Mini Reviews – Guilty Pleasures – Past & Present – Emporio Armani & Jean Paul Gaultier

Emporio Armani – Stronger With You – Stupid name, ok fragrance, 5.5/10.

Armani has set the bar relatively low with recent men’s releases. Flanker after endless flanker for Acqua di Gio and Code rolling of the production line at seemingly breakneck speed. Released in 2017, Stronger With You (a whole new scent) is a companion for the women’s Because it’s You. Check out this women’s version, as it’s quite a lovely fruity vanilla rose. It received four stars in Perfumes, the Guide. So it must have been doing something right. But I digress. Stronger With You doesn’t quite rise to those dizzying heights. Still, it does manage to do a half-decent job of capturing a mass appealing, young, modern designer perfume without reverting to smelling like an overly cheap drug store deodorant.

Stronger With You is still a sweet number. I’d file it alongside One Million and Invictus. I think it’s a stronger scent than Invictus if you pardon the pun. Vanilla, chestnut, and cardamom are the main protagonists. One part spicy and two parts sweet, simplistic, but not too synthetic. The gourmand component of chestnut gives it a point of difference and a touch of darkness. By the Fireplace from Maison Martin Margiela comes to mind when wearing Stronger with You. And much like that scent, Stronger With You isn’t versatile. I’d strictly use it in the colder months. It lasts for over ten hours with excellent projection for the first 4 hours. Due to its lack of versatility, I don’t wear it so much anymore.

Jean Paul Gaultier – Le Male Essence – What’s this, a decent Le Male flanker? 6.5/10.

Does Le Male have the most number of flankers of a men’s mass-marketed scent? It must be close, surely. I should look into it. I seem to recall there being many summer editions. Unfortunately, I find most of them rather drab and have always loved the original more than any others in the line. My favorite flanker for the record is Fleur de Male, which came in the white bottle. However, I rank Le Male Essence as a close second and an excellent, underrated release.

In Le Male Essence, the original framework of Le Male remains somewhat intact with the inclusion of lavender. However, the mint note is gone, replaced by a heavy dose of cardamom at the outset, and what follows is a very clean suede leather note with a hint of vanilla, cinnamon, and tonka. Much like the Armani, it has that sweetness that one has come to expect from modern fragrances. But, Le Male Essence isn’t quite so sweet, with the leather giving it much more of a “grown up’ vibe.

The only downside to what is otherwise a superb flanker to the classic mid-90s original is the 6-8 hour longevity. Otherwise, it’s a very well-balanced perfume, with Shades of La Nuit d’Lhomme and CH Men Prive, but to be perfectly frank, I prefer this one. In terms of modern-day workings of Le Male, everyone seems to mention Ultra Male as their favourite. But that one is nothing more than bubblegum sweetness. Le Male Essence has far more backbone and interest. Fantastic work by Quentin Bisch.

What’s your guilty pleasure scent?

Note: Bottle images are my own.