10 Corso Como by 10 Corso Como, 1999

81% Positive Reviews

Rated #915 in Fragrances

I find this boring. It sits very close to the skin, I pretty much have to press my nose right into the skin to smell this at all. Once I put it on, Corso Como is a weak, bitter vertiver layered on dry, bleached sandalwood. There is a hint of oud around the background, but it is not very noticeable, and I am not a fan of oud. This ends up smelling both medicinal and bland; it most reminds me of a wooden tongue depressor, with something herbal at the edges. As it warms up, the vertiver comes out more, and I detect a strange sweetness. It doesn't make much difference to me; I would not recommend this.

Review by teardrop

Posted 1/3/13

By teardrop

l have seen this one compared to Costes, but to my nose the two are quite different. l get a strong woody incense in the opening, but none of the rose. What l get instead is a note l can only compare to sweet pickle. l keep hoping it will go away, but having noticed it, l cannot ignore it. l sense a rather friendly oudh trying to get out from beneath it, but the pickle note just ruins this fragrance for me. lt hasn't changed at all when the fragrance fades out around four hours in, but at least the projection is mercifully low, otherwise l would have scrubbed it off long before that.

Review by odysseusm

Posted 11/24/11

By odysseusm

Here are the notes I saw listed: sandalwood, frankincense, musk, rose, geranium, vetiver, Malay oud. This is a very subtle, close to the skin scent. The incense is very smooth, and the sandalwood is creamy. There are mere hints of green-coniferous frankincense and rose; and even a fainter hint of tangy oud. Overall the scent is beautiful, perhaps just a bit too smooth and restrained to really attract my attention. However, I cannot fault it and I am sure that many will find it very nice.

Review by darvant

Posted 10/6/11

By Darvant

I appreciate the clean complexity and translucency of this silent incensey fragrance. It reminds me a sort of less aromatic and slightly more incensey kind of Cardinal. The woodsy smell conjures to me a green graveyard with some smoke around, the aromatic odour of moss and pine resins soaring in the air, the smell of white roses and geraniums coming out from the chapels and the fruity aroma of the country around whirling under your nose. The blend of sandalwood and incense, the backbone of the fragrance, is perfectly balanced and aromatized by the woodsy chord of musk and resins. The vetiver expresses its words since the beginning but is not rooty indeed smooth and civilized in its link with a touch of amber. The final outcome is woodsy and incensey remaining clean and moody without traces of dustiness or prickliness. The mysterious, almost sinister, aura exuded reminds me a bit Serge Noir that smells more sweet and mellow under my nose. A well made fragrance for solitary souls under the sky.

Review by sherapop

Posted 7/8/11

By sherapop

CORSO COMO 10 occupies the same olfactory neighborhood as FEU D'ISSEY, but is said to be for men not women (QED). The story here is strong spicy woodiness. The source of the spice is incense/oud and the dominant wood is sandalwood. The overall feeling is very warm and powerful, as this eau de parfum has real heft with fairly big sillage. CC 10 is a good example of a wrist sniffer that is not at all sweet. The composition really has an addictive quality such that I find my nose naturally drawn to me wrists despite the cloud of sillage. This is a substantive woody oriental that I'd love to add to my collection for cold weather wear. Indisputably unisex, CC 10 would work for anyone who likes FEU D'ISSEY, and also some who do not, since the troubling wet-woody opening is nowhere to be found here. No, not at all.

Review by adele h

Posted 2/1/11

By adele h

Still my absolute favorite sandalwood based fragrance- though much smoother if you can find an older formulation with real sandalwood. Incredibly clean and pleasant, lasts a whole work day on my skin. 10 CC has enough nuance and depth to avoid smelling of a cedar closet ( sorry Tam Dao ). The boyfriend has told me it smells like Ajax ( a cleaning powder) but this has not dissuaded me or other women who have smelled it on me..lovely and very wearable.

Review by nile_etland

Posted 10/9/10

By Nile_Etland

I first bought this about 7-8 years ago from Liberty's in London and was quite blown away by it - tremendous sandalwood and rich, spicy oudh, drying down to a sort of rosy incense - all in all, smooth, sophisticated and unusual.

Current bottle bought about 2008 and it's not quite the same. You still get the sandalwood/oudh and it still dries down quite elegantly but the quality has changed and I think it's in the sandalwood which comes over a bit stonger and somewhat harsh. It's still a very pleasant fragrance but not as beautiful as before and I'm not sure that I'm going to be in the market for another bottle.

I'll give it a thumbs-up - but only just.

Review by agent betty

Posted 5/18/10

By Agent Betty

I loved this, but then I can't get enough of sandalwood and rose whether they be alone, featured in other frags, or happily merged together.

10 Corso Como didn't change too much on my skin after the first 20 mintues, just stayed a cuddly warm dry rosy sandalwood. However, the incense occasionally peeks out, as does the clean medicinal halo of what I guess is the agarwood.

Lovely! But hard to find. Anyone know who carries this in Canada?

Review by somerville metro man

Posted 12/10/09

By Somerville Metro Man

10 Corso Como

Sometimes perfume is simple. Sometimes the fragrance just does what it is supposed to do. It always acts the same on my skin and it always produces the same response in me. 10 Corso Como, named after Carla Sozzani's Milan clothing boutique, is one of those fragrances for me.

Olivier Gillotin is the perfumer behind this 1999 release and he uses some very common notes and doesn't really ask them to do anything more than exist. The art here is the balance he brings to 10 Corso Como which makes it so wearable.

The top of 10 Corso Como begins with a zephyr of sandalwood and incense and that zephyr never stops blowing those notes to my nose. Eventually the breeze shifts slightly and it blows past a rose bush and I get a nice rose note with the sandalwood and incense. Then the best part of 10 Corso Como comes when the oud appears. The slight medicinal quality of agarwood is appropriate counterpoint to the slightly sweet sandalwood and incense. This middle phase of 10 Corso Como is the best part of the development. The finale is a mix of vetiver and musk which add an air of familairity to things at the end.

10 Corso Como has below average longevity and average sillage on me. This isn't a work day fragrance for me because it doesn't last long enough but it is a great nighttime fragrance because it does last long enough for an evening out.

10 Corso Como is one of those fragrances I reach for when I'm getting a sandalwood or incense craving and it scratches that olfactory itch for me every time.