Strength

This is absolutely beautiful! Strength starts off as a sweet and smooth tobacco with a touch of spice (even the spice seems sweet). In the mid, the honey and smoke join with the sweet tobacco accord which adds even more complexity to the composition. In the base, I get fleeting hints of pine wood popping out between the other notes (a woody and resinous pine note, not the green camphor of pine needles). Overall though, tobacco and honey are the name of the game here. A very classy scent indeed! Strength smells quite similar to Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille, however, the sweetness here is more light and honeyed than dense and vanillic. TV is also more pungent (especially at the top). I have also compared it to Tabac Rouge by Phaedon and find TR has a sharper spice up top with the ginger, while the overall feel is more powdery. Strength is definitely more similar to TV than TR. Thankfully I am not getting the enormous performance others have gotten (as far as projection and sillage), lest it quickly become overbearing and cloying. I would say I am getting between moderate and strong performance. As for longevity, I am easily getting 8+ hours on my skin. I don’t like to spray directly on my clothes as I cycle through various fragrances regularly, but I can see this lasting for several days on fabric. Strength is a gorgeous fragrance and I definitely recommend lovers of tobacco notes to try a sample, should you have the opportunity. I’m glad to have it in my collection as I know it is getting harder to find now!

Warning: masterpiece!!! While not overly original, this is the definitive animalic honeyed tobacco supported by a noticeable musk (strangely swapped with "sweet notes" in the pyramid, as per Zegna's website). Probably the most masculine of the Elements of Man line. Unlike the 4 other fragrances of the EoM line, here Zegna takes some risks: it has an animalic note (honey/tobacco) and the musk is stronger than in Peruvian Ambrette, and the Oud (despite not being very strong) is noticeable and only lightly balanced by the honey.. If like me you're into oud/strong/dark things, go for it. Otherwise do not blind buy, and be warned this is no crowd pleaser, has quite strong projection, and thus is not office safe. Like a previous reviewer said, I don't see any similarities with TF Tobacco Vanille, aside of the tobacco note (at this point, it is similar to many other fragrances). Maybe TF Tobacco Oud... but just remotely. Fall/winter evenings, 30+ fragranticans who have open-minded friends. Edit Sep 2019: the EoM line has - already - been discontinued. I'm mourning the disappearance of this one. That said, despite my crush for this one, even if I knew it would be kicked out of Zegna's offering, I would not have bought a bottle because the pricing is too steep for what it was. Too bad!

@usas: yes there is musk in it, it is missing on the pyramid here, check Zegna's website. (It is strong at the smell). The honey is a note often assimilated as "animalistic" because of its sweet and sour smell. Accurate pyramid: Top: tobacco, honey, apricot Heart: oud, pine Base: smoke, musk You may be right though, I think we re not smelling the same fragrance, since Zegna Passion is kind of sweet and has an amber note (thus vanilla) in it. You may have been confused when testing it in the store. I have a sample and did a couple of full wearings of it. Have you tried it on skin or paper? (The musk note is in the base, so no chance to notice it on paper). I agree there's no leather in this one. I was referring to "risky fragrances" in general in my review.

I can see why people think that Strength is similar to Tobacco Vanille. However I think that Strength is superior to TV. For starters Strength has far better Longevity, and furthermore I find that the Dried Fruits note in TV is mildly astringent with an unpleasant metallic/synthetic edge to it. Strength is a delicious and warm scent, bringing to mind clumps of moist Pipe/Hookah tobacco and apricot preserves. I think that Zegna has introduced a fine fragrance to world. I would highly recommend this to anyone seeking a warm winter fragrance.

The Sweetness and Tobacco are done just right. It is a quality, linear, and smooth tobacco scent. No overdone of plum and cloves like in Franck Boclet Tobacco. No overdone of Tobacco-Hay like in MAC Velvet Teddy. It is less thick and rich compared to my 2020 batch of Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille. The projection is excellent borderline beast mode.