Reviews of Nasomatto Duro (2007)
by Nasomatto

Duro is my favourite scent from this relatively new house.

The opening to this woody-leather creation starts out slightly sweet and spicy (vaguely similar to SL’s Cèdre) but this is quite brief. Within seconds, the sweetness subsides to allow the leather notes to emerge. As it develops towards the drydown, the composition becomes a tad darker with the leather becoming even more apparent (but collaborating with the woody notes rather than overwhelming them). A slightly pungent, almost blunt, note does make an appearance shortly afterwards but I’m assuming this is just the leather kicking into gear. After a short while, all the notes meld together and continue to perform harmoniously.

All in all, it’s a very pleasant high-quality scent but (once again) its longevity doesn't justify the hefty price tag (nor its claim that's it's a parfum extrait).

[Original submission date: 01 August 2008]

Leather and woods. Very thick in composition (and price! good lord!). Very strong and long lasting. Feels like a retro modern scent, like those leather chypres from days of yore but made with aromachemicals and different accords namely some oud. So, we have oud, leather and woods and together, while nice smelling, won't be appealing to all. Try before you buy (as with all fragrances). I love a good woods based scent but I'm not too keen on this one due to price and a tad too much oud.

This was love at first sight for me. All notes from other reviewers ring true. But I find it rather extraordinary and mysterious and well, wonderful. Definitely a winter fragrance and projects well and lasts forever. To my mind, this is most like GP's Querelle, but better.

I get oud and leather to begin with and woods on the drydown.
Is this the strongest & loudest modern fragrance in my wardrobe? Perhaps, but it's also one that's agreeable to my tastes, I find it be well blended. This is to my mind a modernized version of the 70s and 80s powerfrags, so it would be very easy to overdo it. Applied in a conservative manner (2 sprays max) I can see this getting a lot of play during the cooler months.
Longevity is outstanding and it projects like you wouldn't believe!

this is not a very original scent, it sort of combines several 'masculine' stereotypes taken from older woods and leather scents----and hurls them into an attractive, gimmick ridden package which oozes cool. it's got a cool name, in a cool bottle, with an interesting image--------and the scent is pretty decent. an upper scale middle-of-the-road leather and tar scent with some nice woods goin on. not really saviour material, but not boring either. also not worth $150 for 30ml. cut the price in half and i'd buy a bottle.

This scent is constructed mainly of an overdose of an off-the-shelf aromachemical "Oud Base" made by Firmenich company . This chemical was intended to be rounded and complexified by natural ingredients or other accords to soften it, and it was never intended to be used in such a huge dose by itself.
Nasomatto did attempt to round it with a bit of Suederol to give it a leathery feel, but failed to overcome the bludgeon of the overdose of Oud base. This is a clumsy fragrance to those familiar with its components.

It could redeem this to use half a spritz layered with something more complex with sandalwood or incense, I suppose. But for the price, this fragrance should be a masterpiece on its own.

Two words: Okoumal overdose. At least that's what the main note smells like to me, if it's not Okoumal then it's something very similar to it. Maybe I'm overly sensitive to this particular aroma chemical, to me it seems to overpower everything else in Duro. I can detect what smells like a very nice amber/leather background, but again, it's buried beneath the dry, sharp note on top. As others have mentioned, one thing it certainly has going for it is longevity. A couple sprays should be plenty.

Smells very much like super dense, highly concentrated verion of YSL`s M7. Or is it perhaps more akin to Ormonde Jayne Man? (again, very much in denser version)

To my nose Duro is a tight blend of agarwood (synthetic, probably), vetiver, pepper, musk and amber. Its awfully "dusty" and dry in stucture wise. It almost sucks the oxygene away from me, and I really do find it eventually very suffocating. It makes my throat sore.

I basically like that aroma of Duro, absolutely.... But its just too dense and chemicalic smelling. The juice strangles me, goddammit! Like it almost could be used as a weapon.

A bitter leather opening fades quickly away to a deep, sweet (yes, it's sweet to me) woody scent with oud, sandalwood, and some nice patchouli and musk. Duro is designed for men, and the Italian word is slang for hard-on; yet, I find it more wearable for women than the dry, bitter genre of other masculine leather fragrances. Duro is big, wet, and warm, like… oh, heh, heh. Sorry about that analogy.

Duro to me is what separates a great fragrance scent from any Designer house scent.

the initial blast of sharp, yet wonderfully bright and young leather is tempered with herbal woods that seamlessly blend into the almost edible like leather notes that fiercely and beautifully project from the first second and 10 hours into wearing it. I dont care what kind of skin you have, this will last on you for at least 12 hours with strength. It is one of those that you will not get used to and feel throughout the presence wafting up to you transforming you into a mysterious sexy bike rider instantly.

I've been wearing this masterpiece for about 2 mounths till now only in the evening outs and I must say it's the most incredible masculine fragrance I've ever experienced. Created by an italian genius called Alessandro Gualtieri, he officially said that the scent aims to enhance all the manifestations of male strength and so it's naturally intended for the italian playboy type.

It's in the same vein of Kouros even though not similar scent, only even more direct and rugged, if you know what I mean. Maybe I've found my new holy grail. I agree with other reviewers it's a sillage monster.

For a strict analisys I must say that Duro belongs to the very odour of a male skin, enhanced male skin. I don't detect properly leather, but maybe musk or, much more possibly human pheromones. A chemist friend of mine, perfume fan, once told me that Nasomatto Duro is made of masculine hormones.

Anyway, don't overapply. Two spritzs on the neck is all you need for an evening battle.

This stuff is like M7 except SO much MORE refined. Heavy on the leather, but not aged, worn in leather. More like brand new leather jacket leather. Expensive leather at that. Good stuff, don't wear it in the summer tho, it doesn't quite mix well with sweat...

Isn't it just amazing how an individual's reaction to a particular fragrance can differ so radically to that of the next guy! I am a great fan of this site, but I do not often feel moved to write a review. I read the last two reviews of Duro and felt I had to add my own. This perfume is the most powerful intense, masculine fragrance for years! To use the term of the "cognoscenti", the sillage is in the realms of science fiction. If I pick a shirt out of the washbasket a week later, I can still get that wonderful refined, deep, dark and expensive aura. As for sweetness- Trebor- are you sure you werent eating a toffee apple when testing this one? This is dry, dry, dry- on me anyway. All joking apart, this is one to try for any guy who is a serious scent fan. And Trebor, as I said at the start, I'm amazed at your experience with this one, but hey, funny world if we all liked the same. To any readers, try this, it's streets ahead of 95% of what you can get out there. Not an every-day fragrance, but top-drawer evening wear.

Duro is an unabashedly, powerfully, masculine scent. There is no sweetness to this at all; it is dry like a fine extra brut champagne. The leather in Duro is nicely complimented by wood and herbs (something about this vaguely reminds me of the herbs in SL Ambre Sultan) and creates a complex scent that one immediately identifies as leather but a leather unlike any other.

This extrait has excellent longevity (8-9 hr) and a good sillage. I think this would be easy to overapply, and it would probably appeal to those who are prone to overapply.