09/19/2020
Yatagan
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Fantomas threatens the world
For the younger ones among you, you might have to explain to which figure the latest fragrance from Nasomatto alludes: It's the mysterious super villain Fantomas from the 1964 comedy of the same name starring Jean Marais, Louis de Funès and a whole cast of famous French actresses*. The cinematic tricks were remarkable for the time (car spins out wings and flies away), while today you can only smile mildly at the whimsical gags and helpless technical gimmicks. Anyway: The movies still have their nostalgic charm today, so that even our children had fun in their younger years.
Apparently, Alessandro Gualtierie is also a fan of the series (two more films followed: "Fantomas against Interpol" and "Fantomas threatens the world", whose title I borrowed with sarcastic pleasure as a headline for this commentary), because the advertisement in the video bluntly alludes to the figure of Fantomas wearing a light blue mask and also the font used is borrowed from the lettering of the films from the 60s.
As an avowed lover of the films of the time, I wanted to test the new Gualtieri, even though I was almost certain that it would disappoint me as much as Black Afgano, Duro, Blamage or all the Orto Parisi scents. To me, all these fragrances seem coarse, loud, (certainly consciously) vulgar, garish and extremely synthetic. But while many of Alessandro Gualtieri's fragrances have more of an oriental character, Fantomas belongs to the group of lighter scents, which nevertheless want to score with enormous aura and durability. Personally, I am very annoyed by such a strong durability, because I don't like fragrances that (1.) survive a thorough shower, (2.) follow me around for days on end wearing a jacket or scarf and (3.) also scent the colleagues in the neighbouring office or the whole conference room. Such an exuberant aura massively bothers me about others and I don't want to be perceived in this way myself. I prefer to spray more often and smell the fragrance especially close up. In my more than 35 years of perfume experience with long phases of intensive collecting - long before perfume or basenotes - I received "compliments" for a fragrance, especially when I had dosed it too much, which was then regularly particularly embarrassing. Stylishly dosed fragrances are not immediately noticed by the environment and their complexity can only be appreciated in close proximity - and this should be reserved for loved ones. End of the excursion.
However, a low dosage is almost impossible with Fantomas from the outset. Those who attest the scent here a weak durability or a moderate aura should maybe ask themselves if their nose is already blunted by some heavy niche scents, as Fantomas sticks on my scent strip and on a piece of textile now beaten for four days with nearly the same intensity and this is unfortunately really just obtrusive.
To the fragrance itself: I can understand if you are fascinated by Fantomas, because as so often with Gualtieri, he once again plays with powerful stimuli - and that is certainly Gualtieri's strength. Just as with Black Afgano he evokes the association of Black Afghani without actually wanting to imitate the smell, just as with Duro he places an amorphous oriental animal-leathery, resinous-woody block in the landscape without wanting to create a really tangible image, Fantomas is also a phantom without violence but with an intense effect. Where does the ?
Here an attempt of decoding, but without guarantee: Like most people here, I smell an intense but artificial melon note, which is certainly due to melon ester: (Z)-6 nonenal, 2,6-dimethyl-5-heptenal.
A bitter-salty and at the same time sweet sea note is found in many men's aquatic plants, which in my opinion is also contained here in moderate dosage (algae extract).
Because of the light, somewhat watery head and heart note, I guess calone (methylbenzodioxepinone), but I'm not at all sure. This is only a vague assumption As a base note, especially in the drydown and on the fragrance strip, a shower note develops more strongly than on the skin, which we know from many contemporary fragrances / niche fragrances and which would then clearly indicate a high dose of Ambrox(an) (3aR,5aS,9aS,9bR)-3a,6,6,9a-tetramethyl-dodecahydronaphto[2,1-b]furan, chemical name and loving reminiscence of my wife's former profession: Chemist).
What else might be in there, I leave to your imagination and the many statements below.
Why do not you find much more comments on this fragrance, as we are used to with other fragrances from Gualtieri?
My rather poor overall score is mainly due to my aversion to fruit esters, which have played an extremely important role in many fruity florals since the 90s, my aversion to ambrox and the fragrances dominated by it (Sauvage, Bleu, various Marlys etc.) as well as my slowly growing aversion to the algae note, which is now all too often used in men's fragrances, and ultimately results from the rather striking composition with the olfactory mallet, which simply doesn't suit me.
Incidentally, the dominance of the synthetic alone is not the reason, because there are outstanding and artificially sophisticatedly composed perfumes from this segment (for example, by Comme des Garcons, Maack, Clean).
If you look at this scary mixture, which I assumed above and which more than deserves the name Fantomas, my evaluation is almost (too) good, but this may be due to a subterranean fascination of the scent, which oscillates between disgust and pleasant shivers. And that also has its justification.
Apparently, Alessandro Gualtierie is also a fan of the series (two more films followed: "Fantomas against Interpol" and "Fantomas threatens the world", whose title I borrowed with sarcastic pleasure as a headline for this commentary), because the advertisement in the video bluntly alludes to the figure of Fantomas wearing a light blue mask and also the font used is borrowed from the lettering of the films from the 60s.
As an avowed lover of the films of the time, I wanted to test the new Gualtieri, even though I was almost certain that it would disappoint me as much as Black Afgano, Duro, Blamage or all the Orto Parisi scents. To me, all these fragrances seem coarse, loud, (certainly consciously) vulgar, garish and extremely synthetic. But while many of Alessandro Gualtieri's fragrances have more of an oriental character, Fantomas belongs to the group of lighter scents, which nevertheless want to score with enormous aura and durability. Personally, I am very annoyed by such a strong durability, because I don't like fragrances that (1.) survive a thorough shower, (2.) follow me around for days on end wearing a jacket or scarf and (3.) also scent the colleagues in the neighbouring office or the whole conference room. Such an exuberant aura massively bothers me about others and I don't want to be perceived in this way myself. I prefer to spray more often and smell the fragrance especially close up. In my more than 35 years of perfume experience with long phases of intensive collecting - long before perfume or basenotes - I received "compliments" for a fragrance, especially when I had dosed it too much, which was then regularly particularly embarrassing. Stylishly dosed fragrances are not immediately noticed by the environment and their complexity can only be appreciated in close proximity - and this should be reserved for loved ones. End of the excursion.
However, a low dosage is almost impossible with Fantomas from the outset. Those who attest the scent here a weak durability or a moderate aura should maybe ask themselves if their nose is already blunted by some heavy niche scents, as Fantomas sticks on my scent strip and on a piece of textile now beaten for four days with nearly the same intensity and this is unfortunately really just obtrusive.
To the fragrance itself: I can understand if you are fascinated by Fantomas, because as so often with Gualtieri, he once again plays with powerful stimuli - and that is certainly Gualtieri's strength. Just as with Black Afgano he evokes the association of Black Afghani without actually wanting to imitate the smell, just as with Duro he places an amorphous oriental animal-leathery, resinous-woody block in the landscape without wanting to create a really tangible image, Fantomas is also a phantom without violence but with an intense effect. Where does the ?
Here an attempt of decoding, but without guarantee: Like most people here, I smell an intense but artificial melon note, which is certainly due to melon ester: (Z)-6 nonenal, 2,6-dimethyl-5-heptenal.
A bitter-salty and at the same time sweet sea note is found in many men's aquatic plants, which in my opinion is also contained here in moderate dosage (algae extract).
Because of the light, somewhat watery head and heart note, I guess calone (methylbenzodioxepinone), but I'm not at all sure. This is only a vague assumption As a base note, especially in the drydown and on the fragrance strip, a shower note develops more strongly than on the skin, which we know from many contemporary fragrances / niche fragrances and which would then clearly indicate a high dose of Ambrox(an) (3aR,5aS,9aS,9bR)-3a,6,6,9a-tetramethyl-dodecahydronaphto[2,1-b]furan, chemical name and loving reminiscence of my wife's former profession: Chemist).
What else might be in there, I leave to your imagination and the many statements below.
Why do not you find much more comments on this fragrance, as we are used to with other fragrances from Gualtieri?
My rather poor overall score is mainly due to my aversion to fruit esters, which have played an extremely important role in many fruity florals since the 90s, my aversion to ambrox and the fragrances dominated by it (Sauvage, Bleu, various Marlys etc.) as well as my slowly growing aversion to the algae note, which is now all too often used in men's fragrances, and ultimately results from the rather striking composition with the olfactory mallet, which simply doesn't suit me.
Incidentally, the dominance of the synthetic alone is not the reason, because there are outstanding and artificially sophisticatedly composed perfumes from this segment (for example, by Comme des Garcons, Maack, Clean).
If you look at this scary mixture, which I assumed above and which more than deserves the name Fantomas, my evaluation is almost (too) good, but this may be due to a subterranean fascination of the scent, which oscillates between disgust and pleasant shivers. And that also has its justification.
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