Nostalgia Santa Maria Novella 2002

As a lifelong underpowered user of rusty Dutch bikes, I have to take up the cudgels for this wonderful scent.

You really don't have to be a PS aficionado to enjoy this extremely portable, characteristic and by no means exaggerated little water.

Granted: the top note is original and hits the theme "Mille Miglia". But that's no cambouis, no punch in the pit of the stomach, but even at this stage it's a fragrance, a really pleasing kick and stimulant that has never prompted my otherwise odor-sensitive wife to make any of her dreaded comments. That's art!

At this point, I share the regret that this effect fizzles out a little too quickly and leads into a phase that is undoubtedly less original, but by no means boring, in which the impression of petrol and rubber increasingly recedes in favour of a discreetly vanilla-dominated, but thoroughly distinctive composition. On the other hand, a more persistent top note would quickly be too much of a good thing, at least for me (Russian Leather by Molton Brown goes in this direction and would be recommended to all those who like to bathe in birch tar - for me a complete bad buy...).

In any case, contrary to all well-intentioned advice, this restraint has made the fragrance a very regular companion to the office for me - inspiring, but unobtrusive, perhaps a little bit headstrong, as befits the unnatural office lifestyle that has become second nature.

I like the whole concept: the cult of artificiality from the monastery pharmacy, a memorial stone for an outdated technology, which still stands for the possibility of escaping into nature at any time, therefore: our whole dilemma as a fragrance - if that is nothing.

I think to myself and, while the last scent molecules reach my nose, I ride on my cargo bike to pick up the children.