Our take
What does Stronger With You Intensely smell like?
A richer take on 2017’s Stronger With You, Stronger With You Intensely arrived in 2019 and dialled up the gourmand side. The opening is fizzy and aromatic: pink pepper, juniper berry and violet leaf give a brief freshness. The heart is the most striking part: a buttery caramel toffee lifted by cinnamon, with sage making it more aromatic and less cloying. The soft suede, vanilla and amber base extends that sweetness in a velvety, warm register. It evokes a Christmas market, a spiced drink and a suede coat. Excellent longevity and generous projection in cold weather explain its success with a younger audience.
When to wear it
For autumn and winter evenings or a date; it suits men who like sweet, warm scents.
The story of Stronger With You Intensely
Stronger With You was born in 2017 within the Emporio Armani line, aimed at a younger crowd than the Giorgio Armani fragrances. It launched as a pair with a feminine, Because It’s You, and told the story of a couple. Two years later, in 2019, the brand released Stronger With You Intensely, an eau de parfum that keeps the original’s frame and turns every dial up. The chestnut and meringue of the first give way to a heavier caramel toffee. Cinnamon and sage stay. Suede replaces cedar in the base. The timing was right. In the late 2010s, sweet ambery masculines were winning over men under thirty, helped by Jean Paul Gaultier’s Ultra Male and by online recommendations. Intensely offered exactly what that audience wanted: sugar, warmth and solid longevity. For many fans it soon replaced the original. More versions followed, including Stronger With You Absolutely, woodier and boozier, and an edition built around tobacco.
Our detailed review
The opening is the shortest phase. Fizzy pink pepper, a slightly resinous juniper berry and the green of violet leaf. After fifteen minutes the caramel arrives and never leaves. It is buttery toffee, lightly burnt. Cinnamon gives it a gingerbread edge and sage keeps it from turning into pure dessert. Around hour two the suede and vanilla take over. The texture goes velvety, almost powdery, and feels lovely on a scarf. We give it credit for efficiency, and you understand at once why people like it. Longevity is excellent and compliments come easily. What it lacks is nuance. The sugar is massive and the scent offers little else across eight hours. In a heated room it becomes a cloud of candy. It suits men who love gourmands and want a safe evening scent. Fans of dry woods or anything fresh will find it cloying by the second spray.
Stronger With You Intensely vs its rivals
The 2017 original shares pink pepper and violet leaf, plus sage, cinnamon and vanilla. Its roasted chestnut and meringue make it airier, with a drier cedar base. For the office or a first try, the original. For nights and cold weather, Intensely. Jean Paul Gaultier Ultra Male shares cinnamon, sage, vanilla and amber. Its candied pear, black lavender and cumin make it fruitier and more carnal. It is louder still, and more divisive. Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille plays in another league. It shares vanilla and suede, but honeyed tobacco, cacao and dried fruit make it richer and far denser. If you like Intensely but find it too young, that is the direction to take.
Longevity, projection and use
Go easy with this one: it is a powerful eau de parfum. On most skin it lasts eight to ten hours, and the vanilla-suede base stays on a sweater until the next day. Projection is strong for the first two hours. Two sprays are enough indoors, three for a night out: nape, neck, maybe the chest under your shirt. More than that and the caramel saturates the air. Wear it from autumn to late winter, in the evening, on dates or nights out. It is at its best in the cold. In summer or at the office it weighs too much.
It belongs to the Oriental / Amber, Spicy family. Stronger With You Intensely is one of 9 creations by Giorgio Armani in our encyclopedia.
