Perfume Review: Nasomatto Fragrances

Review by Tom Patty was kind enough to send me these, with an accompanying note to diss away if I felt like it. Normally, I would skewer any perfumer with such a well-developed hype (they have a "manifesto" which reads in part "I take advantage of your sexual essence"; please, spare me), but I happened to like these, so I'll let (most of) the hyperbole pass: Absinthe Ad copy aside (aims to evoke degrees of hysteria? WTF?) After an intitial blast of what smelled like milk chocolate (which is guaranteed to keep me from hysteria) I get sweetish vetiver with angelica. The vetiver never gets harsh, but as the fragrance develops, there is a sweet woodiness to it that is absolutely capivating. Great sillage too. A winner. Duro Duro means strong, which is good since this one "aims to enhance all the manifestations of male strength (surely not all?) Nice strong herby leather that doesn't waver very much in its development; it's a broad-shouldered scent in the classic mens scent-sense, but more potent. Narcotic Venus Celebrating the "overwhelming addictive intensity of female sexual power" (big job for such a small bottle), this is a big perfume. Big white flowers: tuberose, jasmine and lily being equally indolic. It does remind me of a couple of other scents, most notably Fracas. Whether that is a plus or a minus is up to you to decide: if you like Fracas, you'll like this. the question is, if you like Fracas, do you need this? Hindu Grass "The result of a quest for the warm affection of humanity", Hindu Grass starts with what I swear is chocolate and rubber. Then it becomes herby, like Absorbine Jr. There's patchouli as well. Scared yet? Don't be: it's absolutely marvelous, easily my favorite of the bunch. There's grassiness, but it's more like uncured tobacco than grass. This one actually more than lives up to the hype. Silver Musk "The result of a quest for mercurial liquid love sensation" (somebody did not get enough hugs growing up....) Clean skin-musk with a nice soapiness. There's a bare hint of white flowers in there and a wisp of smoke. Certainly the most accessible of the bunch: it's not the musk I'd reach for, but for those who like a slyer must, this is a nice one. I don't know what it is about these the bug me slightly. Perhaps it's just the copy being so purple- the scents range from "oh, that's nice" to "check okay?". I suppose after lately being bombarded with hype ranging from the playfully obscene to the truly soul-crushingly stupid (CKn2u, yes I am looking at you) I find myself less and less able to wade through it to care about the fragrances, especially if they are going to give me something as vapid as, oh I don't know, CKn2u? Luckily, these boys have delivered some fine juice: now if they could just build a decent website with an e-store maybe we could get down to the actual purchase of their goods. That is the point, yes? Or have we come to a marketing strategy end-game: something so exclusive that nobody can have it? Nasomatto insists this site is their distributor, I however was unable to find anything about them on it. A further google searching led me here, where they are 90eu for 30ml.