#fzotic

I’ve been meaning to review Bruno Fazzolari’s scents for some time. I think it’s been years as the house has since rebranded as Fzotic and redesigned its bottles, which look fantastic. I seem to recall the Fzotics reviewed very well but I was not so personally enamoured with them. However, in today’s climate of outrageously inflated pricing in the fragrance market, these scents have taken on a new light. Assuming they have not had any major reformulations, at US$130/30 ml, they represent good quality for the price and perform well.

Five is a pleasant and balanced citrus herbal scent that is the easiest to wear of the set. The hespiridic opening is assertive but never aggressive while rosemary lends it a bit of herbaceous, woody depth. The neroli and a spicy petitgrain soften the scent on the dry down. It’s a bit too reminiscent of Irish Spring soap bars for me to enjoy.

Monserrat is another easy-wearing fruity floral. Opens with a bright grapefruit that mellows out with musky florals and a subtly tart apricot. The dry down is a bit denser that I would like and I think that’s the “plaster” note. Having said that, I prefer this kind of density over a fluffy musk and it gives the scent an unexpected bit of heft.

Lampblack opens innocuously with zesty, carefree citrus notes and a light touch of vetiver which might give you the impression this is a nondescript freshie. However, as the scent develops, the smoke starts to enter, building until it’s transformed from bright and clean to standing on blistering hot tarmac. After a couple hours, the aggression tones down and the grapefruit appears, as if charred. A creative take on the cliched smoky genre.

Room 237 is not nearly as eerie as its ad copy suggests. Having said that, I don’t find it to be an easy wear. In addition to vinyl, I’m reminded of household cleaners, or the smell of barbacide, that blue-hued disinfectant you find in hair salons where stylists store their combs. As the scent dries down, the scent’s initial artificiality becomes more human with musky notes emerging from below. More of a niche experiment than something one would wear.

Fzotic Ummagumma

Nose: Bruno Fazzolari

notes: dark chocolate, saffron, carnation; labdanum, tobacco, leather, sandalwood; olibanum, cedar, vanilla, tonka

Ummagumma is a rich, dark, sweet contraption with an unusually salty-animalic underlayer. Yes, there’s chocolate in the opening, but it’s not dominant; Ummagumma is all dark resins and woods and leather and tobacco, with that little thread of salty gold at the heart.

@noseandnous had a great mental image of Ummagumma as an stray cat brought into a cozy book-lined study and fed sardines. all the tropes are there (the dark wood paneling; the leather armchair; the crackling fireplace) but Ummagumma is saltier, furrier, and wilder than you’d expect from the usual “Dad’s study” sort of Oriental.

By about 2 hours in, Ummagumma transforms completely. It’s shifted to a warm reddish-brown spicy incense base, almost like cinnamon candy, or like the spicy incense of Lita, but here it has a wild, roaring, crackling texture. It feels like flame and booming drums, like some kind of crazed Samhain bonfire dance. We’re not in the cozy study anymore; we’re rocking out, and the thunder is rolling in.

This fiery incense phase is extremely potent — it lasts at least 18 hours, sending up tendrils of warming spice all day long.

I’ve encountered Ummagumma’s satisfying salty-gold-animalic chord in a couple other rich dark indie perfumes: Pryn Taiga is salty-gold + pine-sap leather, and Slumberhouse Sova is salty-gold + cloves.

It’s been a few months but I haven’t forgotten this list of perfumes that actually remind me of the end of the world. For perfumes with apocalyptic names, make sure to read part one.

If there is one fragrance that gives me Mad Max vibes, it’s Black Afgano by Nasomatto. Nasomatto never provides notes pyramids but this one is ostensibly supposed to smell of cannabis. All I can say is please do not smoke any bud that smells like this. Think oily tyres on asphalt, smoky and rich mixed with an ambery sweetness, like tarry warpaint for Furiosa.

Along the same vein, Lampblack by Fzotic also sends you down blistering hot tarmac but in this case, its bright citrus notes contrasting with dark cypriol smoke is a sharper, higher-contrast, urban take of a world on fire.

While it may reference the primordial world, Tyrannosaurus Rex by Zoologist rounds out our trio of end of the world smoky perfumes. I’ll be honest, this fragrance actually scared me. You can read my full review here.

Nose: Bruno Fazzolari

notes: lime, guava, pineapple; sea salt, driftwood; leather, sandalwood

Mostly this is a light, classic cologne, with, yes, the barest floaty aura of something tropical-fruity, but mostly crisp abstract zippiness. It does feel bright and summery, with a faint edge of dry driftwood underneath.

A few minutes in, the tropical fruit becomes tender and even a bit floral (but never quite sweet) and I find it affecting. You're at the beach under a bougainvillea tree or something. You have a fruity cocktail. it's vacay time.

Fzotic Zdravetz

Nose: Bruno Fazzolari

notes: rose, leather, passionfruit, grapefruit, cedar, rose geranium, bergamot, vanilla, galbanum

Zdravetz is named from an herb in the geranium family that grows in Bulgaria. The word means “health”, as it’s traditionally used as a medicinal plant.

it goes on sweetly powdery and green, almost minty.

within a few minutes there’s a strong citronella note exactly like bug repellent — that sounds bad but I personally love it.

Within 3 hours it's just the sweet-green powder, faint and pleasantly clean, like spa soaps or lotions.

Fzotic Feu Secret

Nose: Bruno Fazzolari

notes: orris, turmeric, birch, cedar, pink pepper, spruce, eucalyptus

Feu Secret opens with *very* sharp, stony, blinding-white iris, followed by an almost equally pale, perfumey, fragrant, refined woody note.

Half an hour in, it’s gone softer and a touch smoky; a pleasant, mellow, woody iris. a pale-woods scent like a Scandi modern-design interior.

finally, it sweetens slightly and becomes a sheer pale woody vanilla. Not super sweet, just a barely-there radiant aura.

Feu Secret is subtle throughout, a light translucent “office scent” that’s almost gone in three hours. I prefer more substantial perfumes myself, but if you like a light touch, it’s finely done and even haunting. it really does capture an effect of “secret fire”, a contemplative inner radiance in shades of white and beige.