Gucci 1998 Eau de Toilette

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8.4 / 10 394 Ratings

A popular perfume by Gucci for men, released in 1998. The scent is spicy-woody. The longevity is above-average. It was last marketed by Scannon.

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Main accords

Spicy

Woody

Green

Oriental

Leathery

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Coriander

Pepper

Mandarin orange

Rosewood

Heart Notes

Sandalwood

Carnation

Rose

Jasmine

Base Notes

Leather

Patchouli

Vanilla

Vetiver

Perfumer

Jean Guichard

Videos

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Ratings

Scent

8.4394 Ratings

Longevity

8.2322 Ratings

Sillage

7.5308 Ratings

Bottle

7.6313 Ratings

Value for money

6.997 Ratings

Submitted by DonVanVliet, last update on 04/14/2025.

Interesting Facts

The face of the advertising campaign is model Liisa Winkler.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

The Envy of FOMO

Carven Homme

Envy for Men After Shave Lotion

Club

Covet

Santal Eau de Toilette

Reviews

18 in-depth fragrance descriptions

02/05/2012

7.5
Sillage 7.5
Longevity 7
Scent

Missk
1357 Reviews

Missk

Helpful Review 4

Envious that this is not marketed to women

I bought this fragrance just the other day when I was out shopping for a cologne for my boyfriend. I had tested many male scents that day, however this one stood out amongst the rest.

To be completely honest, I think I liked this fragrance because I could see myself wearing it. It had this alluring, dark and spicy sweetness that captivated me almost immediately.

The sales assistant actually agreed with me that this fragrance could easily be unisex on the right woman. I believe that I am the woman that can succeed in wearing Envy.

Envy for Men opens with peppery orange, lavendar and rich mahogany. The top notes also have a slight menthol smell which is possibly brought to mind due to the intense green colour of the juice itself. The ginger is really lovely in this fragrance as in most cases ginger can make or break a scent.

In the heart the sweetness becomes more apparent with the carnation, jasmine and rose hinting that this fragrance is suitable for women as well.

The drydown is amazing. Vanilla, incense, patchouli, amber and tobacco creating a smokey and almost exotic scent. It is a delight to snuggle up to someone wearing this fragrance as it is both soothing and arousing.

I had every intention of giving this fragrance to my boyfriend for his birthday, however now I seem to be changing my mind. I am almost decided on keeping this fragrance for myself and finding him something else to wear or suggesting to him that we could possibly share.

06/19/2014

jtd
484 Reviews

jtd

Helpful Review 4

art direction

I've dogged Tom Ford's perfumes. I'm not a great fan of his eponymous perfume line, but on smelling Gucci Envy for Men, something clicked. The Gucci perfumes of the Ford era were a first rate line of designer perfumes and are a testament to the value of art direction.

Gucci Rush is a pitch-perfect modern example of the pursuit of beauty in classical perfumery. It's gorgeous, it stops you in your tracks, it makes you think.

I have a love-hate relationship with Gucci Envy, but then again I hold ambiguity in very high regard. A perfume that polarizes opinions points to a strong artistic voice. One that splits an individual’s own opinions is ingenious.

Gucci pour Homme I (Michel Almairac, 2003) was a thoughtful, beautiful perfume released at a time of big perfume ad campaigns followed by even bigger yawns. I doubt that a Gucci perfume was launched without a high degree of gloss, but in this case the proof was in the pudding. In fact, whether GpH I started the trend of beautiful woody incense perfumes for men, it certainly became the leader of the trend mainstream market.

Gucci Eau de Parfum and Gucci Eau de Parfum II reflect a brilliant strategy of letting the blandness of the market serve as a backdrop. Seen against a group-think market of women’s perfumes in the 1990s, they stand out both for ingenuity and for their beauty.

Gucci Eau de Parfum is a strikingly simple floral Oriental writ large that rose above the monochromatic mob of syrupy gourmands. It offered an old-school animalic quality to women who had been lead to believe that the height of beauty was to smell like a cupcake, sprinkles and all.

Gucci Eau de Parfum II was a subversive little beauty that infiltrated the fruity-floral genre, skipping the spoonful of sugar in favor of a tart woodiness. Gucci edp II has none of the frivolity and triteness typically associated with the genre. Its pokerface and assuredness give it a character more like a classic woody such as Jean Patou 1000.

Envy for Men didn't bust down any walls, and unless quality comes as a surprise to you, it doesn't shock. It's the spicy, woody, resinous perfume equivalent of a Russian male choir. A large range is covered, but the rumbling bass is what I remember. A lot has been made of its nutmeg and ginger notes being its defining attributes, but like Givenchy Insénsé, whose floral notes have been touted as the reason for the perfume's failure to breech the men's market, the note isn't the coup de grace. Beauty is.

Many men fear unadulterated, or better, unmodulated beauty, and despite its nominal set of 'masculine' notes (lavender, cedar, incense, amber...) Envy for Men is luxuriously beautiful. It's like many of the Amouage masculines such as Gold Man (1983) and Dia pour Homme (2002) where the goal is explicitly for a man to smell beautiful. The litany of questions that often curtail men actually wearing a perfume are irrelevant. (Is it an 'office scent'? Does it broadcast easy identification with your cohort? Could it be perceived as feminine?). If you look closely, Envy for Men easily passes masculine muster, and should assuage the fear behind these questions. It should simply have been seen as a handsome, distinctive entry into the market. But men's deep-seated fear of appearing beautiful trumps the rest, and, despite something of a cult following, Envy for men has gone the way of much of the other Ford era Guccis. It's been discontinued.

Perfume fans follow the work of individual perfumers. Why not branch out a bit and follow the work of the art director? If the perfumer can be likened to the director in film, the art director is somewhere between the film producer (eg. Serge Lutens) and the art curator (eg. Frédéric Malle.) Larger-scale commercial perfumery relies on a consensus model that defines creativity very narrowly.

The Gucci line of the Ford era is similar to the Estée Lauder perfumes made during Lauder’s time. The ridiculous lie of the Lauder line during Estee Lauder's lifetime was that she made each of her perfumes herself. Lauder was known for producing a spectacular line that didn’t shy away from polarizing opinion. Azurée, Knowing, Aliage, Estée. And her perfumes for men, principally in the Aramis line, are still the best compilation of masculine fragrances from a large commercial cosmetic/perfume producer. If she had openly proclaimed herself as an art director of the line, she'd have beaten Lutens and Malle to the punch by decades.

If you're interested in looking at perfume from the perspective of the art director instead of the perfumer or an entire line, take a look at the Gucci perfumes by Tom Ford. Some are discontinued, and some are still in production, but they're all fairly easy to find.

11/24/2015

7
Scent

Lucian
12 Reviews

Lucian

4

overrated

I love Envy, actually it was my signature fragrance when it was released. I had 2 bottles, the yellowish green and the reformulated electric green juice. First formulation was better.

But even with all the nostalgia I will not re-buy this fragrance. It's hard to get and the prices are just ridiculous.

If you're not an Arab prince don't bother seeking this fragrance out, you can get so many better colognes at a fair price right now. One example will be Bentley Intense.

Performances are just average and the compliment factor is pretty low, to be honest. The vintage snobs will say this is a holly grail, just because they have it and you don't.

So don't believe the hype, and just forget about Envy.
RIP

04/27/2021

10
Pricing 7
Bottle 7
Sillage 8
Longevity 10
Scent

Denim86
19 Reviews

Denim86

4

Back when they knew how to do it

This is the epitome when it comes Down to, how to make a good fragrance overall, not just a designer. Because this one was the spark for a lot of these Niche fragrances we see today, and we know that, if this was just filled from its bottle into an expensive niche today, it would sell like cold lemonade on a hot summer Day. This was/is perfect still. Just stunning. . And performance is outstanding. Happy to own a 2005 bottle.

10/20/2014

10
Bottle 5
Sillage 7.5
Longevity 9
Scent

MasterLi
375 Reviews

MasterLi

Helpful Review 2

A discontinued emerald green jewel of a fragrance...

What a fantastic fragrance this was! A spicy oriental full of ginger, incense, cedarwood and sandalwood... and a gorgeous smell to match! The very definition of an oriental with woods!

Stylish bottle, classic green juice... a prominent incense vibe. In my mind this is like standing in the middle of a Chinese Temple... sandalwood and jasmine incense burning, an almost menthol-like aroma of Chinese herbs and spices. Envy for Men opened up with incense and sandalwood, followed by lavender, ginger, pepper, cardamom and coriander seed. With a sweet & spicy amber and vanilla drydown in the base. What wasn't there to like? It had everything you could want from an oriental for men! Class, sophistication, a faint aura of mystery & seduction... this is more than most fragrances can offer thesedays!

It really is a shame that Gucci discontinued all the outstanding and daring work Tom Ford produced whilst he had full creative control of the company. He built Gucci up like a Phoenix from it's ashes, and now it has lost what set it apart from other designer brands. It lost it's bold creativity and most of all, it's uniqueness in terms of fragrances.

This is a gem of a fragrance, and I will cherish what little I have left of this juice in memory of this once great brand. R.I.P. Envy... you sexy green devil!

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