Reviews of Pino Silvestre by Silvestre

A nice clean everyday scent, opens with pine, basil and an almost menthol opening. Very refreshing and very light. Dries to a subtle pine smell, good cheap scent for everyday wear without breaking the bank. Does not last long, maybe a couple of hours and needs frequent tough ups. However it is clean, fresh and good for anytime.

My least favorite pine centered fragrance that can't hold a scented candle to other legends like the Original Silvestre by Victor (1946) or it's big brother Acqua di Selva by Victor (1949), the 2 fragrances Pino Silvestre is most commonly compared to.

6/10

pity that it has been further reformulated and watered down. it is much lighter than the one I used as a kid over 20 years ago, but it still remains very pleasant and fresh. Suitable after a shower to have a refreshing and energizing effect, or to wear for a short outing without obligation (such as taking the dog down, etc.). It is always and in any case very pleasant to smell, very masculine.

What I get is a fresh, powerful citrus, a touch of thyme, and a dollop of pine. When the citrus starts dying down I can detect some basil too. But don't expect anything complex, after all it is named after pinus sylvestris and the bottle is shaped like a pine cone.

Pino Silvestre is what old men in Italy have worn from the mid-fifties onwards. That popularity means the scent got heavily assimilated into industrial products. Personally, I am incapable of not being reminded of the green car fresheners by Little Trees or Magic Trees or Arbre Magique or whatever they're called in your neck of the woods, but I can still enjoy Pino on some level. The newer versions smell more synthetic to me - beware.

Mine is a splash bottle from the late 80s so I don't have to deal with the renowned messy sprayer. On my skin the juice projects for about an hour, becomes a skin scent within 2 hours, and lasts maybe 5 which is good for something that costs less than €10.

Masculinity Level: The tragic figure that is Swamp Thing.

Ahh, the great fragcomm punchline that is Pino Silvestre.

Seriously though, for all the derision flung at poor Pino, it is definitely not the worst-smelling frag. Not by a long shot. You have to give credit to what my nose detects as natural oregano (where is it in the note breakdown!? it is THERE), thyme, and caraway oils. And for a pine scent, it thankfully isn't overdosed with Pine Sol-esque Isobornyl Acetate. It's actually fairly balanced, if not a bit skeletal.

I could see Pino as good for layering with a rose or patchouli scent. Or it could be layered with other conifer-centric scents, like Yatagan.

7.5/10.

Ah nostalgia and memories can play havoc with my middle aged brain. So many font memories of colognes from my childhood and early memories of looking forward to manhood.

I am a collector and have many vintage fragrances in my collection. I recently purchased this at a discounter for less than $20.

Huge anticipation of pine forest, fresh, barbershop fragrance so I was so disappointed when I got hit by the smell of mothballs, yes nasty mothballs

I cannot recollect the original fragrance but this is nasty stuff with no redeeming features what so ever - AVOID

Argh. The reformulation of this wonderful classic is a disaster.
Pine? No, an overdose of Cloves. It's more Easter Ham than Christmas Tree. I thought I received a bad bottle so I purchased another bottle to be certain. Same clove blast. While the original was a pine journey through an Italian forest the reformulation is a spicey clove fest that is unpleasant and cloying.

Mediterranean legend, a quick escape to the forest, timeless.

In one of Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther books, his detective hero is on the run and working as a concierge in an hotel on the French Riviera. It's still in the early years after WWII, and Bernie is penniless. One of his only luxuries is a bottle of Pino Silvestre that one of the guests left in their room. Bernie's a smart cop and smart about cologne too. Pino is the Old Spice of Italy. It's full of botanicals and more often I get hints of rosemary than any pine. But who's complaining? It can be had for pennies and has one of the best amber drydowns ever. It also has zero sillage, like many aftershaves, but at this price point, just re-apply. Get yourself the bodywash as well in the huge green plastic pine cone bottle and revel in it a bit. You don't have to tell anyone you're wearing Pino. Like Bernie, you can be a bit incognito and hold your cards close to your chest. Pino is something you wear for you. Which in the end is all that matters.

Sampled from a recent (reformulated?) tester. Pino Silvestre opens with a bright, slightly camphorous lemon and herbal (thyme?) note, which transitions to more garden/kitchen herbs (rosemary?), then a dominant floral-lavender musk that remains rather jagged and piercing for the first half hour before it smoothes out and settles down, and a balanced lemon-herb-musk accord emerges. The lemon-lavender-herbs combination, along with the bright, jagged intensity of the opening, all create associations with cleaning products for the first half hour, after which the herbal-musk accord takes it in a more earthy, natural direction. While the bright lemon-thyme opening creates a loose impression of pine, I don't detect any pine or coniferous notes for the rest of its run.

Although I was expecting to like this more than Agua Brava because of reviews saying the herbs made PS a more complex fragrance, I prefer the subtle handling of vetiver, musk, and woods in reformulated AB, which also has a bit better longevity. PS fades to skin scent in 1–2 hours. Perhaps the vintage version is more impressive . . .

Go to Italy, and you are bound to smell this on a few people. Yes, it smells like pine, and some more pine. However, the dry down brings on a plesant hint of spice and basil. not one of my favorites, and I rarley wear this during the summer, as it does remind me of Christmas time. Not a beast in projection, it's just right.

Definitely interesting to own as a reference piece and night time novelty. For some reason, despite not having a boozy note, this immediately reminds me of herbal licquers. My impression of the pine is that it's a nice, warm dark green.

To be honest I doubt I'll ever wear this our of the house. As much as I love herbal and green aspects normally, the medicinal, licquerish edge this has in my mind just isn't something I feel like I could rock in public.

Having said that, I really like it, I don't regret the purchase (particularly not for the price) and I think it's worth having a sniff. Thumbs up.

This is a traditional old school fragrance. Not for everyone. You have to let this grow on you to appreciate it. If you are not a fan of peppery pine scents with hints of wood and very little sweetness then this is not for you. It did take several years for me to actually like this juice. It is linear on my skin and lasts around 3 to 4 hours. For the price its a safe blind buy. Enjoy!

Ps... it's a thyme bomb...

Pino Silvestre came as a surprise to me. I have seen it for years and assumed that I must have smelled it on men in Italy on visits there. When I finally bought a bottle-blind-it surprised me that it was not as pine-focused as the name, reputation and marketing might suggest and that it rang no olfactory bells. It just did not smell familiar in the way that other widely worn fragrances smell in their home countries (Tabac, for example).

What I got was a strong clove note right at the start-a real dentist's office smell. Then there were herbs as only the Italians can do them (R de Capucci, I am looking at you) and finally whole pencils-the wood, the eraser, the graphite/lead. Lurking in the background is a pine note and it is good that it is not so strong that it brings Pinesol and other cleaning supplies to mind but where, I wondered, were the larmes de pin the marketing copy promised? Where was any reference to sunny Italy? I was expecting Respighi's "The Pines of Rome" (even though I know this hails from Venice) in a pinecone shaped bottle and instead got a school satchel left in a dentist's waiting room.

Wearing it now for a few days has allowed it to grow on me-the dry herbs, cedar pencils and faint pine note are actually very nice, dry and masculine. It does well in the summer heat and will also be a great scent for fall and beyond. Wearing it yesterday, I was smelling it on myself and all of a sudden had a vivid flashback to a time when, as a student, I was stranded in the train station in Turin (don't ask). I sat there for hours watching-and smelling-the humanity going by and sure enough, I remember the smell of Pino Silvestre in the air. One of the smells of Italy after all.

Pino Silvestre has been a cologne that I have seen either online or in person for decades now. For one reason or another, I never got around to testing this legendary scent until now.

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Says the outside of the box:
"PINE GEMS ESSENCE - The purest tears trickle onto the pinecones releasing the fresh scent of the pine needles [sic] intense and balmy fragrance.

PINO SILVESTRE ORIGINAL - Created in the fifties from a blend of twelve natural oils. Pino Silvestre is still being made in Venice with the same dedication following the most rigorous methods to meet the strong, irresistible need for nature inherent in every one of us. The Original Fragrance from Nature"

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Initial spray-on starts out with the strong presence of the spice (the clary sage) and flowers (lavender plus geranium); this is followed with a slight touch of the introductory citrus peel notes of bergamot and lemon. Pine definitely sticks out in my bottle of this cologne, in the manner of my grabbing a handful of pine needles and taking a direct sniff versus a clarified, refined syrup per se.

This pine essence really catches my fancy, bringing back many years of fond memories (disconnected as they may be) of whenever I've beheld this intoxicating, comforting smell of nature.

There is a mossiness that emerges soon thereafter that adds the further natural intrigue of my being in a real forest of pine trees somewhere. Musk is barely present, which is fine; amber appears to seep through the mix of spice and florals as a convincing foundation for all the notes to settle upon. And I do detect one of my other favorite wood notes, cedarwood, appearing as a laid back neighbor that doesn't compete nor try to overshadow the star of the show: Pine.

No Pine-Sol vibe at all here (I didn't say that I DON'T like Pine-Sol fragrance, lol); this is a natural pine sensation that doesn't smell synthesized. Also, there is no sweet note added in, as in Coty's Aspen cologne (also heavily pine-themed).

This is a great kicking it around the house type scent that acts like an aromatherapeutic oil. It can be used in casual outings at different times of year, and personally I admire the timeless, sincere quality of this product (and for a very affordable price in just about every venue I'd seen it sold).

Pino Silvestre isn't for everyone; it definitely has an old-school flair to it that young wearers may feel challenged by. For a middle-aged man like me, I can see myself wearing and enjoying this, whether others notice it or not.

This is a traditional cologne from Italy. Like most traditional herbal Italian colognes I've tried, I get a strong smell of Italian herbs, especially thyme. The overall makeup of the herbs together however makes sort of a pine-like scent, even though there isn't actually any pine note in this cologne. However the dominant note in this is thyme, and there are no pine notes like in Ralph Lauren Polo or Antonio Puig's Quorum in this. There is no sweetness, and it has an overall dry feel. It reminds me more of herbs I would put on a pizza than an actual forest due to the thyme note (but that's not a bad thing, as it smells pretty good). It's very green and extremely herbal. Sillage is moderate while longevity is pretty good. The bottle - shaped like a pinecone - is one of the most interesting ones I've ever seen in a cologne. Overall, it's an interesting Italian herbal fragrance with 0 sweetness and a cool bottle, and not bad for $10. This is definitely not a safe blind buy however, as it is very different from the regular Western perfume due to its spicy herbal nature. But for me, it's one of the greatest mens' colognes ever made due to its Italian cologne style and good projection, with that green scent. It's like Acqua di Gio Essenza but more herbal and with pine instead of aquatic notes.

5/5

I get merely just a base of lemon and amber to build that sharp and resinous/sticky body.Tweaks of dry herbs give it a green side while the lemon draws out more clarity.It's a pretty good take on a pine-cone I'll give it that to Pino Silvestre.Despite it's almost skin scent projection and 2-3 hour longevity that bitter/resinous sap smell(amber and herbs) can get to you at times in warm weather because amber is also sweet...comes off kind of odd and hard to wear.

I love the bottle though!

A lot has been spoken on behalf of this scent, and several Italian friends tell me it's about as ubiquitous in their home country as Old Spice is in the US. That statement alone had me approach Pino Silvestri with some trepidation because anything that widespread is bound to be downmarketed into oblivion, with the personality of a Windex bottle. Luckily, this is not the case at all with Pino, and it's quite the shocker as it does not smell at all like it's name or packaging would have one believe. First thing's first about Pino Silvestri: the current IP holder of the fragrance (Mavive S.p.a) has probably done the most of the aforementioned speaking on behalf of this scent, and the current website/packaging for the scent treats the stuff like it's "Blood from the Golden Child" or something, which is kinda scary and funny at the same time. "The purest tears trickle onto the pine cones releasing the fresh scent of the pine needles intense and balmy fragrance" is but one hyperbolic snippet to be found on the box, and there's plenty more where it came from both there and on the website for the stuff. Let me tell ya, the actual product is nowhere near as mystifying as that, but I'm sure you've already guessed as much. All the myriad flankers (also in pine cone bottles) tell me that this stuff must still be damn near a drugstore institution of a product line back home in Italy, while folks here in the states chuckle at it and just keep wearing their cheapened plastic bottle Old Spice (1937); kinda funny, that.

Pino Silvestri does indeed smell like pine, but not singularly, and not in a manner that reminds you of cleansers such as Pine-Sol, or the stuff you spray on artificial Christmas trees. Granted, pine is pine so you'd better like it if you're even thinking about trying this stuff, but built around that pine heart note is so much more. The stuff is almost built like a fougère but lacks some of the key notes to define it as such, and really makes me think of Penhaligon's Bleheim Bouquet or Avon's Windjammer in that it has a very strong peppery accord. Pino Silvestri does not actually contain any black pepper like those other two, but the combination of sage and geranium around the pine, plus the rather up-front bergamot, and cedarwood down in the base all just swirl into something peppery and bold anyway. The whole thing wears like a lovely alert and fresh scent for the man that needs all the boost he can get beyond his coffee to perk up, and although this completely murders any potential in the romance or evening wear department, it does make Pino Silvestri a very good shaving buddy and work scent. If you live in an area where pine is plentiful, like my Pacific Northwest home, this is almost a shoe-in scent for your collection, especially for the Trader Joe's and R.E.I.-shopping types that drive muddy Subarus and wear sandals in the winter. Blenheim Bouquet (1902) comes to mind wearing Pino Silvestre, just with the pine being less of a focus and having a true black pepper note. Blenheim Bouquet came before so there is definitely some serious inspiration here. Later on Avon would also make Windjammer (1968), a scent that also attempted this vibe but without pine, the pepper dialed down, and more airy notes dialed up to make smell like an ocean breeze. They're all kind of kissing cousins though.

Pino won't appeal to the folks who want sophistication, nor will it really be relevant to the fans of sweet or cool scents, as it's neither a club-hopping oriental/gourmand nor a sporty/blue gym scent. It is quite fresh, but a different kind of by-gone outdoorsy freshness that used to be how "bracing" sport scents of the 50's, 60's, and 70's were made, pretty much right up to the advent of the aquatic in the late 80's. Pino Silvestri has a huge line of other products to fill one's bathroom and shower stall, as this stuff is quite the seller in Italy as mentioned before, plus has the prerequisite soaps and such as a popular commercial scent would need to cast a wider net. It's a really brisk scent for the winter holidays, again due to it's pine construction, and might wear good in all other seasons but especially the dead heat of summer, where it works to really cool the senses, not disappearing under high humidity like others. If you're a fan of pine and like the idea of a pine-laced day wear scent that won't really impress or offend, then this is a cheap thrill, but otherwise, it's not really much more than the sum of it's fairly simple parts. Oh by the way, you can't reuse the bottle as a Christmas ornament, sorry. Another Basenoter affectionately calls this "Guerlain for Geezers", and I can sort of see it, as it is rather stately like the aforementioned Blenheim Bouquet, with dryness and poise, but can still be purchased on a pensioner's income. Good stuff!

Purchased Pino Silvestre in a bargain bin for $12 because I had never seen it before and I noticed that it is worn fairly frequently by several respected BN members. It's about what I expected for the money; a lemon, lavender and pine opening that's highly synthetic smelling and lasts no more than 5 minutes. The opening chemical concoction is then followed by a huge blast of untamed clove. While clove isn't listed in the scent pyramid, it's mostly all you get for the next hour. There's a faint pine like scent lingering in the background, but I was expecting more considering the bottle is a green pinecone. Late in the hour a cedar and musk faintly appears, and is probably the best stage, but it's barely above a skin scent. The whole thing is gone within 90 minutes. It's not terrible for $12, which is the main reason I'll give it a neutral. It screams 1950's lounge lizard. I'll probably just wear it whenever I'm in a kitschy mood.

Pine-Sol for children.
Guerlain for geezers. Time's the
Land of Glass Pinecones.

The current formulation of Pino Silvestre is a skin scent as soon as sprayed from bottle. Today I did 10 spritzes and by the time I got to work 1 hour later it was gone. It is a disgrace to Lino Vidal, the creator of this cologne to even have his name still associated with it. The bottle I had in the 70's was a real winner but time has been quite unkind to this one.

Stardate 20160913:

This is one of the unfortunate ones. Killed by reformulation.
The new version has no depth. Pinesol clone :(.

But the vintage on the other hand has all heft. Pine on top and nice wood and amber later on.

Thumbs up for vintage
Thumbs down for current version.
Therefore a neutral rating.

Well, of course I was expecting pine. What I go instead was a clean, dry peppery basil with just a hint of juniper. So refreshing, it's easy to see why this classic endures. So delightful, it's easy to forgive it for NOT being laden with pine.

True, it won't last all day or announce your presence across the room, but there is a time and place for everything.

The bottle is charming and hearkens back to an era before wi-fi AND hi-fi.