2# Nota di Viaggio - Shukran...
Meo Fusciuni (2011)

This is probably the most immediately arresting of the Nota di Viaggio trio. It smells so strongly of spearmint and citrus soap in the beginning that I feel slightly sick but also like I’m just out of the shower. This feeling is confusing to me, in that I like its unusual freshness but dislike when the line between perfumery and toothpaste is crossed so decisively, and all within the first few moments. I begin to like this accord better once the glare on the mint softens a bit, allowing me to smell the other green, aromatic notes, like lemongrass and the gentler, honeyed hay-like tones of the chamomile.

I fool myself into thinking that this is heading in a Moroccan mint tea direction when suddenly, a boldly spiced tobacco leaf note swims into view, and from then on, I smell nothing but. The tobacco accent is light, untoasted, blond almost, but also so tightly threaded with clove, cinnamon, and star anise that it smells like a very unsweet gingerbread – a pain d’epices they might serve in a medieval monastery, where honey or dried fruits are considered a mortal sin and kept far away from the kitchen. If you’ve ever smelled Tan d’Epices by Andree Putman, then this is similar – indeed, so much so that I would hazard a guess that the same material has been used here, or the tobacco leaf-spice accord built out in the same way.

But before I can start fully warming up to #2, it is gone. Poof! And I mention that because performance beyond a four hour window is important to some. On the other hand, if you love Eau d’Hadrien by Annick Goutal or Eau d’Orange Verte by Hermes, for example, and treat them for what they really are – a ‘parfum du matin’ until you put on something more serious later on in the day – then #2 Nota di Viaggio (Shukran) could be a worthy addition to your wardrobe. It is unusual in that it takes extreme freshness in a thoroughly different direction, with mint and spicy blond tobacco substituting for the more standard citrus and moss.

Beautiful, very beautiful, fresh but herbaceous mint, green and dry, never edible, spicy, citrusy with a very distinct but never intrusive base of tobacco, bright and juicy, sparkling, ideal on a summer day. Really, it is a beautiful perfume but ... unfortunately, its beauty is totally overshadowed and made useless by its absolute absence of performance that can be defined as such; we are at the level of a colony, or perhaps even less. Let's be clear, we are not talking about a perfume that projects for the first hour and lasts 4 or 5 hours; we are talking about a perfume that has no projection (you can barely smell it at 20cm from the freshly sprayed skin) and that lasts a scant 2 hours. A great pity, really.

Shukran opens with a nice, pleasant, crisp, green bittersweet note, with a bold "menthol" vibe and a sort of rubbery density (my first, not that poetic association was: sugarfree peppermint chewing gum – not for the aroma itself, more because of this "material" feature). However the menthol note is well executed and smells quite realistic, not generically "Colgate-fresh" and not (too much) synthetic, it has instead its own green depth and quite a number of bitter and darker shades. I also detect lime, a tonka note, sandalwood and white musks. I also smell some nondescript floral-pollen note, which eventually gets warmer and "all-over", like falling inside the inner nucleus of a flower. It quite surprised me when I read this scent is supposed to contain only mint and tobacco notes – I smell quite much else, and on the other side, I don't get much tobacco. After a hour or so I eventually detect some, which is however rather a generic, sweetish cigarette tobacco which may actually be anything else in that type of smell – a sort of dry leaves/hay note, with quite a bold injection of synthetic soft-woody notes (so I say "tobacco" because it's listed and I get it may be that, otherwise I would never have thought of it). Not a bad scent, just fairly dull.

6,5/10

If you are lover of mint in fragrances this mint note is very bold and kind of refreshing. When I put it on I immediately thought of Heely's Menthe Fraiche for just a bit. What follows is a green lemony very common spring scent backed up by what smells to me like light Virginia tobacco leaf. This is a fairly simple combination of mint, verbena and tobacco and it delivers on its promises with these notes. There is not too much to get excited about with this fragrance but it does smell very nice, even if its not that incredibly special of a fragrance. For anyone who is a heavy smoker, like someone in my family regrettably is, and you want to subordinate and ameliorate the strong odor of tobacco on yourself, this might be a great choice.

First impression: an exotic Mojito reminiscence about my trip in Cuba or about many many aperitifs near the shore in the southern seaside resorts in summer time. Minty, citrusy (mostly lemony) and aromatic. In a very short while a sort of tea/chamomile brewage expresses its claims inside the round of a really natural but too much "un-complex" concoction really pleasant for the lovers of the sparkling/fresh (almost fizzy) eau de cologne type of classic juices. Frankly i don't catch expressely the tobacco although in the dry down the aqueous feel recedes a bit leaving the stage to a sharper and faintly rooty/smokey aromatic vibe. The lasting power and the sillage are really poor on my skin and this element disapponts me a bit. Minimalistic. Well made but effectively unpretentious.

Notes listed are tobacco and mint but to me 2# nota di viaggio (shukran) smells more like a light blend of mint and black tea, maybe some sage...Extremely simple to result almost simplicistic.

Nice and unpretentious.