Reviews of Acqua di Giò pour Homme (1996)
by Giorgio Armani

Horrific. I don't get how this foul stench is a best seller. Is it based on trend? Those who pimped it out are having the last laugh. This is black flag bug spray with a cantaloupe mashed into the smell before it quickly dies off. I actually snicker when I get a gush of this aroma in any club setting. Dare to look for a manly smell and the women will go nuts over it. Never tell her or anyone what the scent is that you are wearing once you find that masculine smell. Let the wanna be's continue to smell like bug repellent.

When I first wore this, the first bundle of compliments I received were "ADG? My sister's boyfriend where's that", "Oh yeah that's ADG you're wearing? I have that to!" and "You smell just like my brother" so it is true, EVERYONE has this for some reason. It's good, not great. The sour notes on top aren't that pleasant but when it dries down you get a sweet floral accord. Lasts for about 4 hours, just an average scent. Highly suggest it in the summer because that's when it smells the sweetest!

No good. It's tinny and synthetic to me. Clearly many people like it, but I really can't find the love for it. It's just thin, generic stuff to me.

The majority of Armani's clothing has the initials AJ or Armani plastered all over it -- why do that -- it's so cheesy. I imagine people who buy clothes that are a walking advertisement for the designer, wear ADG also. I love Armani suits and would like to own several, but the House just can't hack it with perfumery - be honest.
Come on -- let's evolve. Stop buying this.

Very interesting, never smelled this before, thank you.

I have never understood the popularity of this cologne. It smells cheap and musty. I am reminded of the stench of the odious task I did with love; changing the litter in my cat's litter box. It has spawned many imitators, all as awful as the original.

Marine/aquatic fragrances comprise the smallest part of my collection, and while Acqua was once one of my perceived favorites, I quickly became bored of it. The first few times I wore it, I was intrigued by the persimmon note, which I had never smelled in a fragrance before. However, after more and more wearings, I found that in the drydown things began to take on a sour fruity smell. Its longevity is also subpar; even with multiple sprays, it lasts around 4 hours and then disappears entirely. Not to mention that everyone and their uncle wears this and douse themselves in it so liberally that you can pick it out on a crowded sidewalk! Once I started making the transition over to niche and added Millesime Imperial to my wardrobe as my new aquatic (and a far better one at that), I quickly got rid of the ubiquitous Acqua di Gio.

There is something more emasculating about this cologne than even so-called sweet scents. It remains for me ungrounded... like so much of what is now called "culture." But it is not so much masculine or femine here. I consider AdG an insincere scent, ergo it's popularity? One I don't have to think about? After all, there's that close-up black and white photograph...

No. It is not "overrrated." It is overpurchased.

I too do not consider it an "aquatic" but more like the floral vapor state bees or birds experience on a hot day after the rain.

If this is popular especially with young ladies, it enables them to have sex while maintainiing the delusion on some level that they have never known a man or perhaps, on another level, that they have been with a close female friend.

Shame on you Aqua di Gio!

Hmmmmmmmm watery notes & roses. I am not a fan of roses. After all they dont smell pleasent.. This stuff just does not set well with me. It has a smell that im not fond of. Yes the longevity is good. Yet the smell is something i can live without. The bottle is plain & ugly. No creativity there. I suppose it is 1 of the better scents from armani. Then again im not a fan of this house.

Its an ok scent. Very, very easily recognizable. Lasts for max of about 2 hours on my skin with generous application. I think the only way I can get better longevity out of this one would be to use the after shave...but even then it only adds maybe two more hours of longevity.
I liked this when I was younger and inexperienced in the fragrance world. Not my go to anymore since I've started using Bvlgari Aqva and Erolfa. Doesn't stand up to the depth, sillage and longevity of these.
Used to be a thumbs up for me, now its a thumbs down.

I just can't give this a thumbs up. It smells decent. When I first purchased this years ago it was distinctive enough where I felt like I was wearing something that stood out for summer. Not only has that changed but so did my feeling for the scent. It now goes on like bug spray and is almost caustic on me, even on drydown. I just cant wear this with confidence anymore.

Overrated in my book. Also can be used for Bugspray. No cologne should ever smell like this. If you want a REAL cologne, try Aramis.

Ah, the age old question. How would you like your salad, with lemon or Acqua di Gio on top?

This smells like a mush, made of melon, lemon and desperation. So generic and overused, it is sickening. Fratboy meets 'wanna-get-laid' tonight personality. Very very mass market. I think it is the male counterpart of Angel: two incredibly overrated, overused and one note, food-like smelling scents that make me wanna cringe.

And it is always the 'Angel girls' who find the 'Gio guys' attractive. It is not even fresh anymore, during summer days under the heat, it only brings out a sickeningly sweet aura of the base notes. Perfect for the American market though. And unfortunately, changed the face of men's fragrances forever, or at least all the summer releases/ Eau Fraiche editions of fragrances. Kinda sad.

I never liked this one to me it smells like roach spray I tried it several times but it's a no no for me

Not much else to add = aquatic scent. Longetivity, sillage excellent. Personally, I just don't like the scent. Very commercialised and possible a victim of its own success as 'me too' fragrance.

At first i really liked this fragrance, but after awhile it just becomes really annoying. It literally clings on to you, you will still smell it on your clothes a few days later. At first it was a pleasant surprise, but you get so sick of the fragrance easily, after awhile you just won't be able to stand it.

A love affair gone terribly, terribly bad.

My first aquaintance with this fragrance was heady and wonderful, but with time, this thing has turned sour. There's this underlying jarring note that I can't place running through the heart-, and base-notes, like I'm smelling a wonderful perfume in the toilet.

I will not be buying this thing, which is unfortunate because I really wanted to like this fragrance.

Guess this soporific of a scent goes to show ya just why many in the American public oughtn't vote, reproduce, or carry firearms. That THIS less-than-mediocre scent -- of all scents -- should be "number one" is not terribly different from the idiocy of Dubya being President.

Thin and watery. A scent I could envision the cartoon character Aquaman wearing (while under water). Actually, its really not that bad of a scent. Its just incredibly boring.

Ugh. I have smelled this so many times on drunken nights, while in clubs/bars, etc. A mere whiff of this toxic concoction makes me want to vomit.

Has to be one of the most overrated colognes out there today.

Giò is an ordinary perfume. which was overrated by peoples. makes vomit and
those who said it's Acqua di Watermelon all right.

Not even close to the best fragrance in the world like some here say. It's not even lightyears close to being the greatest fragrance in the world. I don't understand the mass appeal for this. If you want an aquatic scent that is actually good, then try Bvlgari Aqva or Mare. This fragrance is nothing special at all. I'd rather just wash my clothes, it pretty much gives the same feeling. Cannot understand why this is the best seeling fragrance.

meet the one person who never purchased this fragrance. acqua di gio is my life! - NOT
at least i try to be different from the rest of the planet.

Where I live, Aqua Velva and Old Spice are de rigeur, so Acqua di Gio is not well known. That said, I don't like it. There's a sour grass note in the mix that one can easily achieve by spending a few hours in a silo.

What can I say about Acqua di Watermelon by G. Armani? If you want to smell this crap, you'd better sniff quick! Lasts about 15 minutes… Armani has many problems with the longevity of his fragances !!!

This is the most overrated and overpriced cologne ever and I can't see why it is because it leaves an awful sour melon smell on your skin. I think it’s the jasmine that does that without the jasmine it would probably be decent. It's a very common, bland scent that everyone on the planet wears.

I can understand perfectly all the ones who can't stand this fragrance and i can't see while is still is such a magnet for females. Unlike most of the Armani scents, most of them being innovative and spectacular just like their creator's unique personality, this definetly reeks like cheap supermarket aftershave. It is far too sweet, to feminine for being a male fragrance, too many misplaced fruity-floral tones.
Strangely enough it has become sort of a trademark scent of snobbish and expensive, yet not necessarily tasteful social gatherings- the perfect scent if yoy don't want to stand out in a
hypermodern club or disco full of young people who all dress and smell identically.
Maybe good for teenagers who like to dress very casual and even a little too sporty tastes. A good companion for esentially teenage popular culture- a little too casual, "sweet", "cute", "sexy" yet soooo conformistic and at the same time bearing the hollow pretense of high class yet giving the illusion of easy, informal living.

Ugh. Way too sweet, cloyingly so, and absolutely horrible in warm climates. But i got to hand it to them... This is the one Armani scent with great longevity. 2 squirts last all day, which, unfortunately, is not a good thing. :P

I think IPaidForThisName captured the essence very well: yes, just as video killed a radio star, AdG lowered expectations of the buyers seemingly forever. There is nothing wrong with Aqua di Gio, nothing at all - except now there are dozens of similar ones on the market. There is nothing daring in it, for there are toilet air fresheners on the market that cost a couple of dollars or pounds and are more memorable. What a celebration of bland and generic!

This fragrance marked a big change in the fragrance market; I think AdG is one of the largest culprits in the death of art and expression of perfumery. I think every man alive owns a bottle of this. I just have to ask… why even bother owning this?

If you want to smell like a freshman in highschool go for it. over rated, to common price tag sucks. there are much better out there and its hard to stand out when a bunch of people are wearing this

Over rated, over priced, over bearing. The good thing is that is does not stay with you........who would want to be around that all day!

This fragrance is uninspiring and utterly heartless.....ideal for the american and british market.

I could complain about this one all day. Should I ever meet Mr. Armani, I would chase him down the runway and slap his greedy a**. When Acqua di Gio first came out I loved it. I purchased and wore constantly. Nobody knew of it, and I relished in the compliments. They were all still wearing Cool Water.
Now when I smell I Acqua di Gio it is ALWAYS on some 20-something, wannabe hot-shot player (Or worse, on a middle-aged, newly- divorced, wannabe hot-shot player!!) He is wearing some combination of blue shirt/khaki, trucker hat/ironic t-shirt, or Express Men sale merchandise/over-sized steel watch. Sometimes gold chain. Acqua di Gio screams I am trying too hard, I follow the pack, and "you know you want it." I wish Armani had priced and distributed Acqua di Gio with the same level of class as his ready-to-wear-- instead of his Armani Exchange.

This is irrefutably the most over-rated men's perfume ever to be released and the most over-priced. It would be a wonderful perfume if it lasted more than 5 minutes (and I'm being serious). What went wrong here? It is a disgrace this has ever seen the light of day, and it lives only on the Armani name - yes, for blandness. Cannot belive that other reviewers rave about this rubbish. After 5 minutes of fresh watermelon you are left with lemon-like acidity that is disgustingly sour.

Totally overrated. Don't let the name "Armani" decide what you buy. If you like smelling like soap I suppose it´s OK. It is very sharp and too common, this one lacks personality. Women like it I've heard, perhaps they should wear it. Try the latest Van Gil instead.

Overrated! cost too much, annoying sour note and it don't last very long.

After reading all the positive reviews and of all the awards it has received (even here in South Africa), i was so hoping that this would be the fragrance that i was looking for. However, after trying it i was very disappointed at how sour it turned out to be once it had settled down. This didn't deter me in trying it a few more times as i thought maybe it would grow on me, but to no avail. The fragrance just develops into a blunt sour melon-type smell (on my skin that is) that leaves me wondering "Is this it? Is this what everyone is so hyped up about?" It's not the worst fragrance i've smelt, but it's just not one that would make me say "Wow!" Just my thoughts.

I agree with mattias this stuff have a sour note. I can't understand as can be so popular.

Ok here goes... surprised that I'm the first negative voice on this one. Undoubtedly a complex fragrance, in my opinion Acqua di Giò has a far too sharp sour note I just cant stand. This especially becomes apparent (surprisingly) on the drydown, where this acidity becomes unbearable! Furthermore there is a floral quality to it which makes my stomach turn, since it is still ranked very high , I suppose I´m one of few with this viewpoint.