Gucci by Gucci pour Homme (2008)
by Gucci

I didn’t realize when I ordered the sample that this had a dominant violet in its structure. Had I known, I would have avoided reviewing this and saved my $3. The violet note fooled me for a while… I didn‘t quite recognize it as violet, but I did recognize that I didn’t like it. At least I hadn’t the urge to wash it off immediately – that urge came after fifteen minutes. I get a smokiness to the opening along with its violet, but I’m not sure if it’s my dislike of the violet or my distaste for the combination leaves me cold. The heart notes are floral with jasmine predominating – it’s also an adequate accord but nothing special. I find the drydown rather unique at first with its smoky cedar /amber ambiance, but even that doesn’t hold my interest for very long. In all, I just can’t find anything to enjoy in Gucci by Gucci, which is unusual for me because I tend to enjoy most of Gucci’s fragrances, shallow though they may be.

This is good. It is very good. Awesome scent, perfect launch time. This is in the family of that sweet, rum rasin cake, fall/christmasy, goodness. Think Varvatos Vintage, Burberry London, Banana Republic Black Walnut and Claiborne's Spark. The only difference is that Gucci comes in and delivers a knockout, enough to make you want to replace any of the aforementioned you might own, save for the Burberry, maybe. It goes to show that the house of Gucci is no joke when it come to their frags...just outstanding! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

I decided to give this another go, having seen quite a bit of its mention on the boards. However, as my tastes changed, my distaste for this scent is still constant. There is an oriental-floral thing going on in there that is actually pretty decent, but for the most part, I did not enjoy the scent. Another example of a chypre-wannabe.

I usually like the earthy green violet note in frangrances, so I was pretty excited to try Gucci by Gucci. Unfortunately, the violet is buried under a cloyingly sweet berry-flavored bubblegum note that doesn't go away for some time. This is gradually replaced by a (more) tolerable sweet tobacco note. But that synthetically sweet bubblegummy note keeps tagging along, refusing to leave you alone.

I can see why Gucci made this (they are and have been a very wood-and-spice dominated house lately), and I think the notes used had the potential to be great...but basically the perfumer failed and created a cloying green mess.

Gucci looks at Chanel and some others and says, "I can do that." But let's not be too obvious or underobvious. Tries to be mature in a theoretical way and oddly succeeds, which makes this one an Aurahouse scent, a slightly smoky neutral after doing the now prerequiste slightly weird. Smokes menthol, switches to regular.

I actually come away from this liking something like Diesel Fuel For Life....at least there's some fun in it all...

Allure's younger, less endearing brother. A fruity in the opening and violet amber accord that leaves me feel wanting. Not entirely terrible. There's a tobacco note towards the end that makes it worth a wait.