First Instinct Extreme

Abercrombie & Fitch First Instinct Extreme Men EDP opens with a moderate projection of sweet, fruity, leathery, musky, ozonic, spicy, and woody notes. The opening is piquant, fresh, delectable, playful, and very pleasant. The carambola and mandarin leaf create a tropical fruity and delicious touch, the pepper and cardamon are also noticeable during the opening, they give the fragrance a spicy and piquant character, the pepper is more noticeable than the cardamom. At this point, the fragrance comes across as fruity tropical, and spicy. As the fragrance commences to dry down, the initially shy suede takes a more prominent presence, developing a projecting, soft powdery, leather-like accord. The suede is closely followed by the musk and Cashmirwood, both introduce an intense woody and musky touch. The musk is slightly powdery, fresh, and pleasant. The violet leaf also develops itself creating an ozonic, fresh, airy accord. The saffron contributes to multiple facets, bittersweet, soft leathery, earthy, and mostly spice. Supporting the fragrance are the amber and coconut milk, this last one is faint. The fragrance has a few and noticeable opening to dry down changes, the opening is sweet, citrusy, fruity, and peppery, fresh, and delectable. As time passes, the suede, violet leaf, musk, and Cashmirwood develop taking the position of featured notes, meanwhile, the citruses take a step down; the amber and coconut milk remain as support accords with a mild, resinous, and sweet touch. Once Abercrombie & Fitch First Instinct Extreme Men EDP has reached its full dry down, it can be summarized as a moderate projection, sweet, fruity carambola, ozonic violet leaf, spicy, piquant pepper, saffron, musky, and woody fragrance with ambery accords. The fragrance feels airy, casual, comforting, delectable, dry, earthy, energizing, fresh, fruity, inviting, leathery (suede), masculine, mild, moderate-quality, modern, musky, ozonic, piquant, sparkly, spicy, sweet, tropical, wild, woody, young, and very pleasant.

Such an underrated scent and it totally gives me a mid-2000’s mall vibe just like Fierce does. I’m guessing it has to do with the type of musk that A&F uses in so many of their fragrances. You can still find the full size 100 ml bottles at random Ross stores, but it is becoming increasingly rare. For $20 this is a bargain and an absolute hidden gem. This a true “extreme” iteration of the original, everything is amped up here. The opening is gorgeous with that starfruit and the pepper adds a masculine touch. This does not smell old to me at all, if anything this smells like a solid starter scent for a high school kid just getting into fragrances, it definitely has a sexy youthful vibe, and anyone in my opinion can wear this. I can see how all the pepper used could give off a body odor smell but thankfully it doesn’t on my skin. Just spicy, fruity and musky. Performance is kinda mid, it doesn’t necessarily project much but it leaves a really nice sillage for maybe 3-4 hours, it’ll get you noticed and can see this pulling compliments. Perfect for a cool evening out. I gotta say the bottle is a work of art and looks fantastic on the shelf with the other First Instincts. Overall a solid cheapie which has a nostalgic yet sexy vibe. Totally worth a blind buy If you can still find this.

I picked up a 100ml bottle for $20 at Ross. This is such a good frag for the price. Its an EDP too. This is a very spicy frag in the opening. The black pepper and Sichuan pepper are at the forefront along with the sweetness of star fruit and the greenish florals are in the background. This last for about 60-90 mins. The spices will make this frag very present to those around you. Its a very masculine opening. Then the spices dissipate gradually when it dries down. This is not too say that the other notes are not present. They are just there in a subtle way. In the dry down you are then left with all the base notes. The dry down is so smooth and creamy and somewhat tropical due to the coconut milk. If you are expecting a strong sweet coconut scent look somewhere else. Nonetheless the coconut milk blends so subtley well with the ever present musk (not too projecting but still present) and the amber, cashmirwood, and suede. Someone in the comments said that this frag works best in the summer evening heat and I couldn't agree more. Such a great frag for an outdoor summer date, outing. There is a sensual scent from the dry down to this when it heats up and radiates off the skin.

Being a college student, this is an easy to reach casual fragrance. I found a few bottles at TJ Maxx a few months back, and I pulled the trigger on a 100 ml for $30. Haven’t smelled the original first instinct, but I can say this is quite nice. Nothing mind blowing nor ground breaking, but this is very pleasant. It’s been a casual grab when I don’t know what to wear or when I’m in the mood for a freshy with some balls to last in cooler weather. Great for the younger crowd (anyone can where whatever they choose, though). I get a solid 45 minutes to about an hour of strong projection, with a moderate silage following the initial blast for the next several hours. Longevity on my skin is amazing for a cheapie: 7-9 hours consistently, even in New England winter weather. The opening is ozonic, musky, fresh, and a little fruity, and it’s quite linear (smells similar, if not the same in the dry down); if anything, it gets more musky, but that’s about it. It’s a clean musk, more of a fresh out the shower type of smell. I was glad to see a bottle pop up at a rack store after it was rumored to be discontinued. If any of this sounds interesting, go and blind buy it at a rack store.

As others have said, it's a great dumb-reach, all-arounder, crowd-pleasing scent that smells good and won't offend anyone. I'm not sure about all the people saying this is fruity and fresh (only fruit even in the notes is starfruit), and I for sure would not define it as "tropical". I definitely get a spicy, sweet, warm vibe. Can definitely pick up most of the notes, mainly peppery, amber, suede, and musk with a light floral sweetness and maybe a faint hint of the coconut. Like sweet peppers (roasted bell peppers come to mind). Not what I would classify as a "freshie", but I do think it can be great for all weather and occasions. It might be a bit heavy for the hot summer days, but definitely wouldn't hesitate for a summer evening frag. I find performance kind of disappointing, especially considering it is a EDP. I get maybe 6 hours out of it if I'm lucky and projection for maybe an hour. For the price you can find it for (I believe I got mine for around $17 USD at a rack store), it's a no-brainer and a safe blind buy in my opinion. If you see it and need an easy, everyday frag, pick it up on the cheap and have no fears about spraying heavy.