WHAT I SMELL:  Uomo opens with a spicy bergamot and then quickly in comes a sweet cocoa.  It’s lightly warm to the smell, but very zesty and tingly on the skin.  I feel like this could become very shrill, but it reins in the overly gourmand cocoa sweetness and instead leaves this lighter sheen of nutty goodness riding off of your skin.  After around 20 minutes or so, the cedar slowly makes it way in, bringing a fresh woodiness to the fragrance, but at the same time there is a bit of sour that creeps in, but only for a short time.  Uomo doesn’t change much past this point and in the end it’s relatively light and understated which is where it needs to be.  Don’t get me wrong, Uomo offers a long life and pretty good projection as well.

Valentino Uomo notes:

Top: Italian bergamot, myrtle liquor.
Middle: crema de gianduia.
Base: leather, cedarwood.

WHAT IT SMELLS LIKE TO ME:  An Italian boulevard flanked by cedar trees where the smell of coffee, chocolate and other gourmand offerings from the cafes fill the air.

THREE ADJECTIVES THAT DESCRIBE UOMO: semi-gourmand, semi-sweet, semi-nutty

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT UOMO: The Candy Perfume Boy via Escentual.com, The Grooming Guru, I Scent You a Day

BOTTOM LINE:  A very nice, easy to wear offering from Valentino.  As much as I like the fragrance, I can’t say the same for the bottle.  In pictures, the bottle looks like crystal.  In person, it looks like a glass porcupine.  I guess it’s nice that at least it’s different from the typical bottles out there.

• Bone Rating: 3.5 out of 5 possible bones
• Scent: Leather Goumand (but where’s the leather?)
• Nose:  Olivier Polge
• Classification: Masculine
• Expense: $75 for 1.7 oz EdT (exclusively at Nordstrom in the U.S.)