18 out of 18 people found this review helpful.
Read this review and you'll be sold!
Date of Review: Jan 19, 2009
The Bottom Line: If you are a guy and you want attention ... this is the cologne for you. If you are scared of people talking to you, avoid this stuff.
I will say that a couple years ago, I used to work at Abercrombie and Fitch and would gag whenever I smelled Fierce cologne. They used to spray the entire store down every few hours ... all the mannequins and the employees. There were even rumors that they put it in the air system so it would circulate around the store constantly. My clothes would smell of Fierce so strongly, it could not be washed out.
While I wasn't the biggest fan (I thought it smelled like Gin and Tonic), I noticed that whenever I was on a date ... or just out and about in general ... it was literally like those Axe body spray commercials. Women would take two steps towards me and I'd notice their nostrils moving ... sniffing away. I would be stopped while I was out and asked about 10 times a day what cologne I was wearing.
When I was in Quebec ... where Abercrombie was not yet sold ... I felt like a celebrity. People would literally stop in their tracks when I walked by. One group of ladies asked if I minded if they rubbed their arms against me so they could ask their boyfriends if they liked the scent. Another group of women asked to follow me back to the hotel and told me they would follow me back to my hotel and buy the bottle of cologne off me. (I still do not think they were joking).
The same thing happened in Italy. While in Canada, the people seem to like a cleaner, crisp smelling fresh cologne ... in Italy, a stronger, more musky and masculine cologne is favored. However, it didn't stop the men from asking what scent I was wearing and repeating it several times so they didn't forget it.
Even here in the United States, I often get stopped by older people and asked what cologne I am wearing ... or occasionally, a younger girl will grab me, sniff me and say 'Abercrombie!'.
None of this was an exaggeration ... all these things happened. However, I will say ... now that I no longer work in an Abercrombie store and am not constantly sprayed with the cologne, I can appreciate its appeal.
It is a very clean and fresh scent. While I still think it has a gin and tonic type of smell (the website does mention pine ... which is also in gin sometimes.) ... it is fresh and clean and citrusy at the same time. It might be a younger person's cologne because it is so bold. I don't know if an older man would be able to pull it off ... because it is a very youthful smell. I wouldn't say masculine at all ... but it does stand out and will not wear off quickly.
Even on the clothing that was not constantly sprayed by Fierce, it is one of the few colognes that I can smell on my clothes sometimes a week after I spray it on. Before I go out, I usually put two squirts on my neck and two squirts on my shirt and it will last all night. Because of how clean the scent is, it is not overwhelming. Whereas if you put 4 squirts of a normal cologne on ... people would say 'who brought the cologne factory?' or might be a little put off by the scent. However, you could probably dump the whole bottle of Fierce on you, and it wouldn't be completely overpowering. It will last though ... so go liberally because it is expensive.
They just started selling larger 3.4 ounce bottles, which I like because it goes fast. The way Abercrombie's cologne price is ... the bigger the bottle you buy ... the better the savings are. For example, the small 1 ounce bottle is $40. Fairly expensive as far as colognes go. But if you buy a 1.7 ounce bottle for $50, you get almost double the cologne for $10 more. If you buy the bigger 3.4 ounce bottle for $70, you get double the cologne in the 1.7 ounce bottle for only $20 more. The bigger bottle is the better bargain ... smaller bottles will go fast. Based on the pricing system, if you bought a 1 ounce bottle for $40 ... and you refilled it once, you'd pay $10 more for 2 ounces than you would if you had bought the 3.4 ounce bottle for $70.
The bottle is nice because it is very standard ... just a square bottle that fits nicely on a shelf ... or in an overnight bag. The naked male body photo on the cologne, I could do without because it does look a little weird sitting on a guy's shelf in the bathroom. I have owned dozens of bottles of Fierce cologne, and only once has there been a defective bottle which the squirt pump at the top didn't work. Abercrombie exchanged it for a new bottle (full) even though there was only 1/4 of the cologne left because it was a problem with the packaging.
If you want to try this before you buy it, just go into an Abercrombie store. There are plenty of testers all over the store, which you can spray to your content. In fact, the store will probably smell like the cologne if that is the one they still spritz all over the store. I have tried all the other Abercrombie colognes and have yet to find one that matches Fierce in the number of compliments I get on it.
You will see what I mean when you wear it out the first time. People will notice. Be prepared to be touched and complimented a lot on this. I know it sounds like BS ... but I assure you, there is just something about this scent that women love. The other Abercrombie colognes are nice ... probably not worth the $50 - $70 per bottle price. Fierce on the other hand, I would literally pay $100 for.
Be careful when buying Fierce. As with any cologne, there are a lot of counterfiets out there. I have talked with people who have bought Abercrombie Colognes on EBay that were cut with water ... Abercrombie's colognes are very strong and long lasting, so they can be watered down to make it more profitable for EBay sellers. Or they could be downright fakes, which many of the Abercrombie Woods colognes are, which was discontinued years ago but still pops up for auction frequently. I only buy it from the Abercrombie website because I know it is real there.
