Nostalgia Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella for men

I love love love this perfume. Not for the fainthearted nor the heavyhanded. Best worn on autumn as it can get too heavy for summer yet it lacks that certaint 'warmth' necessary for winter. Very avant-garde, surprisingly sexy.The funny thing is that my husband loves it on me but not on him.

I really wanted this to smell like the interior of an Austin Seven, all leather and petrol with a smattering of tobacco and oily rag. Sadly, it was not to be. It just smelled like petrol spillage and rubber tyres. A bit too "in your face" to be the real deal. The day a nose comes up with a fair representation of the interior of an Austin Seven/Ford Prefect E93A, will be the day I, and a host of folk just like me, hot foot it to the stores, baying like savages whilst hammering our credit cards into their eager POS terminals. Til then, I will continue to persuade vintage car owners to wind down their windows as they tootle past me. Toodle pip.

What is wrong? The reviews I had read of this made it sound like a leather, rubber, and petroleum skank-fest, but the first thing I smell out of my sample vial is sweet, prickly green tea! OK, there’s a leather-like note and a dry woody note that could, with prompting, be construed as rubbery, but they’re not the dominant ones. It’s not all that unusual a fragrance, except in the hype. There are plenty of prickly green-tea fragrances out there, so adding a bit of leather, myrrh, and dry wood does not make it unique. The main phase lasts for 3-4 hours, after which all that’s left is the musk. I would probably have liked this if I had not been expecting to find the smell of a car and/or garage. Nostalgia just doesn’t evoke this image for me at any point.

I seriously smell gasoline for the first 10 minutes. It's actually nice. Then there is the leather, the calfskin kind. I find this perfume unusual, modern and on trend. The dry down is certainly mellow compared to how bold it is when it starts, but I like how this fragrance develops.
Smells like freedom and independence to me... and wealth too.
Edit.
This one has grown on me even more. The sillage is very sophisticated. I love how dynamic it is when it starts, and how it turns into an elegant soft and sweetened leather.
The notes that seem strong on paper are non violent and I believe it is a male fragrance that could be easily worn by women.

The re-edition doesn't have the scent of leather.
In few words, this perfume during the opening is very very unusual...the first sniff will make you cry :)
It smells on tyres, pit stop, road, gas, rubber, cars, colors, like the store which has everything for the house - 'do it yourself'. The smell is fantastic hehe, after a while it settles down and becomes powdery and sweet, very conventional, it has a lot of similarities as Le Dandy D'Orsay in the drydown. This is a must try for everyone who love perfumes and the art of perfumery!
P.S. Sillage and logivity are good enough, regarding the smell, I expected that will last for days..

If you'll ever have the chance to visit Florence don't miss the opportunity to go to the Santa Maria Novella's museum / shop / headquarter located in an ancient chapel from 1200 that's absolutely breathtaking for its beauty and majesty.

Said that, Nostalgia it's not the kind of scent you would expect form a company founded in 1612 as it's quite modern and somehow weird. Rubber and leather that smell exacactly like the interiors of my grandad's old FIAT 500 during the summertime, when odors are emphasized by the high temperatures of the season. A great fragrance if you like challenging smoky rubber/leather scents a-la Knize Ten / CDG's Garage / Lisa Kirk's Revolution. I do.

Downside: the drydown is quite conventional if compared to the opening, but still pleasant.

One more thing. In italy SMN is sold at a reasonable price. 100 ml for 75 euros.

Rating: 9.5/10 for the opening
7/10 for the drydown
8/10 overall