ARMANI CODE EAU DE PARFUM | GETTING THE BAND BACK TOGETHER

Today I'm going to give you a quick review of the new ARMANI CODE EAU DE PARFUM that I was kindly sent on by the PR team down at Armani Beauty. 

ARMANI CODE EAU DE PARFUM takes the classic ARMANI CODE EAU DE TOILETTE and infuses it with a new sensuality. 

One thing I often get asked with regards to fragrances, is what can I wear to the office? It's a good question, but I feel, a tricky one for brands themselves to square away. Does any fragrance want to wear the moniker of Office Scent? 

However, typically when people did ask me, and indeed back when I was working in IT, I would be quite partial to the classic ARMANI CODE EAU DE TOILETTE because its neutrality. 

Possibly Armani are looking to enliven that scent and modernise its appeal, change the narrative of a 'safe scent'. Clearly the press release is certainly looking to change that narrative. But that's just conjecture. Let's get cracking, review time!

OPENING

Immediately I'm woken by the lavender. As if the doors to the promise of spring have buckled and blown. Quickly I'm dipped in vanilla and Tonka as if coated like a popsicle rolled in a candy pot of hundreds and thousands. Then it levels off, and I'm back at my desk circa 2008 working through my spreadsheets, though with an older head. Still with hair on it thankfully. It's nostalgia but with a facelift. It's like a school reunion only all the girls you once fancied, have blossomed rather than bloated. Even the guys have Botox, and they show me photos of their smiling cherub faced kids holding medals or modelling Colgate toothpaste. What's wrong with this picture? 

BETTER THAN EDT? 

For those that knew the original, lived the original, this it the remake that won't let you down. It's no frame-for-frame rehash, it has a few tricks up its sleeve. However, if Armani are trying to frame this as the 'sensual - conveying a mood of elegant seduction' then I'm not sold. 

For me this is still a safe yet, alluring scent that you can still wear to the office, on a business lunch, certainly a first date. It doesn't have the complexity to turn heads or nostrils. It doesn't have the punch or tenacity to out shine its flankers, ARMANI CODE PROFUMO or ARMANI CODE ABSOLU. It's not a mature fragrance that a mature man can wear with confidence.

It's like still that old band you liked getting back together and not playing any new music that frankly stunk the place out. Yet they have all stayed in shape, still have great hair, had great solo careers and you're not ashamed to say that you may at one point had inappropriate dreams about the lot of them. (I've gone too far). 

This is the A-HA or Spandau Ballet of fragrances. They play the hits, they know their audience and there is simply nothing, NOTHING to apologise for. 

Available nationwide from 19th May

RRP: 60ml - £72.00, 110ml - £92.00, 200ml - £105.00