I’ll say up front that “intense” is a marketing word before it’s a perfumery one. Sometimes it means they turned up the concentration. Sometimes it means a different formula wearing the original’s name. This one is the second kind.
It opens sharp. Lemon and bergamot, grapefruit doing the bitter work, pepper and ginger sitting underneath so it doesn’t go soapy. Loud for about twenty minutes. Then it calms down and you get the part they actually built the thing around: jasmine and rose, but heavy, with patchouli dragging it all downward. Warm instead of fresh. That’s the real difference from the original.
The dry-down is sandalwood, cedar, amber, which is to say the same creamy woody-amber landing a hundred other bottles use. I don’t hold it against it. It’s comfortable and it stays. Two sprays gets me through a workday, and the shirt still smells like it the next morning.
Two sprays is also the limit in an office. Three fills a room, which I found out the hard way. Worth knowing if you’re the type who keeps spraying because you’ve gone nose-blind to your own perfume after an hour. Everyone else hasn’t.
Cold weather suits it. In real heat it goes syrupy and a bit much. It’s better after dark, though I suspect that’s habit more than chemistry.
If you liked the original and only wanted it to last, this fixes that. If the original did nothing for you, this is the same idea with the volume up, so probably not.
Tech Reviewer & Product Analyst
Định Bia has spent over 10 years testing consumer electronics with a focus on smart technology. He work as a product advisor at Biareview where he helped customers find the right devices for their needs. He personally tests every product featured on this site using a consistent evaluation framework covering quality, durability, and value. All reviews are based on experience, not influenced by the manufacturer.