Fierce for Men (2002)
by Abercrombie & Fitch

Fierce is a great choice for warmer weather with a synthetically ramped up cool mentolated citrus wood scent. Fierce is one of a small group of few newer and improved fragrances of this type (Bulgari Aq. Marine, Stetson All American, Versace PH, Ice*Men, Allure PH Sport) that are so much better than the earlier pioneer 90's scents of this type (Eternity, AdGio). Fierce is well balanced, very alluring, inoffensive, refreshing and has no sharp edges or heavy statements to its structure at all. A great generic summer fragrance. There is even a nice dry oakmoss wood drydown which stays very close to the skin and subtle.

The big problem with Fierce, for me, is the incredibly tacky bottle/image that shows the Abercrombie bare chested youth torso on the bottle front. Who wants that sitting on their shelf?? The bottle design probably drives off more customers than the scent attracts! Another example of destruction by art direction. Visable from either side, this image screams immaturity. But, with a careful peel and pull motion I was able to remove the clear plastic label that coats the front of the bottle leaving a clean, respectably minimal glass bottle that only betrays its contents with one word on the front - Fierce. A huge improvement! I should offer my services to Abercrombie to consult on how to create a wider audience for this pretty good summer fragrance by fixing this error in brand image design. A decent fragrance anyway.

I don't know who you an dislike this fragrance. If anything, most of the negative reviews are due to the fact it's from Abercrombie. If Chanel or some other reputable company distributed this, it'd be like VERY much here at basenotes ;D

Abercrombie & Fitch Fierce

Anybody who has shopped in a mall in the US that contains an Abercrombie & Fitch has smelled Fierce. Some stores pump it through their ventilation and others have SA's who have the job of spraying the mannequins every 20-30 minutes. As a red-blooded shopper I knew what I was going to get. As far as mass-acceptance scents go I think this is pretty good. Cristophe Laudamiel will always be better known for Burberry London, Theo Fennell Scent or S-ex here on Basenotes, but Fierce is far from an embarassment and in its ability to connect with a wider audience might be a more difficult task. That is for the philosophers to decide. For me, Fierce starts out with an agressive mix of citrus and spice. When it comes to the ubiquitous fresh top that seems to be desired these days this is a nice variation on that theme. Fierce then transitions into a pretty generic woody heart this is the least interesting phase of the development. The base is the best part as a combination of musk and amber weave together quite nicely. This is very much a young man's scent, appropriate to where it is being sold. I can't see going through this bottle very quickly but I also don't see getting rid of it as I have had far worse scents on my skin.

As a young man and also owner of this fragrance, I will say this. I would not wear this around a girl older than myself as it is a 'youthful' cologne or around a girl who was raised to recognize cheap from classy. It is good for college parties, but not for dates. The good news is that most college girls don't understand what good cologne smells like, so this is fine to use until you get to the real world.

This is also my husbands cologne. For whatever reason (chemistry, maybe?) I really am attracted to this scent. It is very fresh, woody & clean-spice smell. This is inly my second review, so my apologies if this is not so helpful.. I'm learning!!

Girls are absolutely in love with this scent, but almost EVERY guy has this, and the scent unmistakeably reminds you of the store, which leads to comments like this:

"Oh my God you smell like Abercrombie!"

Now I know I don't want people telling me I smell like their favorite store, but for some people that don't live by an Abercrombie store and this scent is uncommon, this would work very well. This smell is good, and the sillage and longetivity is amazing, but it is just too common for me.