Armani Code Black Code Giorgio Armani 2004 Eau de Toilette

Armani Code / Black Code (Eau de Toilette) by Giorgio Armani

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Armani Code / Black Code (Eau de Toilette) (Giorgio Armani)

7.6 / 10858 Ratings

Armani Code is a popular perfume by Giorgio Armani for men and was released in 2004. The scent is spicy-sweet. It is being marketed by L'Oréal.

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Perfumers

Antoine Maisondieu, Antoine Lie

Fragrance Notes

Top Notes	Bergamot Lemon
Heart Notes	Olive blossom Star anise
Base Notes	Gaiac wood Leather Tobacco Tonka bean

Ratings

Scent

7.6858 Ratings

Longevity

6.7642 Ratings

Sillage

6.4631 Ratings

Bottle

7.2657 Ratings

Value for money

7.098 Ratings

Submitted by DonVanVliet, last update on 13.10.2021.

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Reviews

10/03/2021

8
Scent 7
Longevity 6
Sillage 8
Bottle

PedroCabral
53 Reviews

PedroCabral

Slightly sweetened rubber leather

Armani Code itself is one of the fragrances that I've always been curious to test, both for the notes themselves and for the many positive comments made about it. It is, without a shadow of a doubt, a great perfume, but... I still expected more. I explain.

It is clearly a very high quality male perfume. Note that it is slim and elegant (we are talking about an Armani right?). The brand itself needs no comment!

Armani Code opens with a light citrus breeze, very light indeed and very fast, as anise with the wood note soon enters the scene (a great combination)! Then come the notes of tobacco and leather (note that predominated in my skin), followed by a light sweetness of tonka bean.

The reason why I expected more from this fragrance is in the sense that it was something sweeter, that it had a more intense tonka bean note. As the leather note predominated in me, I felt this scent a little more "closed" than I would have liked.

With this more intense leather note, I felt a slight rubbery touch, which immediately brought me back to Bvlgari Black. I'm not saying they're the same, it's just that on my skin, both highlighted this rubbery aroma, which I like a lot, just that I prefer Bvlgari because it has the vanilla note that made it sweeter than Armani.

Well, apart from this point that I expected a sweeter perfume, Armani Code is a very good fragrance indeed! Although it's not a blockbuster perfume, in the sense of not having an intense projection, it sticks well to the skin, which is a very positive point.

Elegant, refined and for men with class, Armani Code is an ideal perfume for those who want to feel smelly but don't want to attract too much attention. An excellent choice of perfume to wear at work!

Congratulations to Armani brand for this beautiful creation.

04/07/2021

9
Scent 9
Longevity 8
Sillage 8
Bottle

MatteoH

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MatteoH

Less helpful Review 3

Very good fragrance

The fragrance pleases me personally very well. He keeps with me the COMPLETE day over. I have him even at 9h + still smelled good. The smell is very pleasant and also applicable in the spring to partly in the summer. However, tends basically more to the Winrerduft. Code is a mixture of fresh and sweet in total with the bottle a good price-performance fragrance

3 Replies

03/07/2021

5
Scent 6
Longevity 6
Sillage 7
Bottle

Henskis
7 Reviews

Henskis

Explanation

This one is a little bit different to give rating for. I remember when first time bought it like 5 years ago and it was amazing. I got plenty of compliments, everyone asking what perfumes I'm wearing, it was one of the best at this time. And the saddest part that I bought it like 6 months ago and it really disappointed me. I don't know why but it had lack of everything, the scent was something cheap, it was too spicy and I had to respray it on myself constantly. Then I decided to read what happened and I found out it was reformulated... How sad is that, you have amazing perfume but you decided to change it and fail miserably. I wouldn't recommend to buy it now, unless, old formula will come back. It's a miss for me.

12/06/2020

9
Scent 8
Longevity 7
Sillage 9
Bottle

CalisThenx

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CalisThenx

Very helpful Review 7

Classics never die out

This little masterpiece is already a few years old, but that doesn't do him any harm, as he still knows how to convince despite his age. And when I talk about age, I see this scent on a very mature and grown man and not on a milky boy. Not necessarily in a suit, but in someone who has both feet on the ground and who is neither aloof nor arrogant, but very down to earth and rather reserved, like a true gentleman. Yes, he definitely has his freshness, but what makes him so mature for me is the tobacco, the guaiac wood and the leather, these are also the two notes I smell the most. But as in many other fragrances, the leather here doesn't associate me so much with raspberry, but is very subtle in the background. The tobacco is not scratchy and the guaiac wood seems to be a fine sanded wood, without any edges and corners as I said above
I now have many fragrances and he has recently joined me and I am happy to have him in my collection, he is really so smooth and has a very calming effect on me
The bottle is really noble with the black and also the durability is completely fine on my skin, I am at 8 to even 10h, is always different
Clear recommendation to buy.

4 Replies

10/22/2020

6
Scent 1
Longevity 3
Sillage 5
Bottle

Demetera
19 Reviews

Demetera

Less performance than a sloth in the olympics

Somewhere got a sample from this (2020 reformulated one).
My first reaxtion was a big wow. Its fresh at the opening, masculine and woody with some sweeetness at the end, but in a very interesting way. I can imagine someone using it in a suit or with a leather jacket, or even in a farmer+pullover, so its a sweet/woody fragrance with amazing versatility. Its probably okay for spring too. wow, its not too common, lets get a flanker!

The flanker just arrived, Wowowowow! okay, its not a really strong one in performance (I like skin scents like la nuit), but lets spray 7 times, it could be enough!
After 1-2 hours i just realised there is nothing left from the Code. Respray time! Another 1-2 hours, and the code gone again.

So to be clear: I like the weak sillage scents, I prefer the ones where others just smell the fragrance when they are talk to me directly.
Nonetheless this one is not weak in projectivity, its just a really really weak one in longetivity and overall performance. Probably if I have a bath in it, its gone in 1-2 hours late too.
I’m a bit disappointed.

09/01/2020

8
Scent 6
Longevity 7
Sillage 9
Bottle

Farmi

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Farmi

Helpful Review 10

How the failed reformulation dismantled a mainstream classic...

Guys, this is hard. Hard for my heart to take a trip down memory lane. Oh, no! :-(

But first the prehistory:
Who of you doesn't know this - even after many years of "perfume career" with strong evolution, you still often look back wistfully on your younger years, in which typical designer fragrances were often executed to your complete satisfaction. Nearly everyone had "the one", which he probably wouldn't even look at crossly today. With me it was the very first code - now it's out.

Code, then marketed as Black Code, was without question in. While most of the young clubbers with Le Male (and a little later One Million - uargh) polluted the local clubs with a sweet scent, the Armani buyers were - how ironic - with their choice of scents rather the (young) gentlemen who wanted to shine with a little more understatement. Less shouting, more whispering - had they ever managed to stand up to the above mentioned attention guns, the compliments were sure to come. In my 18-20s I have NOT received more compliments with NO fragrance than for Armani Code. I'm surprised, because especially the younger girls are more known for being attracted to colleagues like Le Male, Eros, 1 Million and Co. I enjoyed it - and Code became my long-runner without greater ambitions.

With time, other fragrances come, you develop further, you "rise". After years of break I unpacked the old code bottle again and enjoyed the memories that are awakened again with it.

Before the drydown I'm not quite clear about this yet - the (old) code is still too confused here and leaves (at least me) still confused about what it wants to become. I don't think the bergamot is as pronounced as some people say - but that also applies ONLY to the old code. When it is an hour old, it becomes the fragrance I loved so much. This slightly sweet-tart restraint, this delicate olive blossom, this depth without being pompous.

I always explain it like this:
He is simply not the ripper who honks his horn as he drives past in the Lambo - but the gentleman who prefers to park the Aston Martin around the corner and wants to shine with charm. I think you can still wear the code at the age of 50 - even if there would undoubtedly be a lot of handcrafted and historically superior fragrances here...

Enough raving, now comes the sad part of the story:
From time to time the code was dug out - but then it was empty! The last 125ml bottle stayed empty on the shelf for a long time - until I decided to get it again after some more years...

The anticipation was high, as it was again years of pause. But a hoped-for indulgence in youthful memories turned into an open mouth - what is THAT. A fake? Thinned? Hello? What have they done with MY CODE!?

I don't know what they did - and when the obvious reformulation came, I can't say exactly. But the result is a disgrace! The old code was still a creamy, gloomy, full and exciting "slop" (positively meant) - the new one is a WC-Stein Cologne with a shot of old code. Way too flat, too light, too windy. The durability (already not ideal back then) is also a bad joke. How can you just take away the complete character of a fragrance with a reformulation?

The old code was a fluffy blanket that you felt comfortable with. The new code is a sheet sprayed with toilet duck that someone forgot to put on. I'm sad, Armani!

Yesterday I bought myself an ancient bottle, just to make sure that my memory wasn't playing tricks on me - my head wasn't fooled. There it is again. My code. And I will cherish the 20ml sip left over when my head wants to go on a time travel back to youth.

1 Replies

05/31/2020

9
Scent 7
Longevity 7
Sillage 7
Bottle

Jota
20 Reviews

Jota

Excelent modern classic!

I think this is a timeless fragrance on the designer side. Clean, sweet, subtle and sexy. It has born in 2004 but remains very modern. One of the best choices if you are begining a colection. You will not regret this one. Plus it´s a compliment getter.

03/19/2020

7.5
Scent 7
Longevity 6
Sillage 9
Bottle

Condorpilot1

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Condorpilot1

Classics of elegance

Feel almost every man has or had Armani Code at hand or in his collection. He rightly has an image of an elegant men's fragrance with style. Somehow everyone seems to like it. To what extent Armani Code has been reformulated and the durability might have deteriorated, I do not know.

For me Armani Code was for a long time a synthetic cocktail that I always liked. Undefinable in its nuances but still round and pleasant. Although it has been one of the classics of designer fragrances for years, it still stands out from the crowd and does its own thing. This also makes him look timeless, it is m.M.n. a perfume that you can almost always wear. A fresh, already synthetic prelude, which then comes along with a hint of olive. Green olive, not black. So at least at first. But then the olive is gone relatively quickly and the scent changes into something darker. Wood, suede, light sweetness. And then the olive returns after about 30 minutes - black olive. And this change of the olive fits the scent enormously well. There is something medical in the background, which I cannot classify, but it doesn't bother me.

Well, a round, very well-made fragrance. If only it had more radiance, that would be great. You can definitely go out to dinner with it, and on a date tonight. Wearing a suit, I guess. Office? On cold days. It's a casual scent, but if you're not too casual. Armani Code has a little bit of everything.

12/28/2019

8
Scent 6
Longevity 4
Sillage 10
Bottle 7
Pricing

SvenScent

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SvenScent

(K)a code for eternity!?!?

Armani Code was something like my signature scent for a long time. I found it different, not mainstream at all, and I still feel that way today. Especially its heart note of olive and star anise, which has the citric opening immediately under control, makes it quite unique, the guaiac wood gives it some mystical depth. The tonka bean, on the other hand, I have always perceived only very subtly; and whenever I read somewhere that this scent is too sweet, I think either I have had the wrong juice in the bottles for years, or the writer has never smelled code (or, another possibility, confused with 1 million ;-)

By the way, code always reminds me of Sauvage (or better the other way around). It must be the liquoriceiness of star anise that awakens this, my association, although the EdT, which I personally own from Sauvage, unlike the EdP, does not seem to contain any star anise. I have often asked myself where this liquorice accord in Sauvage actually comes from. But that may be a different story in the near future.

Armani Code is, I think, a perfume that is still easy to wear, but I have to say that I rarely wear it anymore. Maybe it's not quite as modern anymore, but I probably just broke my back. Because when I do reach for it from time to time, I am always surprised how elegant and noble it is at bottom.

But there is also an annoying flaw in the code: its poor sillage (and durability). While the durability is not sooo bad at all, it can at least be perceived relatively long at close range, so I have always wished that it would appear much less reserved in terms of silage! I know there are numerous flankers, with better performance, but none of them smell like the "Black". Actually, what I would like is a code that smells exactly like the original code, but with 10.0 points in performance! But after all, a man should have wishes...

08/20/2019

8
Scent 7
Longevity 7
Sillage 7
Bottle

Carlitos01
319 Reviews

Carlitos01

Helpful Review 3

A market reference revisited

[short review]
The original Code made itself a place as the "other" Armani besides Acqua di Gio. It's a classy classic deserving a lot more market attention than it has received in recent years. It deserves a better place than just that secondary brand reference. Actually - in my opinion - is a much better perfume than its more famous aquatic brother.
Code is a mature spicy and sweet fragrance, with an under average performance for the notes, a nice visual presentation and an undeniable ability to pleasure ladies.
It opens with citrus as it is Armani's tradition, to later develop a bit of florals with anise facets. It dries down sweet and woody and it's in this phase that we recognise the real fragrance DNA.
The house of Armani launched a lot of Code flankers and this perfume is a bit "lost" in the shelves with so many same brand competitive offers. I would say that it is even a bit underrated. As this scent is around for quite some years, prices became competitive for an Armani fragrance and it's an excellent alternative for an elegant and formal event or dining out choice. It's not even a bit outdated and I kind of prefer it to other woody sweet formal scents in the same pricing region from similar designers.
It's one of my wife's favourites.
I give this scent a global rate of 8.0/10.00.

Music: Tanita Tikaram - "Good Tradition"

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