This Idole perfume was launched in 2009, as a Tribute to what Armani considered the idea of femininity, with an aroma that could reflect the concepts of grace, beauty and independence of spirit. The image of the perfume suggests a night use, and the use of resins and woods in the ingredients confirm this impression.
The opening is slightly fruity, with soft, but concentrated pulp of ripe fruit, but it soon becomes resinous with heavy traces of incense, very similar to the one in Cartier perfume for women. The resin becomes the dominant note in this phase, but in the middle notes it’s accompanied by bitter orange, together with occasional apparitions of jasmine and an obscure non-fresh and non-delicate rose. After a couple of hours, the resin and wood notes are again dominant, with several types of resins, between toasted and dry. This phase lasts several hours and in the final, base notes, the resins still stand out, but the dry group dominates over the toasted. There is also a different, vaguely spicy note in line with the resins, between vetiver and saffron, which gives a more aggressive style, almost to the point of creating dizziness.
Compared to other classics by Armani like Acqua di Gio perfume, this is a very different fragrance altogether. For the intensity of the resins, the first impression is that this Idole d’Armani is a winter, evening perfume, with an elegant and semi-informal style, but still young. This idea of mature youth works like a charm in an office environment, where it projects a good and professional image, which the woods can sometimes associate to authority. On the romantic side, although it’s not a strictly seductive fragrance, its dark side can be of great support during a romantic dinner. The age range starts from 25 and can go up to 60 years, requiring a more sophisticated personality on the low end of the range.
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