The renowned Acqua di Gio gets another flanker.
The latest in a long line of brand extensions, Profondo looks on paper to be somewhat late to the party.
It’s a fresh aquatic mineral based scent, a style that’s been played out to the max in the fragrance world by now.
Every designer house has a release in this vein, with many some years into their life; Dior with Sauvage, Chanel’s Bleu, Versace’s Dylan Blue, and the list goes on ad infinitum.
However, the people at Armani must have seen enough market potential to steer the latest flanker release in this direction, and we have ADG Profondo as a result.
Alberto Morillas is the nose behind it.
This is a scent that saw release in other parts of the world some months ago, but we’ve only seen retail releases of it here in Australia very recently.
Initial Thoughts
When I first smelled this on my skin, I was underwhelmed.
And I didn’t go in with high expectations.
The bottle looks much better in the marketing material than it does in person.
In person, it looks drab, sterile and boring, which is a great indicator of what lies inside.
A laboratory’s rudimentary version of the sea.
Harsh, synthetic mineral salt.
Kramer’s idea of the scent that smells like the beach, played upon once more.
The Olfactory Notes
I found Profondo to be linear.
The top notes are cited as marine accord, ozonic accord, bergamot and green mandarin.
While the marine and ozonic accords were notable immediately, I detected no presence of fruits.
Heart notes are cited as rosemary, cypress, lavender and mastic resin, none of which I can detect past the flamboyant loudness of the oceanic accords or the mineral accord in the base.
The base notes are cited as amber, mineral accord, patchouli and musk. The mineral accord is so harsh that the presence of any others is removed from my perception.
In essence, the entirety of the scent to my nose is the marine and ozonic accords of the top, which don’t disappear in the drydown, and an incredibly harsh mineral accord from the base.
Ratings
Longevity: .6/1
The longevity of the scent is above average, with around six hours of performance.
It owes much of this to the mineral accord in the base.
Projection: 1/1
While it seems a tad tame in the opening, Profondo opens up into a projection monster after the first ten to fifteen minutes.
I was surprised by this, as it comes out of nowhere.
If you rate your scents based mostly on projection power, rather than the smell itself, you’ll like this one.
And I do wonder if this is part of the reason why Profondo is so over-hyped.
Blend Quality: .2/1
Given how harsh and unbalanced I perceived the blend to be, it scores very low here.
Presentation: .5/1
I like Acqua di Gio’s bottle shape and font, but I don’t like what they’ve done with it here.
They somehow made it more outdated.
Personal Smell Score: .2/1
As I said earlier on, I went in with low expectations, but I still left disappointed.
There are so many better takes on this style of fragrance.
Total score: 2.5/5 C-
What Would I Wear This With?
I must preface with saying that I personally wouldn’t wear the scent with anything.
However, for those who do wish to wear it, the natural choice would be something summery.
Something a la Magnum PI – sun, sea and surf.
I don’t personally think of it as a suit fragrance, but you could easily do so if you fancy it.
Concluding Thoughts
Armani missed the boat with Acqua di Gio Profondo.
The fresh aquatic genre has been played out to death over the last few decades, and it’d require something much more unique to stimulate some real interest in the genre once more.
Instead, the company offered to release another forgettable flanker.
Flogging a dead horse.
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