Nasomatto
Micodelirio
The Story
Micodelirio joins mico and delirio, and the mushroom reference is deliberate. It is framed as a natural vital delirium and a flourishing ecosystem of organic disobedience, aimed at loosening the rules a person imposes on their own identity.
Earthy
Damp soil after the rain
The mineral smell of wet ground, root vegetables pulled from the dirt, and beets turned over in a garden. Cool, raw, and faintly bitter, it grounds a fragrance with the dark, humid breath of the forest floor.
Woody
Dry grain of cut timber
The smell of cedar shavings, sandalwood, and dry vetiver roots, a sanded, resinous warmth with a faint pencil-box rasp. It feels grounded and composed, the quiet backbone that makes a scent read as serious and lasting.
Green
Crushed leaves and cut stems
The sharp, sappy scent of crushed leaves, snapped stems, and bruised grass, cool and slightly bitter with a vivid living freshness. It feels vibrant and outdoorsy, like a garden just after pruning, raw and unmistakably alive.
Sweet
Edible warmth on the skin
A rounded, sugary character that suggests caramel, honey, or spun candy without any single one dominating. It reads as comforting and indulgent, the gourmand pull that makes a fragrance feel soft, inviting, and almost good enough to taste.
Spicy
Heat that prickles the nose
A pungent, peppery warmth of black pepper, cardamom, and dry red chili that stings and tingles. It brings energy and bite, the crackle of a market spice stall, vivid and assertive, raising the temperature of everything around it.
Mushroom
Damp forest floor, held at a trace
What it is
Mushroom is an earthy note built mostly from aroma chemicals rather than picked and pressed. A genuine natural does exist: cepes absolute, solvent-extracted from Boletus edulis, the porcini. Most mushroom effects in modern perfumery, though, are reconstructions around a single molecule that fungi make for themselves.
How it smells
The character is damp forest floor: cool soil, torn leaf, the inside of a cut cap. There is a metallic edge to it, and an oily, faintly fatty weight underneath. Pushed too far it turns raw and savoury, closer to uncooked chicken than to woodland.
In perfumery
The workhorse is 1-octen-3-ol, known as mushroom alcohol, with an odour threshold in the parts per billion, so it is dosed in traces. It sits well in chypres and fougères, under oakmoss, vetiver and guaiacwood, where it reads as humus rather than as mushroom. Geosmin is often set beside it for wet soil.
Good to know
Mushrooms make 1-octen-3-ol in the cap and gills by breaking down a fatty acid, which is why the smell sharpens the moment one is torn. The molecule has two mirror forms: one reads mushroom, the other mouldy and grassy. It also turns up in cheeses, and it attracts mosquitoes.
Damp Earth
The smell of rain landing on dry ground
What it is
Damp earth is an accord rather than a raw material. No soil is distilled for perfumery, so the effect has to be constructed. Its anchor is geosmin, a bicyclic alcohol released by soil bacteria such as Streptomyces, by cyanobacteria, and by beetroot, which is why a raw beetroot smells of the ground.
How it smells
Cool, mineral and dark. Turned clay, a cellar floor, rinsed roots pulled from a bed. Petrichor is the name Isabel Joy Bear and Richard Thomas gave in 1964 to the smell of rain falling on dry ground, and this accord follows it. The nose catches geosmin at parts per trillion.
In perfumery
Geosmin is worked in traces and usually bought already diluted, since neat material floods a formula and turns it to mud. At a low dose it does not read as soil at all. It lends green notes, roots and white flowers a grown-in-the-ground realism. Petrichor accords set it against mineral and airy materials.
Good to know
Patchouli and vetiver are called earthy too, but the earthiness is a different one. Both are plant distillations resting on heavy sesquiterpene alcohols, patchoulol in one and khusimol in the other, and both run warm, woody and sweet. Damp earth stays cold and wet, closer to stone than to root.
Oakmoss
The damp green soul of the forest floor
What it is
Oakmoss is not a true moss but a lichen, Evernia prunastri, growing on oak and other deciduous bark across temperate Europe and North Africa, notably the Balkans, France and Morocco. The harvested thalli are solvent-extracted into a dark, viscous concrete and absolute, the raw materials used in perfumery.
How it smells
Deeply earthy and forest-green, with damp bark, wet stone and a leathery, inky undertone. A dry, faintly bitter mossiness carries marine and tar-like facets. The effect is shadowy rather than fresh, evoking the cool floor beneath old trees after rain has soaked the ground.
In perfumery
A base note and the backbone of the chypre family, lending structure, depth and a vintage signature. It pairs classically with bergamot, labdanum and patchouli. It defines the great peach-spiced chypres and the green core of classic galbanum florals, plus countless mossy fougères and masculines.
Good to know
Oakmoss extracts contain atranol and chloroatranol, potent skin allergens the EU prohibited outright in cosmetics in 2017 (Regulation 2017/1410, applying from August 2019). IFRA separately requires low-atranol grades, each molecule below 100 ppm in the extract, and caps the extract itself at 0.1% in fine fragrance; that older ceiling, not the atranol measures, is what quietly reshaped how the classic chypre smells.
Tree Bark
A built accord of dry wood and smoke
What it is
Tree bark is an accord rather than a single raw material. There is no general bark oil. Perfumers assemble the impression from woody and smoky ingredients, because most trees give their oil from heartwood, sawdust or resin instead. Cedarwood oil, for example, is distilled from wood chips and sawmill dust, not from the outer layer.
How it smells
Dry and slightly rough, closer to sawn timber left outdoors than to fresh sap. A thin smoke runs through it, along with a mineral dustiness and a bitter edge that stops the wood turning sweet. Underneath there is often a damp, shaded coolness, as though the piece had been lifted off the ground.
In perfumery
The smoky spine usually comes from birch tar or cade oil, each produced by heating the wood without air until it breaks down into a dark tar. Cedarwood supplies the dry structure, and vetiver, moss or a little spice fill in around it. Both tars are forceful and are dosed in traces.
Good to know
Crude birch tar and crude cade oil are prohibited as fragrance ingredients under IFRA standards because of their polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon content, and only rectified, purified grades may be used. Bark does yield oil in a few cases: cinnamon bark, and cascarilla, the steam-distilled bark of Croton eluteria, peppery and woody.
Cut Grass
Freshly cut lawn, green and rain-cooled
What it is
The scent of green grass and cut lawns, drawn from green naturals like galbanum and violet leaf or reconstructed from aroma-chemicals. The signature comes largely from cis-3-hexenol and cis-3-hexenyl acetate, leaf-alcohol molecules that plants release the instant their blades are torn or crushed.
How it smells
Sharp, cool and vividly green: the unmistakable smell of a just-mowed lawn, watery and slightly bitter with a sap-like crushed-stem bite. It can lean hay-sweet and dry or dewy and crisp, often carrying a faint cucumber, mint or wet-earth coolness underneath.
In perfumery
A bright top note adding freshness, realism and an outdoor, springlike lift, used in green florals, fougeres and aromatic-fresh scents. It pairs with violet leaf, galbanum, citrus and tomato leaf. The mown-grass effect features prominently in fresh sport, cologne and garden-themed fragrances.
Good to know
The smell of fresh-cut grass is a plant distress signal. The leaf-alcohol and aldehyde compounds released, called green leaf volatiles, are part of a wound response that can warn neighbouring plants and even summon insects that prey on the creatures eating it. Beauty born of injury.
Woods
The dry warm backbone that holds a fragrance together
What it is
Not one plant but a family of materials drawn from tree heartwood, roots and bark: cedar, sandalwood, guaiac, agarwood, plus vetiver roots. Oils are mostly steam-distilled from milled or chipped wood, while synthetics like Iso E Super and cedryl acetate are built in the lab from petrochemical or terpene feedstock.
How it smells
Dry, warm and grainy at the core, ranging from the pencil-shaving sharpness of cedar to the creamy, milky softness of sandalwood. Smoky, tarry facets surface in guaiac, damp earthy ones in vetiver. The character opens crisp, then settles into a smooth, lasting hum beneath everything else.
In perfumery
Mostly a base note, lending structure, longevity and a tactile backbone that grounds lighter top materials. Woods pair naturally with rose, leather, incense and ambers. Many modern classics ride on a cedar-and-vetiver base, while creamy Australian-sandalwood and cedarwood woods accords anchor others.
Good to know
Mysore sandalwood was so overharvested that India placed strict bans on most raw exports, sending prices soaring and pushing perfumers toward Australian-grown Santalum album and synthetics. Iso E Super, a woody-amber blend of isomers first used commercially in the 1970s, now appears in countless modern wood accords.
Fruity Notes
An orchard in a bottle, sun-warmed and dripping
What it is
An umbrella term for accords evoking edible fruit beyond citrus: peach, apple, pear, berry, plum, lychee. Few come from real fruit, which yields little usable scent. Most are built from aroma-chemicals such as gamma-undecalactone for peach or ethyl maltol for candied warmth, blended into convincing impressions.
How it smells
Juicy, sweet and round, spanning crisp green apple and pear, jammy red berry, syrupy plum and tropical lychee. Lactones lend creamy, skin-of-the-fruit softness while esters add nail-polish brightness on top. Most accords shift from fresh, sappy bite to candied warmth as they dry down.
In perfumery
Usually a top-to-heart accent adding lift, sweetness and approachability, softening woods or brightening florals. It is foundational to fruity-florals and gourmands. The style shows in the berry-patchouli of the landmark orientals, the crisp apple of modern fresh fruity-florals, and the famous peach-skin warmth threading through the great vintage chypres.
Good to know
The peach in classic perfume is rarely real peach. Gamma-undecalactone, nicknamed Aldehyde C-14 although it is chemically a lactone, was first synthesized in 1908. A pioneering perfumer used it in a 1919 chypre, giving the scent its signature fuzzy, fruity warmth.
Patchouli
Damp earth and dark wood after rain
What it is
Patchouli comes from Pogostemon cablin, a leafy bush in the mint family native to tropical Asia and grown overwhelmingly in Indonesia, with smaller crops in India and elsewhere in tropical Asia. The harvested leaves are dried and lightly cured or fermented, then steam-distilled or hydrodistilled into a thick, dark essential oil.
How it smells
Deeply earthy and woody, like damp forest floor, wet soil and old cellars, threaded with a winey, slightly sweet darkness. Fresh oil can read sharp, almost camphorous and green; with age it rounds into chocolate, leather and dried-fruit warmth that clings for hours.
In perfumery
A base note and powerful fixative, patchouli anchors a composition and lengthens its wear. It forms the backbone of chypres and orientals, pairing with rose, vetiver, labdanum and vanilla. It defines many gourmand-oriental blends and carries the woody-balsamic heart of plush chypre accords.
Good to know
In the 19th century, real Kashmiri shawls were packed with dried patchouli leaves to repel moths in transit, so Europeans learned to recognise genuine imports by smell. Unlike most essential oils, patchouli improves with age, deepening and mellowing over years much like wine.
Fragrance Character
It opens almost edible, sweet ripe fruit over a green snap of cut grass, before the forest closes in: mushroom, wet soil and moss thickening into bark, damp wood and earthy patchouli. The sweetness never fully leaves, but it is pulled underground, leaving something that smells less like a perfume than like rain on a forest floor. It stays close to the skin, earthy and faintly fruity, for hours.
Longevity
how long it stays on skin
This gauge reads the expected wear time, how many hours the fragrance keeps speaking on skin before it fades. A marker near the low end means a few fleeting hours, while a marker pushed to the far end promises a scent still present from morning into night.
Sillage
the size of its scent trail
This reads how far the fragrance reaches beyond you and the trail it leaves behind. Low sits soft against the skin, an intimate whisper noticed only up close; high climbs through moderate and strong toward enormous, filling a room and lingering in the air after you have left it.
Experimental
For the bold and curious
Unconventional, boundary-pushing scents for someone who wants to provoke a reaction and stand apart. Suited to artistic, challenging compositions: inky tar, rubber, fermented fruit, metallic or animalic facets that defy easy liking. On this wheel a glowing coin means it rewards the adventurous nose, a dim one means it plays things safe.
Office
Polished but never overpowering
Close-quarters professional settings where a scent should be noticed only by those near you. Suited to restrained, clean compositions with modest projection: tidy citrus, soft musk, pale woods that read competent and considerate. On this wheel a glowing coin means it works in shared workspaces, a dim one means it carries too far.
Evening
After dark, turned up
Dinners, drinks, and nights out when a fragrance can deepen and project with confidence. Suited to richer, warmer compositions: ambers, resins, smoky woods, or plush florals that bloom under low light. On this wheel a glowing coin means the scent comes alive after sundown, a dim one means it stays better suited to daytime.
Romantic
Close enough to be felt
Intimate moments and date nights meant to draw someone nearer. Suited to warm, sensual compositions that hum against skin: creamy florals, vanilla, soft musk, a touch of spice or amber that invites closeness. On this wheel a glowing coin means it sets an alluring mood, a dim one means it leans more practical than seductive.
Formal
Refined for the occasion that matters
Weddings, ceremonies, galas, and dressed-up affairs that call for composure and elegance. Suited to polished, structured scents with quiet authority: smooth woods, refined florals, soft leather, nothing loud or playful. On this wheel a glowing coin means it carries the right gravitas, a dim one means it feels too casual for the room.
Casual
Easy comfort for unhurried days
Everyday wear with no agenda: errands, coffee, friends, a slow weekend. Suited to soft, approachable scents that feel clean and natural, like fresh citrus, light woods, or a gentle skin warmth. On this wheel a glowing coin means the fragrance fits these laid-back moments, a dim one means it asks for more.
Day to Night
where its mood naturally falls
This slider reads the hour the fragrance was made for. A marker to the left leans luminous and bright, easy in daylight and open air; slide it right and the character turns deeper and warmer, the kind of presence that belongs to evening and candlelit rooms.
Winter
Warmth that carries through cold air
Cold air mutes and slows a fragrance, so winter rewards the dense and the warm: resins, smoke, vanilla, leather, and ambered spice that radiate heat against the chill. The bar shows how strongly this particular scent holds up and glows in cold weather.
Spring
Fresh blooms in mild, rising warmth
Mild, humid air lifts lighter compositions beautifully, so spring favors dewy florals, green stems, soft powder, and transparent citrus that feel alive rather than heavy. The bar shows how well this particular scent matches that fresh, gently warming season.
Summer
Bright and airy in real heat
Heat amplifies and projects scent hard, so summer calls for cool, crisp, breathable things: sharp citrus, salty marine air, aromatic herbs, and watery freshness that refresh instead of cloy. The bar shows how comfortably this particular scent wears in real warmth.
Fall
Spiced warmth for cooling days
As temperatures drop, richer materials read clearly without smothering, so autumn suits dry woods, warm spice, tobacco, amber, and golden fruit that feel cozy and contemplative. The bar shows how naturally this particular scent settles into crisp, cooling days.
Best Worn
Made for autumn and cool, damp days, worn by someone who wants a fragrance that smells of living earth rather than something merely pretty, a quiet provocation rather than an easy win.
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The Vibe
The Nose
Alessandro Gualtieri
Founder and perfumer
Italian perfumer who began in a German fragrance lab, then made scents for Fendi, Versace and Helmut Lang before founding his own Amsterdam houses Nasomatto and Orto Parisi. He composes them himself, including Nasomatto Black Afgano, Nasomatto Silver Musk, Orto Parisi Megamare and Orto Parisi Bergamask.
More by this noseMegamareBlack AfganoBaraonda
The Maison
Nasomatto
Gualtieri’s wordless extraits. Short names, long shadows, small vials.
Nasomatto treats a bottle less like a fragrance and more like a substance you keep behind glass, dense extrait concentrations that lean animalic, resinous and a little disobedient. A Nasomatto walks into the room as a smell first and a perfume second.
- Origin
- Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Founded
- 2007
- Known for
- Black Afgano, Baraonda
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