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

Since my conversion of marine-religion, the ADG has taken a back seat. and who else but to dethrone the previous duke of marine scents? Bvlgari Aqva. Both are similar in terms of salty, sweet floral notes, with ADG appearing very thin beside its longevity nemesis. This scent is one that ladies are easily drawn to. The calming, breezy, notes are great, but die down really fast into a diluted version, with the original starting notes presenting a watered down scent that is stil recognisable, but for something that cost more than all its mainstream peers, one would expect ADG to have more decency in its longevity. Maybe the idea was intentional to have ADG be as subtle as possible. I reckon they're trying to avoid smelling too sweet or floral for a marine scent, a task Bvg's aqua took care off perfectly, witht the latter having a thicker more concentrated formula. ADG would have scored at leat an 8 out of 10, a couple years ago when i was using my first 100ml bottle. The one im using now is the 4th to date coz i had to use quite a lot of sprays to keep it sustainable, but bow i find myself using it to scent my sheets, pillows and covers sinc the scent has always offered me a clean sense of calmness. I hardly wear it out as it fades too soon an i would have to stand-by an atomizer just to re-lift. Im still hoping ADG would have a intense flanker out soon, but for the time being, it serves nothing more than to freshen my bedroom with its scent. The Marine version of Bvg's aqua is almost identical exept for the former having some stronger citrus notes. I woulnt recomend this purely because of the inflated value...... nonetheless, it remains one of the best selling armani frags in singapore as told to me by a friend who works under laureal, in which armani frags are distributed by. all the review b4 mine would have given good enough desciption of the scent, so il skip the detail.... buy it only if they are going on clearance if ever

Very fresh fragance and what else? Not class here, not original product. Boring in my view.
Not bad, I recommended for summer time.....but I repeat, a lot of fragances smell like Aqua di Gio.
I prefer exclusive stuffs like Terre d Hermes. Nothing more to say.

I am using Acqua di Gio for about six months....Personally I like it a lot....but unfortunately i am usually the only one who smells it......it keeps itself to your skin......low sillage. Longitivity is about 6 hours.....

Another problem with this perfume is that there is nothing special left about this perfume....everyone wears it and everyone knows it.

So for me its an everyday perfume specially for office

I'm a university student, and have to agree that this cologne is wayyyy too common among young guys. I like the scent itself, but when entire hallways reek of it, it gets to be headache-inducing. Also, I found that when applied to my skin, the reaction with my skin's natural chemicals caused the scent to vanish only minutes after it was put on.

Nothing new or special. Sweet clean scent that you always smell passing by in the mall/street/wherever. I will say that it is nice once it has dried down. But be forewarned that this scent has a Very short lasting strength. I can spray 8 or 9 sprays on, and by lunch it has dissapated completely(and yes I asked others around me, it simply doesn't last). For the right person and body chemistry you may get better lasting power, but for the cost it's not quite worth it. Never buy this from Armani, it's not worth over 50$ and ebay usually sells it off for under 30$. Wouldn't buy again, but it at least is nice.

Good for athletic activities and summer days, but nothing special at all.

Even though I am new with fragrances, I can tell that this is a little too generic. I have smelled this before. The hints of the earthier flowers are light on top with the white rose support. Good to just wear when you can't think of anything else to wear or you're going to a boring gathering and want to be nondescript but have a pleasant aroma aura about yourself. Other reviews say it good for summer and I have to agree, it just doesn't go with the colder months.

I love this scent, the problem is so does every other man under 25. Perfect nowadays if your goal is to be like everyone else, especially if you are in high school or college.

On the plus side it is pleasant although very recognizable now. Longevity is great, and this is probably the best aquatic still.

If you have no creativity or imagination, this bad boy if for you!

I like to call it Acqua di Conformity. If your goal is to remind your wife or girlfriend of one of her ex-boyfriends, this is the cologne for you. It's not a bad smelling scent, I used to wear it in college, but so did half of men on campus. I stopped wearing it when a friend told me that every single guy in his frat house owned it. Enough said.

My daughter's 20 year old (ex)boyfriend used to wear this. It was o.k. I guess. He used to strut around all cocky and whatnot...leaving me with an obviously bad impression! All in all a mediocre scent.

its nice one.i used wear 10 years ago in the collage,one of the oh you smell good scent.its not my taste anymore

There I was with her in a fragrance shop, trying out new fragrances. She told me that this is her favorite and asked me to try this on. So I did.

A nice, refreshing, airy, lively scent was what I had expected, but the experience was more like that of wearing a detergent or a toilet cleaner. Made me wonder why it is so popular. Perhaps the majority of the people like the smell of air fresheners?

On the other hand, it *was* midwinter when I tried it on. So I'll give it the benefit of doubt and, perhaps, try again in the summertime.

Used to like this when I first got into cologne. Now everyone wears it and it just smells like soap to me now.

I'd rather prefer Just Me for men by Paris Hilton, smells like this but a lot more mature and all around better.

It is kinda played out, but its still good. i think it gets too sweet on my skin sometimes, so maybe not for daytime use. have a nice day!

Good, fresh, nice scent, but EVERYONE and their little brother owns this scent. I once had a girl correctly guess which scent I was wearing becuase her boyfriend wore the same scent.

something unsettling about this one, sour and salty at the same time and cloying. I don't understand the mass appeal

Fresh and beautiful? Yes. Boring and predictable? Yes. One of the safest fragrances around these days, Acqua is just too popular for its own good. I think it carries a lot of weight in the United States because people like to hear the Armani name associated with their purchase. There is only one person who wears this fragrance anymore, "I'm a middle-class white guy who knows all about luxury and having a good time." Run from the trend, not towards it. Gio at least opens the door for me to smell original with Aramis Surface and Givenchy BL. You can't go wrong buying this one, but that isn't to say a lot is going to go right, either. Safe and unoriginal to the extreme, which is sad considering this actually set the stage for all those aquatic scents that make this so bland. After the current trend dies down, it might not be bad to bring it back out, but until then...

This fragrance has MAJOR longevity problems. I love the initial burst of fresh herbal and marine notes, but it simply does not last long enough on me to make it worthwhile. Great fragrance notes, refreshingly minimalistic frosted glass bottle, but it simply does not last long enough for anyone (including me) to smell it 30 minutes after application.

Forget this smell conjuring images of a fun day by the ocean, all I can associate this scent with is loud frat boys. That being said, it is overall relatively pleasant, but not only can you smell pleasant without feeling like an abnoxious frat boy but you can find scents like this that are flat out better. Bulgari's take on Aqua, for instance, is simply put a better version of this scent. You won't feel like a tool wearing it either.

This is a good cologne. But it is used so often that I have come to hate the scent. I smell it 5-10 times a day on campus. This is a problem: a great cologne should smell different on different people. I myself have worn it, but don't intend to ever again for this reason.

I wanted to say no completely only because its sooo popular..I use to wear it back around 2000 until I was at a mall and I smelled it around a group of teenagers. And that's when I said its time to move on. Bottom line is that its a nice scent but for the younger croud and if you wanna smell like everybody else, hey I bought my 15 year old nephew a bottle this past christmas. And he loves it in fact those girls are going crazy over him in school and aqua plays a part in that...

This cologne is not overrated, it's just overused. It smells ok, the drydown is generic. The cologne in general is generic. I wear it sometimes because my girlfriend likes it. Armani makes way better colognes, I wish stores like wal mart would market these, instead of Drakkar and Acqua. It's good if you like aqua and smelling like 50% of the people in the room.

The scent that made aquatics famous. Acqua di Gio is quite divisive around here probably its popularity and ubiquity. It’s a pleasant enough scent—it is fresh, clean, non-offensive, non-synthetic, has good projection and sillage. I don’t get that sour note that some speak of, I just get an ‘ehh.’ I don’t understand why it is so criticized, just as I don’t understand why they sell so much of it. It’s an ok scent—as nicely done as any of the aquatics

I'm one of few lucky ones that doesn't encounter the sharp and sour drydown of ADG. The drydown actually smells more like a sweet melon on me. It's a nice scent that everyone I know likes. However, my main complaint is its lack of staying power. I'm not too fond of reapplying and I have to constantly reapply this one. It starts off with a wonderful amount of sillage but then burns itself out too quickly. If this had a higher oil content, I would give it a thumbs up. But this one is literally like 'Acqua'.

My roommate last year was crazy about this stuff, and wore it all the time. I just can't say I find anything I really like about this scent; the mellon-like top notes to me are just putrid, though it does settle down quite quickly. After that, it never really evolved into anything special- it wasn't bad, it's just that it didn't seem very distinctive to me (perhaps because everyone in the world wears it). Some people really seem to like it, but I don't see what all the fuss is about.

very controversial fragarance. when it came out, I adored this one. it was so clean and fresh like nothing else...no I can hardly stand this scent. it reminds me some sort of air freshener if sprayed on my wrist.

Its a ok smell just OVERRATED and OVER used, after trying Creeds "Millesime Imperial" Acqua Di Gio seems like a cheap supermarket aftershave.

New to the scent game, I guess it's no surprise I purchased a bottle of this during one of my first Dillard's cologne shopping experiences. For the first couple of weeks I really liked it. Now, my 1.7oz bottle, which I had initially thought wouldn't last long, has been sitting 3/4 full on a shelf for some time. It does smell good, mind you(though it doesn't last all that long on me), but I now have so many other "better" options available that I only pull this out for nostalghia's sake.

This scent generated $100 million in US sales ALONE last year. And it shows-EVERYBODY wears this stuff. It's a decent scent, but it's so widely used that you might as well try something else. Go into a big city on the train, and you're sure to smell Acqua di Gio. Better yet, go to your local department store. Ask them what the best-selling men's fragrance is at their store, and they're sure to say "Acqua di Gio". After all, look at those sales figures...

i don't mind it so much -- in fact, i tend towards liking it -- but it's possibly the most overdone fragrance in existence. if you're looking to stand out in any way, acqua di gio is *not* the way to do it.

i find the smell is quite weak and i have to put a lot on to make it have a stronger smell. Apart from that i dont mind this but there are better smells, its a poor man Ck1 to me