Basile Uomo Basile 1987 Eau de Toilette

A thyme-rosemary-basil-oakmoss bomb of a chypre, with lavender and a pleasant clove. The dry-down reveals a good dose of leather and some patchouli. It's a delightful manly herbal fragrance - the bottle I reached out for most in 2021.

Projection and longevity are very good. It's hard to believe this used to sell for €10 in drugstores. Basile must have been the best bottom-of-the-barrel brand in the 80s. Steer clear of the current Basile Uomo Intense as it's a bad One Million clone.

Masculinity Level: John Rambo in the forest being hunted down by the sheriff in First Blood, before the character became a caricature.

Dark green, cool, invigorating, 80's Italian men's fragrance. Like Bowling Green if it went on a stag night with the boys. Not modern (which I love), but interesting and distinct. This a manly confident fragrance devoid of sweetness, powderiness, and ambers. It's complexity comes from green herbs and spices. Definitely in the same gang as Quorum. Great bottle too. Very successful blind buy. I love it more every time I wear it.

I love my aromatics; I just can't get enough of dry herbs, and there are plenty of them here: thyme, rosemary, basil. They are very natural, earthy, and woody, and there's no pussyfooting—Basil Uomo uses them as the centerpiece, with all other notes the supporting players (citrus, lavender).

The cinnamon, nutmeg and clove surface in the heart, warming the herbs without detracting from their...herbaceousness. I do agree with others that especially in this stage of development, it is reminiscent of freshly opened pack of cigarettes (which to me is endlessly more alluring a scent than the unrelenting stench of a lit one). It's really balanced and downright ravishing.

My bottle is an older formulation, and it is blessed with a generous dose of oakmoss, and after a couple hours, it harmonizes with patchouli and leather, as 80s men's chypres often do, but the quality is more than evident (Italians do it better) and fulfills that desire for a frag of this genres where others have left me a bit underwhelmed and yearning more.

What a delight!

This bottle came into my possession by chance. I had ordered Basile for women (Basile Femme) and I got this as there was a small bar-code sticker with "Basile for women" on the box, even though the box itself says very clearly in big letters "BASILE UOMO" (uomo is Italian for man), but then you can not expect everyone knowing Italian.

Luckily the company I ordered it from has great costumer service and I could also keep it, so after smelling it it got a place in my collection. It is quite a herbal chypre (I would classify it as herbal also, if that was in the classification list), starting with a green blast of herbs which I can not all identify but the basil seemed most noticeable; I checked with the basil pot at the kitchen window. Oakmoss is very strong here and gives a cool forest feeling. After five, six hours leather is also noticeable, but subdued to the oakmoss. I guess that the other notes round Basile up and hold the dominant notes together without showing up front.

Basile uomo can very well be worn by women if they like their chypre green, herbal and strong. It is great for everyday and business, it goes well with jeans or business suits and is a good match for summer days.

My goodness, I certainly have a penchant for bold fragrances, but this opening takes my breath away. Spicy, soapy, and dark green, Basile Uomo starts off with a mossy, earthy color palette dominating the scene with great determination. A hint of honey adds a rather restrained sweetness, and the otherwise very compact army of citrus defenders is fighting a rather lost cause.

I don't want to resort to clichés here, but the first half of the scent's development clearly favors those among us who are naturally blessed with a strong chest hair and stride through life sun-kissed with an open collar. I say this completely neutrally, but a subtle appearance doesn't seem really feasible with this fragrance.

It takes a good while for the strict spiciness to settle down, allowing individual components from the scent wall to become more distinguishable. I was able to identify rosemary, thyme, and lavender, as well as a very distinctive cinnamon note, which I found quite appealing.

Overall, I would like to ascribe slightly anachronistic traits to our friend. For my taste, it is somewhat too coarse over long stretches, and pleasing nuances are not its strength. This is all the more regrettable, as there are indeed very successful examples of a strong presence paired with the necessary style. I would like to mention the green Polo or Santos by Cartier here.

Thus, Basile Uomo ultimately remains reserved for the Tom Selleck/Magnum Nimbus, which I find quite charming, but over time also somewhat one-dimensional.