Perfume Review: 10 Corso Como
It’s been on my mind to talk about 10 Corso Como for a couple of weeks now. The perfume’s been neglected, sitting in its box in a drawer, way in the back, where all the empty perfume boxes are, sort of giving me major guilt trips that it didn’t really belong there. So out of the dresser it came, yesterday, and was immediately placed on the coffee table in the living room where it sat for another 24 hours or so - a sight for sore eyes, so to speak. I wasn’t able to ignore it any longer, and chose to wear it last night before going out and was immediately overjoyed by how perfect it fit - the mood, the weather, the outfit, the colors. You know, how that happens every once in a while when your scent is just so perfectly becoming and so impeccably fitting that you can say in all honesty and utter devotion you will never, ever need another perfume again. Right. That would be nice. But since it’s highly improbable and just plain silly to think such a thing will ever happen (at least not for us, perfume maniacs), I’ll just focus on the scent itself and its appeal.
10 Corso Como is created by an Italian designer Carla Sozzani who “went on a mission to create a flagship scent that brought together other-worldliness and travel to far-flung places” (Luckyscent.com). It’s named after a popular Milan shopping area. The notes of sandalwood and frankincense certainly speak of other-worldliness to me. What makes the scent close to home, however, is the geranium. I’m not sure what geranium in particular was used here but it reminds me so much of the geranium we used to have as a home plant. I used to hate it with a passion. That stinker could never be far enough from me. It especially made me vicious when I happened to accidentally touch it (I would never touch it on purpose!) So, when I first saw geranium listed as a note in 10 Corso Como, I could hardly take it in. Not because of the olfactory memories as much, moreso due to the fact of how masterfully it was blended with sandalwood and other notes (musk, rose, vetiver, oud wood oil). I just love how it starts out as crisp sandalwood and light incense and grows into a creamy, slightly smoky, woodsy potion. It’s extremely wearable and very much modern in character, very upbeat and trendy. Okay, perhaps calling it trendy is a stretch considering the amount of strawberry syrups and the like that get widely produced these days. Nevertheless, if it was up to me, this is the type of scent that would be trendy and sought after to the point of making people stand in long lines a la Soviet style. Alas! For the time being, however, you can purchase it at Beautyhabit and Luckyscent in the U.S., and HQhair in the U.K. as well as other European perfume shops.
Image source: www.luckyscent.com
24 comments September 13th, 2006