Giorgio Armani
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Raspberry syrup slams into your olfactory system with zero subtlety, a candied blast that's almost aggressively fruity. The neroli attempts a brief, sophisticated introduction but is immediately steamrolled by that synthetic berry sweetness, all bubblegum brightness and shopping centre intensity.
Rose absolute emerges through the raspberry haze, though it's less garden rose and more rose syrup, steeped in vanilla until any green or spicy facets are entirely subdued. The floral-fruity marriage settles into a creamy, almost edible sweetness that coats the skin like lip gloss, radiating outwards with impressive tenacity.
Vanilla and white musk form a soft, sweetened skin scent with just enough patchouli to ground it, preventing complete confectionery collapse. The raspberry fades to a memory whilst the musky-vanilla base persists, warm and oddly comforting despite its synthetic sheen, like expensive body lotion or the ghost of cotton candy.
Because It's You opens with a discordant shriek of raspberry that's less fruit basket, more synthetic confection—think raspberry ripple ice lolly melting onto warm skin rather than anything remotely botanical. The neroli barely registers beyond a fleeting citrus whisper before the raspberry-rose duo commandeers proceedings, creating that distinctly contemporary sweet-floral effect that dominates the mass market. Anne Flipo has crafted something deliberately maximal here: rose absolute drowning in vanillic sweetness, the whole composition turned up to eleven.
What keeps this from complete saccharine oblivion is an unexpectedly robust foundation. The patchouli lurks beneath all that sweetness with a subtle earthiness, whilst the white musk lends a diffusive, skin-scent quality that carries the raspberry-vanilla accord for hours. It's relentlessly sweet—the accord breakdown doesn't lie—but there's a calculated, almost cynical sophistication in how these elements are assembled. The synthetic quality is pronounced, that tell-tale smooth, rounded sweetness of modern captive molecules rather than natural extraction.
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Guerlain
3.7/5 (193)