Nasomatto
Crazy nose
Alessandro Gualtieri grew up around his grandfather's butcher shop in northern Italy. He trained in Germany, then went to Oman, India and Yemen to learn how attars are made. He composed for Versace, Fendi, Helmut Lang and Diesel, and left, because too many people had to approve the work.
Nasomatto began in Amsterdam in 2007. The first five arrived the following year. Designed in Amsterdam and made in Italy. He went home for the manufacturing and stayed away for everything else. Nasomatto means crazy nose and he chose it himself.
The bottles are cubes, identical across the range. What changes is the cap, turned from a different wood for each fragrance and chosen for that scent alone. Olive for Absinth. Wenge for Duro, because wenge is one of the hardest woods there is. Burnt oak for Black Afgano. Cork for Baraonda. A real pinecone for Micodelirio, so no two bottles are the same.
Every bottle is extrait. Extrait carries roughly twenty to forty per cent perfume oil, against fifteen to twenty for an eau de parfum and five to fifteen for an eau de toilette. Which means thirty millilitres here holds about as much perfume as a hundred millilitres of eau de toilette, and often more. The bottle is small because the contents are not diluted. One application low on the skin lasts the day, and most people go from three sprays to one inside a week.
He has never published a note list. Not for one fragrance, not in nearly twenty years. Each bottle carries a name, its cap and nothing else. Every retailer in the world has the same empty specification, which is why these pages read the way they do. We have the bottles open at Red Hill and Lucy Borland, our perfume sommelier, will tell you what she finds in each one. That is not a note list. It is better than one.
Nasomatto keeps a page on its own site called Spot a Fake, which tells you what kind of house this has become. The whole line is counterfeited and Black Afgano most of all. Genuine boxes carry an RFID sticker. The house does not sell testers at all, so a bottle offered anywhere as a tester is either outside the authorised channel or it is not real. Ours are bought through the authorised channel and every one of the twelve is open on the counter in Red Hill, which is the other reason to smell it here rather than gamble on a marketplace.
They are not quiet. Somebody will ask what you are wearing before the first course and somebody else will not care for it at all. Both of those are the point.
I took the house because he is another craftsman with his own story and no machine behind him. One man, quirky in his approach and in his reputation, and the work is his rather than a committee's. He withholds the notes because he is meticulous to the point of refusal and he does not want the compositions copied. That is not mystique. It is protection.
Love, endurance, restraint. It is so dedicated that it pulls at you even when you would rather it did not. The commitment to the cause is the whole thing, and it is what I look for in every house we carry.
Nasomatto, in short
Who is Nasomatto?
Nasomatto is the house Alessandro Gualtieri founded in Amsterdam in 2007, after composing for Versace, Fendi, Helmut Lang and Diesel and leaving because too many people had to approve the work. The fragrances are designed in Amsterdam and made in Italy. The name means crazy nose and he chose it himself.
Why does Nasomatto not publish notes?
Because Gualtieri has decided the composition is the wearer's to work out. He has not published a note list for any fragrance in nearly twenty years. Each bottle carries a name, a wooden cap and nothing else. We do not go and find a pyramid elsewhere. We tell you what we find with the bottle open instead.
Where can you buy Nasomatto in Australia?
At Amelie & Frank's, online and in person at our boutique in Red Hill on the Mornington Peninsula, where all twelve are open and Lucy Borland runs the fragrance masterclasses.
Questions, answered
Why does Nasomatto not publish notes?
Emma's reading, as the buyer: he withholds them because he is meticulous to the point of refusal and he does not want the compositions copied. It is protection rather than mystique. Whatever the reason, the fact is settled. He has not published a note list for any fragrance in nearly twenty years, and each bottle carries a name, a wooden cap and nothing else. We do not go and find a pyramid elsewhere. We tell you what we find with the bottle open instead.
How do I know a Nasomatto is genuine?
Nasomatto publishes a Spot a Fake page and video on its own site, because the entire line is counterfeited and Black Afgano more than any of it. Genuine boxes carry an RFID sticker. The house does not commercialise testers at all, so a bottle offered as a tester is either from a seller outside the authorised channel or it is fake, and that is how most counterfeits are sold. Black Afgano is moving to a logo-embossed pump as an anti-counterfeiting measure, and bottles with both the old and the new pump are shipping during the transition, so the pump alone does not settle it. If you already own one and you are unsure, the house will check it for you by email.
Why buy from a boutique rather than a marketplace?
Because the fakes live on auction sites, marketplaces and grey-market resellers, and several of them are good enough that people who own three genuine bottles cannot tell. Ours come through the authorised channel. All twelve are open on the counter at Red Hill and you are welcome to smell every one before you decide.
What does extrait de parfum actually mean?
It is the most concentrated form a perfume house makes, also called parfum or pure perfume. Roughly twenty to forty per cent fragrance oil, against fifteen to twenty for an eau de parfum, five to fifteen for an eau de toilette and two to five for a cologne. The rest is alcohol. Every Nasomatto is extrait and the house makes nothing else.
So is extrait stronger?
Not in the way most people mean. Alcohol is what lifts a fragrance off the skin and throws it across a room, so less alcohol means less projection rather than more. Extrait is quieter and longer, not louder and longer. It sits close and stays eight to twelve hours or more. If you want a trail that fills a room, an eau de toilette will often do it better. If you want a fragrance that is still there at the end of the day and that people notice when they are near you, this is the format.
Why is the bottle only thirty millilitres?
Because the contents are not diluted. Thirty millilitres of extrait holds about as much actual perfume oil as a hundred millilitres of eau de toilette, and often more. You are buying the perfume rather than the alcohol carrying it. It is more expensive per millilitre and cheaper per wearing, because you use a fraction of the amount.
How should extrait be applied?
One application, low on the skin, and then leave it alone. Historically extrait was dabbed on pulse points rather than sprayed, and that instinct still holds. Most people arrive spraying three times and are down to one inside a week. Two sprays of Black Afgano is a mistake most people make once.
Why does it smell different from the first minute?
At this concentration the top notes barely register, because there is not enough alcohol to carry them. You land in the heart and base almost immediately. An extrait is not a less diluted version of a lighter fragrance, it is a different experience of the composition, and in many houses it is a different formula altogether.
Are these percentages regulated?
No. The categories are industry convention and houses label as they choose, which is worth knowing before anyone sells you concentration as a guarantee. Longevity depends far more on what is in the composition than on the number on the box. Some of the great long-wearing classics were eaux de toilette at three to eight per cent.
Do you carry the whole range?
Yes. All twelve fragrances Nasomatto makes are here and all twelve are open. The only thing the house produces that we do not stock is the perfume oil set.
Which one should I start with?
Silver Musk if the range sounds like too much. It is the quietest by a long way and it is also the bottle long-term wearers keep returning to. Black Afgano if you want to understand why the house has the reputation it has.
Where is Nasomatto made?
Designed in Amsterdam and made in Italy. Alessandro Gualtieri is Italian and went home for the manufacturing.
Do you offer complimentary shipping?
Yes, on orders over $100 Australia-wide.
