Reviews of 10 Corso Como (1999)
by 10 Corso Como

10 Corso Como--I think I remember passing by the place in Milan. I avoided shopping much in Milan, the prices were freaking me out.

I never heard of the scent until it was hugely raved about here on Basenotes. I was surprised to find it in Neiman Marcus, however when I tried it, I wasn't so enthused...hmmm, sandalwood and incense, love-love-love, why ever not?? Maybe because a 50ml bottle set me back $85. Ah well...

Flash forward several years and the luck of finding a bottle on eBay for less than 50 bucks. Ah! You're talking my language now.

I identify with sandalwood so much. I don't understand how people can compare this scent to red wine, because it honestly does not smell like sour grapes to me. 10CC smells of rich and powdery sandalwood that gets better as it settles to a clear, mind-opening woody scent, that touches the inner senses.

I just realized why I didn't really care for 10 CC when I smelled it at Neimans. I didn't test it on my skin. At least not fully. Smelling it now I have great sillage and you marvel at its simplicity smelling so complex. This is the stuff you love creating a fine mist all over you because it smells so sublime!

Go get some of this!

A nice blend of agarwood, sandalwood (primarilly), and tiny bit of rose thrown in. The sandalwood isn't as "furniture-y" as Tam Dao, but smoother. Turin says that it used to be a huge agarwood affair and now has changed drastically. Mine is the reformulated version, and it's still damn good, albeit I've never smelled the older one.

The first note I discern in 10 Corso Como is a very smooth, nutty, and somewhat sweetened vetiver. The vetiver is soon joined by incense, sandalwood, and rose, all well-blended in a very dignified accord. There is some oudh in the mix as well, but it's only a grace note, not a lead player, and like everything else in this scent, it's very smoothly integrated.

"Smooth" keeps coming up as I describe 10 Corso Como, and I realize that this is an exceptionally suave and civilized scent. Surprisingly for a fragrance featuring rose, vetiver, incense, and oudh, it's also quite soft and mild, and wears close to the skin. It grows progressively creamier as it develops, with the oudh lending a certain coolness to the composition. Over the course of hours, 10 Corso Como also sweetens and becomes more resinous, as the gentle oudh and smooth (again!) sandalwood lead it into its clean musk, wood, and incense drydown. This is nice stuff, and I find it very easy to wear. I see it as a solid, sophisticated daytime scent for those occasions where you want to project poise and decorum.

like being hit in the face with a pot of geraniums planted in sandalwood powder. I adore this juice, but it is gone in 20 minutes on my skin. for those 20 minutes I am so soothed my the medicinal zing of those geraniums, and focused by the deep base of the sandalwood. I wish everyone else would smash their bottles of this so it could be all mine, mine, mine.
I have heard it compared to costes, which is another spicy, medicinal, woody favorite. Costes is more masculine, with cleaner lines, clearly made for a big space. 10 coso como is the atmosphere between your shirt and your bra, right over your heart.

Very nice, very red wine like. Sweet and woody, definitely red in color. Quite sharp but well blended and balanced. The thing that strikes me most is that the one is actually able to smell every single note that has been listed : Sandalwood, frankincense, musk, rose, geranium, vetiver and oud wood - it is all there to be noticed!
Very natural smelling overall, and most definitely unisex.

This is a subtle rose, cedar and sandalwood fragrance that is an introverted cousin of Rose 31 by Le Labo. Where Le Labo has a similar presentation, the personalities are different. In comparison, Rose 31 is more upfront, with greater projection and longevity. 10 Corso Como is wonderfully subtle and understated. A great place for a guy to experiment with rose. Why is this listed as a woman's fragrance only? Guys and gals will like this, or love this depending, on their appreciation for very subtle fragrances.

I received a sample of 10 Corso Como as a freebie. I tried it on a cool, crisp morning without much in the way of expectations and it totally wowed me! Cedar is the predominant note in 10 Corso Como but it is tempered with sweet sandalwood, musk and light incense. Having mentioned the incense, I must say that I normally find incense off-putting (no Bond Chinatown for me!). However, 10 Corso Como did not have that effect at all. Rather, the incense note was warm and woody, kind of like incense that you might find burning in a sophisticated apartment in Milan in October.

I found 10 Corso Como to be very similar to Ormonde Jayne's Isfarkand, only with a bit more warmth and without the pink pepper rush.

In closing, 10 Corso Como is an expensive smelling scent that would be the perfect to wear in the fall, just as the leaves are turning and you snuggle into a Loro Piana cashmere sweater for the first time that season.

Harsher version of Vettiveru on me. I'm surprised it is registered as 'feminine'. Stays all day though and sillage is good -- doesn't soften at all -- also very sexy imo. Cute bottle.

Kaern

I was expecting 10 Corso Como to be something like Costes. It isn’t. Costes comes on straight and strong—10 Corso Como doesn’t: It is not so attainable—it takes time, I think, because of its greater depth and subtlety. Its list of notes contains some of the most typical notes in fragrancedom: sandalwood, frankincense, musk, rose, geranium, and vetiver, and they are coupled with oud—one of the oldest fragrance notes, making 10CC bordering on mythic as well as being solidly traditional. But it has a translucent spirituality, too, and I think it should be approached primarily in terms of its translucency. It is a clean scent—its sandalwood is raw-pure and recessive and it joins seamlessly with the oud, which gives even the wood a certain airiness that works in concert with the incense. Within this translucency and airiness, 10CC’s depth and crypticness are there, too, waiting to be discovered—subtle rose, musk, and vetiver. I find 10 Corso Como both exotic and ethereal: It has a bit of sensuality but it’s really something like an iceberg—most of its message is lurking beneath the surface.

The thing that stands out most to me about this scent is the overripe plum. It adds an almost fermented fruit smell that is equally attractive and off-putting. Something about overripe fruit also smells feminine to my nose. I don't get much sandalwood until the very, very end. Throughout I get the plum, with incense and oud fleshing it out. It's good enough, but not the "wow," rich, fragrant journey that I was expecting.

This scent initiated me to the smell of the warm, artistic interpretation of "incense" used in perfume jargon. (Nothing like incense in my opinion). It continues to be one of my favorite dispite its dry, potent, rubbery smell. I might just love it because of its absolute lack of sweetness or powder and its absolute sheerness. It breezes comfortably in the back of the nose and palate like a toasty vapor, not hitting it like most of the overblended opaque men's stuff out there. It is sparse and minimal. It lasts nicely and it is evocative and distinctive. Three huge thumbs up.

I love this scent. It's a bit eccentric like all complex scents. It opens on a note of basic garage---the first impression is that it smells like a project my husband was working on. The garage smell flees quickly into that of an incense-filled cathedral. The smoky intensity is possibly sandalwood. From incense-filled Cathdral 10 Corso Como then takes me to the Beverly Hills of the 1930s and 1940s and I feel as if I am enveloped in the aroma of a sultry movie star with a smoky voice---perhaps Lauren Bacall or Ava Gardner or an exotic accent like that of Garbo, Dietrich, or Lamarr.

Overall this is a very satisfying amble from the mundane home to the divine to the exotic.

After several hours I don't pick up on the floral notes that others have mentioned but I am so seduced by the exoticism; the "Orientalism", that I'm not exactly looking for Roses. it's time for Humphrey Bogart to light me a cigarette (and I'm not a smoker!)

I have a decent sized sample and will purchase a full bottle because t10 Corso Como is like nothing else I have and does not even rhyme with anything else I own.

A spectacular fragrance if you love those scents which remind you of Church incence. It is fresh (vetyver) and woody (precious oud wood and sandalwood) and quite exotic, although pleasantly light, not heavy like DKNY Black Cashmere. It is similar to a couple of the CDG Incence Series (Avignon especially). It's very versatile in that it warms you in the cool weather and is surprisingly refreshing in hot weather. Definitely unisex.

I really love this one, cardboard, carmex gasoline, call it what you will its an original. sandalwood oud geranium vetiver rose, what a blend. reminds a little of rose d'homme from parfums de rosine