Armani discontinued the wrong one, if you ask its fans. Acqua di Gio Profumo, the 2015 version many rated the best in the line, was pulled in 2024. The 2023 Parfum is its official successor. The 1996 original carries on untouched.
All three come from the same perfumer, Alberto Morillas. Here is the split.
Acqua di Gio (1996). The original eau de toilette and the defining aquatic of its era. Citrus and marine freshness, light and clean, built for heat. Thirty years on it still smells like a beach holiday, and that is the point.
Profumo (2015). The original's brightness laid over a dark base. Sea notes and bergamot up top, rosemary, sage and geranium in the heart, incense and patchouli underneath. Fresh above, moody below. Then Armani ended production, and finding a genuine bottle now means resale listings and old stock.
Parfum (2023). The replacement. Marine notes and bergamot open it, rosemary, clary sage and geranium follow, and the base runs on olibanum (frankincense) and patchouli. The brief is clearly Profumo's, executed a touch cleaner and greener. Close relative, not a clone.
The honest advice: do not pay collector money chasing Profumo. The Parfum covers the same evening-incense job and sits on shelves at normal retail. Buy the original for summer days, the Parfum for everything darker, and let the discontinued bottle go.
For the fresh side of this line, our Aqua De Gio is our take on Acqua di Gio by Armani, a UK-made spray at 35% concentration. The Armani-inspired collection has the rest, and the best Acqua di Gio dupes in the UK guide compares them all.
