Gucci Guilty Parfum Pour Homme
Gucci (2022)

As previously mentioned this takes away the less popular parts of the original / edt or as my daughter calls it “weird guy smell” and classes it up.

A gorgeous and glorious opening that really is one of the best on the market right now. Smells like a dark mysterious forest with the light of the moon piercing through at dusk. Unfortunately this doesn’t last long. The mid and basenotes are also classy and refined but just like the mysterious opening disappear rather quickly. I get only about 4 hours on my Scandinavian dry skin.

It leaves a mysterious warm aura around you while it lasts and is truly great but the performance is on Calvin Klein level. If it were the same price as Calvin Klein I could overlook it but for $200 at full retail for 3.0 oz it’s really not worth the price.

Is a great fall and winter scent that can be worn anytime, if you can find a deal go for it, you’ll only be disappointed by the longevity.

I'm not really up to speed on the Gucci Guilty line. I tried this parfum version and liked it right away. And then I got a compliment. It has the kind of restraint I like, nothing obnoxious. That might mean the longevity isn't the best. To me, this is in the ballpark of Bleu de Chanel, and an alternative that I might like more.

I would typically consider a fragrance like this too youthful, but the sweetness present in this parfum flanker is well balanced against the base.

The opening reminds me of Bleu de Chanel EDT as it has a fruity and floral character. I was initially concerned that this wasn’t going anywhere as it seemed quite thin.

After an hour, the warmth from the labdanum and patchouli improves things quite a bit as the fragrance becomes “thicker”.

Overall, I like it and would consider it an option to wear anytime of year. I have never sampled the EDT or EDP, so can’t say it how it compares to those.

As a parfum, projection and longevity are average at around 6 hours.

3 / 5 stars

Gucci Guilty Parfum by Gucci (2022) is the last hurrah on the men's side of the fragrance line from departed creative director Alessandro Michele and does a bit of a full-circle on the original Gucci Guilty pour Homme (2011), bringing back the lavender and orange blossom that defined that scent minus the ethyl maltol bubblegum and grapefruit, that through imitation by everyone else over the course of the next ten years, defined a generation of men's designers. Yes, it's true if you do your homework; Gucci Guilty is the origin of the species for everything from Maison Francis Kurkdjian Amyris Homme (2012), to Paco Rabanne Invictus (2013), Y Eau de Parfum by Yves Saint Laurent (2018); and every other Jimmy Choo, Caronlina Herrera, and Valentino copycat to follow can all say thanks to the popularity of the original entry in this line. Gucci Guilty pour Homme Eau de Parfum (2020) was a pretty big deviation from the DNA, but so had been basically every flanker since the Gucci Guilty Absolute pour Homme (2017) entry, right on down to Gucci Guilty Cologne (2019), Gucci Guilty Oud (2019), Gucci Guilty Love Edition pour Homme (2020), and Gucci Guilty Love Edition pour Homme MMXXI (2021). In essence, it was time to return, after much failed experimentation, to the DNA that started it all, and somehow improve upon it. I feel that's really what Gucci Guilty pour Homme Parfum does here, is take something that has become ubiquitous to the point of boredom, and makes it better. Better enough for purchase may depend entirely upon how you feel about modern Gucci fragrances overall.

So by making it better, what I mean is whatever perfumer was involved here did the things most folks had wanted with the line, namely by excising the ethyl maltol. With that component gone, the lavender and orange blossom mix (always the most unique part of the Gucci Guilty pour Homme DNA) is allowed to show its full floral complexity, almost coming across rose-like. The addition of jasmine to this mix, coupled with a thickening labdanum and a sharpening juniper, really make Gucci Guilty pour Homme Parfum something memorable. The labdabum base combined with patchouli and the usual sythethic woody compounds almost veer this into chypre territory, if not for the sheer white musks and other acetate-like things letting you know this is for the abstract modern designer space, and not niche. Still, the floral opening mixed with a dusty nutmeg and those thickening materials does wonders when freed from the bubblegum and ambroxan shackles of the OG Gucci Guilty, but it won't be enough for the hate train that has cultivated for the better part of a decade against this fragrance since the old Scannon and Ford-era lines were all axed in the transition to Coty. Yeah, Frida Giannini made quite the mainstream mess of Gucci from a perfume perspective, and Alessandro Michele tried his best to undo that mess with a series of failed deviations; but at least here in the Parfum, we have something that could have been back in 2011, which might have saved the brand's reputation somewhat with snobs and tastemakers, or maybe not. Best use is probably winter or indoors during more romantic situations, if anything seems more appropriate for this particular entry.

Performance isn't super great if projection is your concern, although being a parfum, it almost goes without saying that this isn't meant to be "beastmode" for the bros that only work within the confines of the modern dating scene because raping and pillaging like vikings when overdosing on testosterone isn't legal. in modern society. If you can ignore the thick-necked neanderthals and their Jane Austin levels of anthropological thinking, you'll find something more refined and sophisticated here made of a DNA that most had left for dead after the 19th nervous breakdown occurred from smelling the seventh son of a seventh son clone of the 2011 originator. So my thoughts are thus: If you wanted a more-sophisticated and mature take on the original Gucci Guilty pour Homme DNA freed of the stigmatizing things that haunt it, this may be for you. However, you'll have a whopping upcharge if you don't find a sweet deal from discounters or on eBay with the countless listings of folks who bought or were given bottles and ended up hating it. As an aside, this seems to happen a lot with the Gucci Guilty range in general, and ends up a reliable source for steeply-discounted "sprayed once" bottles for those interested in the line. I still think the real big stylistic deviations where Alessandro Michele had more hands-on control are the best of the range, but as unmitigated commercial disasters that are all discontinued (except for the Eau de Parfum), I'm probably in the minority there. Still, as the OG perfected, this deserves merit even if the price makes it a tough pill to swallow since this is still just a part of the standard line, or so the brand has us believe. Thumbs up

Best of the Gucci Guilty Pour Homme line. I'm not a big fan of the EdT or even the EdP, which is marginally better. However, this Parfum is better and different enough that I would say it's worth a try, even if you have not liked the past versions and also if you did but already own them.

The Parfum version has an excellent mix of sweet and clean coming from the pleasing juniper and nutmeg that matches very well with the laundry musks in the base.

The EdT might actually be the loudest of the bunch. Projection is just average on me for this Parfum. Also, I found it does not last as long as the EdP. Maybe goes 5-6 hours.

Not very innovative, but it follows the Gucci Guilty DNA. However, considering the price point, I would opt for the EDP, Intense, or original version instead. In terms of scent, I would give it a 3.7, but factoring in the price, it drops to 3.0. It's worth smelling if you haven't tried the other Gucci Guilty fragrances, but if you already own them, you can probably skip this one.