Francesco Smalto (Francesco Smalto)

One of the cool things about fragrances from the seventies and eighties is that many of them were designed to complement cigarette smoke. Back then, people smoked a hell of a lot more than they do today. If you sat in a waiting room for five minutes, there could be someone else smoking next to you, and by the time you got out of there, you'd smell of smoke. For wearers of things like Quorum, Drakkar Noir, and Francesco Smalto for Men, the smoke-cling wasn't much of an issue, because these "powerhouse" masculines already smell dry, bitter, and smoky. I imagine that putting a quality tobacco oil in a composition jacks its price up a bit, so perfumers would skip that and just hope your surroundings filled in the blank, which they most assuredly did whenever you stepped outside (or if you were a smoker yourself). Smalto for Men was a little late to the party, arriving in 1987, and I think of it as the first of several "transitional" chypres and fougères that bridged the eighties to the nineties (Jazz, Tsar, and Sung Homme were others).

I actually think of F. Smalto as a combination of the elements found in those three scents, along with a dihydromyrcenol freshness via Drakkar Noir. There's something about the dusky herbs and clipped, bittersweet florals that strongly resembles Tsar, which means it also resembles Jazz, by proxy. Smalto is more leathery than those two, which is interesting. A sun-dried leather effect is subtle but noticeable at all stages, and at the drydown's two hour mark there's a surprisingly Sung Homme-esque carnation-cedar accord, very woody and wry. If you're someone who likes macho masculines from this time period, but dislikes the thickness of Tsar, the coriander of Jazz, or the Irish-Spring freshness of Sung, F. Smalto might be the perfect alternative. Likewise, if you kinda-sorta like Drakkar Noir, but feel the dihydromyrcenol is overkill in that one, F. Smalto plays with synthetic lavender in the same way, but tones it back significantly. There's a unique tarragon note, along with a pinch of anise in this scent that sets it apart and lends it a kind of gentlemanly warmth, which is also nice. This scent is a modern classic.

Molto Smalto (Francesco Smalto)

Although it was the mighty Green Irish Tweed which set the stage for the chaos that ensued in the world of masculine fragrance, Drakkar Noir launched the fashion campaign for GIT. Its bitter, lavender-fueled aromatics presaged the dihydromyrcenol-mosses of Creed and Davidoff. In its day, Drakkar was considered a leathery fougère, but I always suspected people had it pigeonholed wrong; there is a distinctly calone-like, men's-aftershavey freshness edging it, which makes sense, given its classification.

The interesting thing about this timeline is how the dense, chewy aromatics of fougères like Drakkar and Lomani Pour Homme gave way to the airier compositions of GIT and Cool Water, only to be followed by markedly denser fragrances like Eternity for Men, Horizon, and Molto Smalto. Despite the template for a New World Order being set, good chemists stubbornly held onto nose-stinging pyramids, until the last yuppie gave up and joined the '90s. Francesco Smalto's 1993 release was one of the holdouts.

Sniffing Molto Smalto is an exercise in nostalgia, one likely to conjure memories of high school for today's dad. Its opaque bottle is made of clunky black glass, and only hints at the complexity of its contents. Softer in nature than either Drakkar or Horizon, Molto follows their lead with a transparent burst of lavender, dry citrus, coriander, sage, and geranium. It's a civet-less Kouros, with re-calibrated lavender. Rapidly the citrus burns off, the lavender becomes dry and gummy in a "fresh" way, and a familiar bouquet of clipped florals, pungent herbs, and precious woods makes an appearance. Underpinning everything is a massive woody amber and musk.

These '80s-styled aromatic wetshaver fougères are never a bad choice for men, and always impart that hairy-chested manliness so many yearn to embody, but I think it's high time the ladies gave them a go. I'd advise against them wearing Drakkar Noir or Lomani, but it would be refreshing to smell GIT, the original Smalto, Cool Water, Eternity for Men, Horizon, and Molto Smalto on a thirty-something female in 2012. There's nothing wrong with a gal in dried flowers and herbs - if it wasn't intended to make men celibate, dihydromyrcenol was meant to be the great equalizer in postmodern perfumery.