I’m back! Apologies for the short hiatus. Job-hunting and travels took over my life  during the past few weeks. While I tidy up a new blog entry I’m working on for tomorrow, here’s one I had meant to put up two weeks ago. Yikes!

In anticipation of our (me + boyfriend) upcoming official anniversary,  exact date to be determined as soon as one of us stops being too lazy to actually figure it out, I’m doing a little spotlight on a product that has a soft spot in my heart: Acqua Di Gio. My boyfriend smells delicious in this, and just making a ballpark estimate, it is probably about 40% of the reason why I fell in love with him.

By virtue of its iconic status, Acqua di Gio has become a controversial Fragrance. Launched in 1996 and topping the men’s fragrance charts in the US ever since then, it’s without a doubt one of the most ubiquitous scents out there.

I don’t think the criticisms are without some merit. I mean, it is a very real danger for guys who spritz on this stuff, that when they are with the lady they are trying to impress, she’ll get a whiff of the scent and think fondly of her father/brother/cousin/hot next-door neighbour (which is, presumably, not the desired effect). This is a particularly valid concern when it comes to fragrances since fragrance stimulates the olfactory sense, the sense most closely related to your brain’s memory function.

Critics might also suggest that the only reason this scent is still up there in the charts despite this risk is because it relies on its name, reputation, and the fact that male humans are notorious (well, historically, not all-inclusively) for not putting too much thought into their personal care and grooming products.

Instead, I dare posit that the fragrance remains up there because it’s damn good. Yes, there are other aquatic-woodsy scents out there, but this one really is special. It’s classic…because it is good. There’s an article on askmen.com from a while back that dismisses the scent as overpriced and overused…but there are plenty of comments in response to the article that are clearly written from a place of emotional loyalty to the scent.

My conclusion? If you want to be unique, then fine, this might not be the scent for you (unless you’re in Asia, a less mature fragrance market where you might still get away with it…oh, and btw, fragrances DO smell slightly different on every individual because scents react differently to every person’s unique body chemistry). But if your goal is just to smell good, well, this’ll do the trick.