Acqua di Gio by Giorgio Armani
This Acqua di Gio by Giorgio Armani is the perfume I gave my dad for Christmas. I have to thank my friend Isabelle for making me try it.
You see, my friend Isabelle only wears mens perfume, and this Acqua di Gio pour homme is one of her favorites. Ok I know your eyes went back to where I say that my female friend only wears mens perfume. It’s less weird than you think and of course has nothing to do with a sexuality disorder or stuff like that; it’s just a matter of taste. My friend has always found womens perfumes too sweet and with no in-betweens: either way too loaded or too ethereal and delicate. Perfumes for men, she says, are subtler, and everyone likes them. Although I remain faithful to the classical division between thing for boys and girls, I have to say I agree with her 100%: womens fragrances always play with the extremes. Perfume makers just don’t want us women to be tri-dimensional: we have to be either the perfect wife and mother, or the femme fatale, we either need to smell like innocent girls, or walk around with the word “sinner” stamped on our forehead. Being all these things at the same time?
Acqua di Gio
Impossible. Buy one perfume for each of your personality and wear them one at the time. Being none of these things? Get yourself a men’s fragrance. Men’s perfumes market is less saturated, less aggressive, and therefore offer more choice.
Of course I wasn’t thinking of any of these things when I decided to give this Acqua di Gio for men to my dad. I needed a classy, dry and fresh fragrance (if you find a perfume for women with all these qualities together please let me know).
The feminine version of this Armani perfume was first launched in 1995 followed by the one for men the year after. The latter was more successful, and in fact made the brand Armani more popular. After Acqua di Gio, Armani started to launch new perfumes more often, almost every year.
The opening notes are pretty alcoholic but they are happily tamed by a marine aroma. I actually think it can work really well as a sport fragrance, if you can afford to use it that way. By this I mean I found it a bit expensive (whatever it means to me), even if the Acqua di Gio 6.7 oz is actually good value compared to the 3.4 bottle.
Back to the perfume, other than water, there are melon and pear, and also white roses.
In the middle notes, fruits take a step back, and roses stand out together with other flowers, like jasmine and something denser that smells like hyacinth.
Compared to its predecessor “Gio,” Acqua di Gio perfume is fresher, with a totally different style. More suitable for summertime, quite informal, maybe too much for a work environment. On a date it will not give much help, as the bitter note will remain until the base notes, making this Armani perfume suitable for a personal use. Age range, I would say between 20 and 50.
Tags: acqua di gio, acqua di gio 3.4, acqua di gio 6.7, acqua di gio for men, acqua di gio perfume, acqua di gio pour homme