Gucci Guilty Love Edition MMXXI pour Homme 
Gucci (2021)

Gucci Guilty pour Homme Love Edition MMXXI by Gucci (2021) is the second of two limited-edition Valentine's Day flankers for men whipped up by the brand, the first of which was simply called Gucci Guilty pour Homme Love Edition by Gucci (2019) two years back. In both cases, they were part of a his/hers double-release pair, and this time around, the year is displayed on the bottle to indicate this may be an ongoing thing every other year, except it wasn't. There hasn't been one for 2022 and as of this revised review, there hasn't been one for 2023 either, so I guess corporate ghouls decided there wasn't enough profit margin in manufacturing limited one-and-done batch fragrances. Perhaps Calvin Klein just owns that market too much for other brands to break in, even though Dolce & Gabbana try. This MMXXI edition of Gucci Guilty pour Homme Love Edition feels more similar overall to the original Gucci Guilty pour Homme by Gucci (2011), although mostly in the opening. The previous edition was effectively a "nü-fougère" that I rather quite liked, but vintage gatekeepers toasted it over the ravenous fires of hate-filled vitriolic Hell, because of course it didn't have metric tons of oakmoss or whatever.

This time around, Alberto Morillas, who returns for his last Gucci Guilty men's flanker appearance to date, marries the familiar lemon and lavandin opening and bubblegum showergel neroli heart with pink pepper and pimento notes, a touch of blood orange, and a much drier handling of the cedar and patchouli base notes. Amped-up ambroxan mixes with these materials and the pepper give a hot dry sensation upon the dry down, moving away from the usual smooth, soapy, green, tonka-smoothed finish found in the original or in Gucci Guilty Black pour Homme (2013) and Gucci Guilty Eau pour Homme (2015). Feeling very much like a leftover formula from the P&G era of Gucci Guilty when it was first spearheaded by Frida Giannini, Love Edition MMXXI makes for a more-contemporary formula that feels extra masculine in the finish, after getting through the arguably "classic" opening. Overall, this could have been a regular flanker to the line and not a limited one, due to how homogeneous it seems with the pillar; but I guess for that same reason, Coty probably didn't want another redundant option to later discontinue like they did the Eau and all other flankers save for the Black, Performance is about average all around, and this feels more summery than standard Gucci Guilty pour Homme too.

All in all, the lilac bottle and "We should be together, but we are not" quote found on the back of the bottle are really much a do about nothing, as they don't really speak for what's inside the bottle like the green exterior did for the first Love Edition. I much prefer that one to this one, although a Gucci Guilty with a twist of hot pepper and cedar does feel like a slight stab at Dolce & Gabbana K (2019), which makes sense as Italian fashion houses tend to be particularly catty towards one another, in ways French ones try to avoid since they want to seem above everyone else, precluding the notion of infighting or cheap shots at competitors. Who knows? Gucci Guilty pour Homme Love Edition MMXXI might have been an unused mod of D&G K that was redressed by Morillas with the original Gucci Guilty top notes, I wouldn't put it past anyone for a fast cash grab. Either way, if you missed your shot at this, you didn't lose out on much besides maybe a pretty bottle, although I still think the original, black, eau, and the others with the see-through GG logo look best, with the solid-color ones made under Alessandro Michele coming in second. Gucci Guilty pour Homme served up hot to trot is what you get here folks, not much else. Good, but skippable. Thumbs up