ARMANI
STRONGER WITH YOU PARFUM
2025
mandarin
pink pepper
lavender
sage
leathery vanilla
chestnut
‘Stronger With You Parfum blends the signature glazed chestnut accord with warm, spicy, leathery vanilla, leaving an unforgettable impression of unity and strength, all encapsulated in the iconic Stronger With You bottle. A unique fragrance of captivating intensity, Stronger With You is a vanilla and leathery reinterpretation of Stronger With You’s signature glazed chestnut accord. The aromatic intensity and sensuality of Stronger With You Parfum is reflected in the statement flacon.’ – Douglas (Translated)
I’m the wrong person to review this Stronger With You flanker, as I’ve had too little of an experience with any of the other Stronger With You releases to make a meaningful comparison (apparently, this smells closest to 2021’s Stronger With You Absolutely). What I know is that Stronger With You as a line is hyped a lot and when the original launched, I wasn’t impressed. Later versions I’ve only smelled briefly in-store and frankly, never paid much attention to… until this, Parfum.
And my thoughts on Stronger With You Parfum are strongly divided between the opening hour or two and the remainder of the wear. The opening I simply do not like. It’s yet another fragrance that smells like the Jean Paul Gaultier Le Male Elixir, Ultra Male DNA, with a combination of sweet and aromatic. Vague ‘masculine’ aquatic herbal and even minty and bubblegum touches, but drenched in a vanillic sweetness. No relief from the listed mandarin note to be found. The combination doesn’t work for me in any Le Male, not in the 2024 Dior Homme Parfum and neither does it in Stronger With You Parfum; the combination of those notes clashes to my nose. And it’s been done so often and in such major releases, that I’m tired of it, even if I don’t wear those fragrances ever myself; it has become the embodiment of ‘generic designer’ for the men’s marketed releases. Luckily, this gets fixed in Stronger With You Parfum rather quickly.
From all those aromatic-sweet masculine designers, Stronger With You (Parfum) leans sweetest and in the sweetness lies its strength. The more the aromatic tinge fades away, the better this fragrance gets. It starts to dry down, but also dry out, become more airy, like thin, sharp woods and spices, with a pillow-like, marshmallow-y vanilla in contrast. I could picture the chestnut vibe, but realistically, I found it generic smelling, but growing more and more pleasant. This grows into about as full-on a vanilla as you’re going to find.
In the following hours, I perceived spices, almost like a Viktor & Rolf Spicebomb flanker. With warm spices, sharp, a tad harsh in an amber-woody manner. There’s the slightest hint of aromatics, but none of the weird bubblegummy tinge and even that tinge disappears with a lot of wear time left. The vanilla is done well and uplifts the composition. While I don’t like the first hour and I’m on the fence for a while after, this drydown is among the better sweet designer bases that I’ve come across. It smells familiar and simple yes, although I can’t pinpoint which fragrance it reminds me of most, but it smells good. In the latest hours, vanilla is pretty much all I get, with a faint hint of peppery woods.
The opening would be enough for me to never consider adding Stronger With You Parfum to my collection (over for example a Spicebomb Extreme), but overall, this felt like a solid release. Again, I don’t really know how it compares to other Stronger With You releases, but as a stand-alone I think it does a good job. A generic one for sure. I doubt anyone was in dire need for this flanker to exist, and it’s perhaps too one-dimensional in its vanilla overdose, but I’m happy it ditches the bubblegummy essence as quick as it does in favor of it.