Giorgio Armani
Giorgio Armani
222 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Star anise explodes immediately, a concentrated blast of black liquorice that dominates everything in its path, with only the faintest grapefruit zest attempting to brighten the opening. The cypress arrives quickly, its green-woody bite tempering the sweetness before it becomes overwhelming. This first quarter-hour is bold, sweet, and unapologetically spiced—a statement rather than a whisper.
The cedar and cypress build in prominence, creating a dry, pencil-shaving woodiness that frames the heliotrope's powdery almond warmth. Olive blossom adds an unexpected soapy-floral quality, just clean enough to prevent the composition from becoming too heavy or syrupy. The anise recedes but never disappears, threading through the heart like a spiced ribbon holding everything together.
Tonka bean and vanilla create a plush, sweetened cushion whilst the gaiac wood adds a subtle smoky depth that keeps this from being purely gourmand. The powder accord intensifies here, reminiscent of vintage shaving talc but warmer, more ambered, more lived-in. What remains is a skin-close veil of sweet woods and soft spice, comforting without being cloying, lasting well into the evening.
Armani Code Ultimate takes the original's smooth oriental framework and douses it in a boozy, anise-laced syrup that Antoine Maisondieu clearly intended to push towards gourmand excess. The opening is a liquorice whip crack—star anise dominating so thoroughly that the citrus barely registers, save for a whisper of mandarin oil cutting through the spiced sweetness. This is licorice allsorts rendered in liquid form, yet the cypress and cedar introduction prevents it from tumbling into cloying territory, their dry, resinous character providing architectural support to all that sugared warmth.
What's fascinating here is how the heliotrope weaves through the composition, its almond-marzipan nuance amplifying both the anise and the powdery tonka-vanilla base that lies in wait. The olive blossom—a rather unusual inclusion—adds a subtle soapy-green facet that keeps things from becoming entirely edible. By the time the gaiac wood emerges fully, you're left with something that sits between a sophisticated fougère and a comfort-scent gourmand, the woody notes lightly smoked and dry against that persistent vanilla sweetness.
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Carolina Herrera
3.8/5 (119)