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Io Non Ho Mani Che Mi Accarezzino Il Volto 2017

7.7 / 10 225 Ratings
A popular perfume by Filippo Sorcinelli for women and men, released in 2017. The scent is spicy-resinous. The longevity is above-average. It is being marketed by Alter Duo.
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Main accords

Spicy
Resinous
Smoky
Woody
Floral

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes Top Notes
MyrrhMyrrh GalbanumGalbanum BergamotBergamot PetitgrainPetitgrain
Heart Notes Heart Notes
Cinnamon leafCinnamon leaf Clary sageClary sage StyraxStyrax CedarwoodCedarwood GeraniumGeranium Ylang-ylangYlang-ylang
Base Notes Base Notes
FrankincenseFrankincense AmberAmber BenzoinBenzoin TobaccoTobacco Tonka beanTonka bean SandalwoodSandalwood
Ratings
Scent
7.7225 Ratings
Longevity
8.2193 Ratings
Sillage
7.8196 Ratings
Bottle
8.0186 Ratings
Value for money
6.885 Ratings
Submitted by Michael, last update on 10/26/2025.
Interesting Facts
The fragrance is part of the Unum collection.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to
Fille en aiguilles by Serge Lutens
Fille en aiguilles
Scent 8 by Cognoscenti
Scent 8
Hyde by Hiram Green
Hyde
Voix Humaine 8 by Filippo Sorcinelli
Voix Humaine 8
Scent Stories Vol.1/Ch.09 - Dahab (Eau de Parfum) by MiN New York
Scent Stories Vol.1/Ch.09 - Dahab Eau de Parfum
Paco Rabanne pour Homme (Eau de Toilette) by Rabanne
Paco Rabanne pour Homme Eau de Toilette

Reviews

18 in-depth fragrance descriptions
EnCuirNoir

6 Reviews
EnCuirNoir
EnCuirNoir
Very helpful Review 7  
Balad of unforgotten dreams
Smells like asexuality, inability to be loved, lonliness, regret and very very old things long expired & made of unattractive old withered trees.

I have no hands
that caress my face,

(heavy is the weight
of these words
that know no love)

I don't know the sweet pleasure
of abandoning you

I had to be
the guardian
of your loneliness

Me,
the savior
of lost hours.

A poem that this perfume has borrowed its first sentence; And shares its soul with. The presentation too, is taken from Mario Giacomelli's project with the same name and concept (also inspired by the same cold and catching poem). Those pictures to me act as a prequel to the poem, and share the vibe with the perfumes opening hours of warm denial in a cold emptiness that will inevitably catch up.

Review:
I initially had wrote a review explaining notes and their progression hour by hour, but how pointless is that for such a parfum which is more art than fashion and more melancholia than art. Beyond the notes listed here, which are accurately listed and are shed layer at a time, great pyramid and accurate votes, you will exactly get the dominant votes of each layer in with your first inhale an spicy (cinnamon) punch of incense and myrrh, half the sweetness of the full-bodied myrrh leaves and the almost edible Christmas treat gets into an spanish leather accord with now more dominant styrax added to the cinnamon and the omnipresent Incense, it's an spanish leather, an old withered one without any fat or musk left in, and finally it gets hardcore on the Incense and it's not a one dimensional one, with a divine touch of myrrh... The scent reminds me of very old home libraries, soaked old Spanish leather, wet carpet, expired church Incense and even beyond all the resembling scents it evokes certain feelings of being outdated, forgotten and alone in the modern world. It should be exprienced and it will ruin your shiny smile, darken your bright day and put you in the shoes of a manifestation of all that's been lonely.

To whom do I recommend? If you like perfumery and scents as an art, try this, doesn't matter if you'll like to wear it or not, you'll enjoy its haunting journey, if you like the idea of a sad Kouros, damp woodies, old books, old damp Spanish leathers, church Incense, smokes this is for you, if you enjoy a little grief or the thought of death comforts you here's a cold dark welcome, eerie and melancholic, it's also a great parfum to layer and add smokiness. If you don't like Lars von Trier features, can't stand Schubert and are looking for sth to smell attractive stay away you're probably not ready. The sweetness isn't cute, the spices aren't playful, the Incense isn't passionate, the leather not kinky.

It lasts a very long time (at least 10, probably 12+) and projects almost too much for first 3 hours (1 spray) and stays noticeable for many more after that. The transition starts with losing top notes and showing warmth of middle notes before presenting her full beauty with the undeniable darkness of base notes. Again a well done pyramid to represent the scent accurately. After many wearings I see a damp smoky Incense and cedar throughout as the main star which gets darker and less sweet and I love it more every passing hour.
0 Comments
Tanelv

62 Reviews
Tanelv
Tanelv
1  
Spiritual apocalypse in the ruins of gothic church
Uhhh… Even for a devotee of Sorcinelli’s genius, this one is a challenge.

The scent is powerfully sultry, teetering on the brink of spoilage. Picture a crumbling church ruins: light slips through the holes in the roof, the dusty air making every light beam visible. Decaying ecclesiastical regalia—incense and myrrh—lies strewn across the floor. Rotting wood everywhere. Insects and bats are the only residents. Dark but alive.

Maybe 19th-century hospitals smelled like this? A rotten medicinal aura, with herbs—especially cinnamon and clove—demanding your attention.

Its powderiness makes it even more suffocating… smothering the soul. Yet that same powdery veil gives it a unisex slant, rounding off the sharper spices.

I admire it as a piece of art, but I’d probably wear it only a couple of times—paired with Rick Owens’ dark leather and tank boots. A spiritual apocalypse better suited to a film than to real life.
0 Comments
Floyd

570 Reviews
Translated · Show originalShow translation
Floyd
Floyd
Top Review 48  
A Temple for Spirits
In the loud glow of the blazing cold
I stare at swirling clouds of ice-green smoke, flowing backward into a magical myrrh, strangely drawn in by the gnarled branches that twist like hundreds of hands in all directions of the vast desert. Blinded by flashes of bitter green citrus peels in the rumbling thunderstorm, the high shimmer of herb-sweet sage, in the carnation-like fog of a fireworks display of dark sandy cinnamon leaves, I admire the tree as it warmly spices the frosty clouds, rooted in the earthy smoke of yellow-brown galbanum. Like the beginning of a happy intoxication, the scent of the smoke hits me in the belly and sends me on a

Ride on the Incense Stick
into transcendent memories, blurred time, felt clumps full of soap, knotted by a girl who smells of Nag Champa. I see her dancing in sandalwoods, in flowing colors of sweet flowers that burst into vanilla resins, lingering for many hours. I ride the smoke through walls of warm Washburn guitars, which leave wonderfully soft waves in the hypnotic echo, far out in the room. Sometimes I believe that the scent of forest floor shows itself in there, only to immediately hide again in the slowly rising veils of warm incense.

Tobacco Tantra
As I notice that my incense stick rides on the soft waves in the echo, only fine threads pulling me in, I find myself under a light brown shimmering roof of spicy tobacco leaf, which sweats small golden pearls of medicinally sweet benzoin. Quiet mantras meander on a harmonium of tonka, the evening amber shimmers like honey into the sun sail of tobacco, even after eleven hours, softly like the distant threads of smoke.
**
A temple for spirits, full of colorful images, shimmering colors, ritual smoke, and a buzzing sitar. A scent that initially did not want to open up to me due to its bulky cool top note and the smoky, hippie-like heart of sandalwood, sweet flowers, and resins, but whose echo never let me go and which, now months later and richer in many scent experiences, has absolutely convinced me.

(With thanks to Seejungfrau and Can777)
31 Comments
Ernstheiter

41 Reviews
Translated · Show originalShow translation
Ernstheiter
Ernstheiter
Top Review 39  
Otto Normalverbraucher on DNA and Ratzinger
So folks, niche perfume is a fine thing, but mainstream is easier, I tell you. Let's say I want an extravagant niche scent and then my choice falls on "Io Non Ho Mani Che Mi Accarezzino Il Volto". And just like that, we have a mess, oh what am I saying, not just a mess, but even more.
1. Just imagine, I couldn't speak Italian (thankfully I can), how am I supposed to make it clear to the saleswoman which scent I want? If someone doesn't speak Italian, they can't even pronounce the name of the scent. They would need a simultaneous interpreter, but they wouldn't be able to tell them which name to translate. The only alternative is 4711, because you don't have to remember much there.

2. And then there's the memory gymnastics. Even if you can speak Italian (thankfully I can), you first have to remember such a short story-long name (unfortunately I can't). So again, an alternative is needed - in the form of a cheat sheet.

Everyone has to know for themselves how they want to handle this, but anyone who wants to buy such an extravagant scent as "Io Non Ho Mani Che Mi Accarezzino Il Volto" should be warned, it's hard work.

And the bottle, oh man, it's super cool, that's what they say today, or can you still say it's cool? So the bottle looks like the one from Tactics by Shiseido, but only at the bottom. On top of the cap, "Io Non Ho Mani Che Mi Accarezzino Il Volto" has this little black leather-like flap that looks like it's been tousled by the wind. It's somewhat similar to the homemade strawberry jam from mom. She also put a little flap over the glass lids, and it was red and checkered.

Anyone who goes into my bathroom and sees the bottle on the shelf always comes back to me within 10 seconds, with the bottle in hand, asking: hey, what a cool bottle is that or hey, where did you get that scent; When someone goes to the toilet at my place, I already start counting.

The scent itself is just as extravagant as the bottle.

Right from the top note, "Io Non Ho Mani Che Mi Accarezzino Il Volto" doesn't follow any well-trodden gourmand or oud paths, but tries to score with creativity. No citrus fruits, no flowers, but rather shoe polish on steel or a medicinal-looking herbal mixture: the whole thing comes across very cool-dry, suggesting freshness but without any citrus undertones. I assume that this steel-cold aura is due to the ubiquitous myrrh. The citrus notes indicated in the fragrance pyramid do not express themselves independently. It seems rather that their sole justification for existence is to lend the myrrh its steel-cold aura.

The initial medicinal bitterness recedes and leaves it to the flowers to give the myrrh in the heart note a new direction. It becomes creamy with woody and cinnamon streaks. At this stage, I find "Io Non Ho Mani Che Mi Accarezzino Il Volto" less bold than in the top phase. I almost have the impression that the scent pulls back on the skin without really becoming skin-close.

Towards the base, the coolness dissipates, and it becomes warmer. Well-perceptible leather and tobacco notes in combination with incense create a sacred impression. Not cathedral, but natural spectacle, not mass, but archaic ritual. That's how the scent fades after many hours.

"Io Non Ho Mani Che Mi Accarezzino Il Volto" pleases me very much. Not least because it is not another gourmand or oud scent. It doesn't need any verbena from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern or verbena from Papua New Guinea. With the use of omnipresent myrrh, the scent gets its own myrrh DNA, which undergoes a metamorphosis from shrill - creamy - sacred from the top to the heart to the base note. This may take some getting used to for some, but it is certainly interesting and creative.

So folks, in my opinion, this would be a scent for Ratzi, yes exactly the Pope, isn't he retired now? So "Io Non Ho Mani Che Mi Accarezzino Il Volto" would surely please His Eminence, he has such a good sense for beautiful things, like red house slippers from Prada. And such a special scent would fit in perfectly.
16 Comments
FRAgrANTIC

19 Reviews
Translated · Show originalShow translation
FRAgrANTIC
FRAgrANTIC
Top Review 39  
A Story in Three Parts - Guardian of Solitude, Keeper of Lost Hours
Io non ho mani is a short yet touching poem by Father David Maria Turoldo, published in 1948, that describes the deprivations and solitude of priests.

Io non ho mani che mi accarezzino il volto,
I have no hands to caress my face
(duro è l'ufficio di queste parole che non conoscono amori)
(hard is the message* of those words that know no love)
non so le dolcezze dei vostri abbandoni:
I do not know the sweetness of your renunciations:
ho dovuto essere custode della vostra solitudine:
I had to be the guardian of your solitude:
sono salvatore di ore perdute.
I am the keeper of lost hours.

* To the Italian native speakers among you: I translated ufficio as Mass = message, but I would appreciate if you could offer a better option.

In the early 1960s, it inspired the Italian photographer Mario Giacomelli to create a very impressive series of black-and-white photographs, capturing a group of priesthood candidates outside of class. The most beautiful photo for me is the small group laughing and dancing in a cloud of snowflakes.

It was probably also this image that inspired Filippo Sorcinelli, the founder and owner of Unum, in the design, particularly of the cap with the soft black leather covering. It can be folded and shaped, swirling like the garments of those who are turning around the bottle.

Io non ho mani is not a simple fragrance; it does not caress the wearer, it is somewhat uncomfortable, one must engage with it. Yet Giacomelli was likely, like many artists of his generation, just the same: all his series of images are existentialist, capturing the fundamental questions of human life. Even if the viewer has no immediate connection to the depicted individuals, the message of the image reveals itself empathetically, almost as proof of how similar we humans are in all our fundamental needs, desires, and hopes.

I find Io non ho mani, like my predecessors, initially cumbersome and irritating. The extremely present metallic-medical note indeed evokes associations with the solitude of the individual in a cold world, but more develops from there. The woody-balsamic notes, underpinned with cinnamon, smoke, and floral accords show: You are not alone.

Final word: Rilke once wrote that in a marriage (this certainly applies to any other close human community as well) each is the guardian of the other's solitude. For me, this means accepting the other as an independent personality, trusting without needing to understand everything, allowing the other to be themselves instead of bending them, and thus giving back many lost hours.
16 Comments
More reviews

Statements

94 short views on the fragrance
9
2
Dusty cinnamon. A box of cigars, resins, spices.
Metallic incense, shoe polish, soapy florals.
Giacomelli to a T; dark, but not pessimistic.
2 Comments
6
Short phased dry cinnamon>floral soap>incense+sandalwood - IMHO Amouage, F Bianchi, Papillon do this with more substance.
0 Comments
5
2
Abrasive opening. Dust and cinnamon. Bee-wax shoe polish. Resins and Spices. Dead flowers and tobacco.
2 Comments
5
Tiger Balm and cigarette ashes on late 1970s style aromatic fougère body.
Absolutely frightening projection. So what's not to like?
0 Comments
3 months ago
2
Might as well wait til i have a sprained neck, lather myself in tiger balm + rumalaya and time travel to when you could smoke on plane.
0 Comments
2
A deepfake GenAI video of a bishop doing the 'cinnamon challenge,' spitting it out into a vase filled with a handful of dead flowers.
0 Comments
2
Like a cinnamon and clove based fougere that's getting stripped of joy and excitement as it dries. Ends in clove flavoured grey soap.
0 Comments
1
This stuff is awesome, and far more wearable than my 'first impressions'. It's very tenacious on clothing, and two sprays on skin will last.
0 Comments
2 years ago
1
Potent and poetic ; the olfactory equivalent of Giacomelli's images, lingering in the memory with dramatic, melancholy power.
0 Comments
1
Burning shoe polish, cinnamon blast, machine grease. Dries down to geranium scented potassium soap with hints of tobacco and vanilla.
0 Comments
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