Armani Code Black Code Giorgio Armani 2004 Eau de Toilette
Black Code opens with a bright citrus burst—lemon and bergamot—that quickly gives way to its true character.
The scent fingerprint
Weighted by intensity across 12 accords.
Every perfume in Sillage is represented as a distribution across canonical accord slugs — a lingua franca for scent. Two fragrances with overlapping fingerprints are scent-twins, even if they share no literal note.
- Citrus65
- Leather55
- Fresh50
- Soft Spicy
The note pyramid
- Lemon
- Bergamot
- Star Anise
- Tonka Bean
- Leather
- Tobacco
By the editors · 2 min readBlack Code opens with a bright citrus burst—lemon and bergamot—that quickly gives way to its true character. Star anise arrives almost immediately, lending a dark, licorice-tinged spiciness that feels more brooding than the original Code's sweetness. The aromatic sharpness has an almost medicinal quality at first, austere and cool.
As it settles, tonka bean softens the edges with a subtle vanilla warmth, while leather and tobacco add weight without becoming heavy or smoky. The result is drier and more restrained than typical sweet orientals of the era, though still unmistakably in that lineage. The anise remains present throughout, giving everything a slightly herbaceous, almost bitter undertone.
This is Armani Code stripped of its crowd-pleasing softness—more angular, more nocturnal. It suits someone who finds the original too approachable, preferring something with sharper edges and less immediate charm.
Scent twins
Factual metadata (name, house, year, notes) is seeded from public datasets. The editorial reading and scent fingerprint are written by Claude against our house style — none of it is scraped prose. Read our methodology.
