Basile Uomo (original) 
Basile (1987)
DISCONTINUED

I'm testing this from a sample. The opening was ok. It sort of reminded me of Oscar de la Renta Pour Lui. Over time, though, it gets nicer and nicer, and in the base, it's like a variation on Christian Dior Jules. The base is mouthwatering.

A thyme-rosemary-basil-oakmoss bomb of a chypre, with lavender and a pleasant clove. The dry-down reveals a good dose of leather and some patchouli. It's a delightful manly herbal fragrance - the bottle I reached out for most in 2021.

Projection and longevity are very good. It's hard to believe this used to sell for €10 in drugstores. Basile must have been the best bottom-of-the-barrel brand in the 80s. Steer clear of the current Basile Uomo Intense as it's a bad One Million clone.

Masculinity Level: John Rambo in the forest being hunted down by the sheriff in First Blood, before the character became a caricature.

This is an extraordinary example what a productive, experimental timeframe the late 80's were for perfumery. Some of the releases from this period offer such unique and distinct forms that put even the most 'daring' contemporary stuff into place. Basile Uomo works more like a chypre than fougere. Mossy, smooth, herbal-green, smoky-soapy abstraction of "cologne". The fragrance is simply awesome and full of body, the expression of the alpha male in every drop of the cologne. There is a kind of man that never can be reached. He is independent, solitaire, and tenderly aloof, his soul always on the edge. Everybody wants him, and he wants nothing!

Basile Uomo opens with a captivating herbal and citrus, that for an 80's fragrance it is surprising how inoffensive and pleasant it is. Balanced dry-green perfume where the citrus stands out on top of a woody background with of the highest quality in moderate volume. What surprise me the most was the balance of notes, since in this type of proposal it is common to see that the perfumer, aiming to shock, super raises the volume of some poignant note to the extreme. Dry down is leathery patchouli wrapped in oakmoss. The scent says "old world power, prestige and class", without having to force the issue. It is simply as it is and speaks volumes without having to say much. It is a truly classic beauty.

Basile Uomo by Basile Profumi (1987) is the product of Weruska & Joel S.r.l from Torino Italy, and can be considered something of a B or C list masculine fragrance that was once taken for granted as a drugstore staple over in Europe, much like products from Antonio Puig or Maurer & Wirtz. Weruska & Joel were new kids on the block back in 1987 though, having only been around since 1980. The Basile range was originally manufactured (briefly) by S.I.R.P.E.A s.p.a., and resulted in eponymous launches of Basile Profumo da Donna (1986) and the aforementioned Basile Uomo the following year, with both scents following in a style considered mostly safe for the Italian market; a market that loved polarized gender themes thanks to very patriarchal cultural traditions. As many have now noted, a lot of masculine fragrances from this market up through the 90's tend to swing the pendulum into the furthest reaches of macho-man land, to the point that Moschino began to parody it with their masculine fragrance releases. However, unlike the so-manly-its-comical nature of Moschino pour Homme (1990) and its super-skank-spice-leather bomb, Basile Uomo is serious about its masculinity and tracks accordingly. That isn't to say Basile as a brand is not affable mind you, I'm just saying that it isn't tongue-in-cheek like Moschino. Real "red-blooded man's cologne" is this.

Here we see a bit of an inbetweener in terms of composition, as Basile Uomo isn't full moss-boss like Gianfranco Ferré for Man (1986), but not the sharp pine and leather of Sergio Tecchini (1989) either. People have a difficult time categorizing Basile Uomo just as they do Quorum by Antonio Puig (1982), especially as reformulations seem to more drastically affect it as time goes on, just like Quorum. Basile Uomo makes basil an opening player (duh), but then moves into a mixed bag of artemisia, juniper, pine, and sandalwood rounded with dandy florals like indolic jasmine, carnation, and geranium. In effect, we have a really dark chypre structure here, and one that relies a lot on amber and patchouli rather than labdanum by itself or civet. Oakmoss is obviously prerequisite, especially for an Italian men's fragrance from the 80's, but don't discount the castoreum either. To my nose, herbs over jasmin indole and amber dominate this one, and I like it; but due to complexity of formula, your mileage may vary. Performance is good with great longevity, even if Basile Uomo isn't a screamer like some 80's fragrances. Best use would probably be spring through fall, although the dead heat of Italian summers may make you want to switch out for something like Acqua di Selva by VIctor (1949), or Pino SIlvestri by Vidal (1955) instead.

Basile Uomo in its earliest S.I.R.P.E.A or W&J formulations (short list ingredients) treads the same ground as Chanel Antaeus (1981), Maxim's pour Homme (1988), Caractére by Daniel Hechter (1989), and the aforementioned Quorum, in that it goes to 1970's "brown town" with the aromatics and leather, but tosses in an X factor to make it feel more 1980's. In Chanel's case, this was done with juxtaposing soapy top notes with beeswax and triple animalics, while Quorum used tobacco and Maxim's did the musty stale fruit bowl thing. The Daniel Hechter fragrance would come out at decade's end and infuse lighter, fresher tones with its take on "brown", while good old Basile Uomo here sat somewhere in-between them all, having the most-ambery finish of the lot. The green leather amber vibes here remind me a lot of the later Guerlain Coriolan (1998) and Avon Uomo (2000), but newer long-list bottles of Basile Uomo replace some oakmoss with soapiness and move the profile closer to something like Roger & Gallet L'Homme (1982), which isn't necessarily bad even if not for me. Newest bottles with a different design tend to be compared to Paco Rabanne pour Homme (1973), so maybe that's a different scent? Basile Uomo is not a must-have, but definitely an enjoyable, dependable mossy aromatic chypre. Thumbs up

I love my aromatics; I just can't get enough of dry herbs, and there are plenty of them here: thyme, rosemary, basil. They are very natural, earthy, and woody, and there's no pussyfooting—Basil Uomo uses them as the centerpiece, with all other notes the supporting players (citrus, lavender).

The cinnamon, nutmeg and clove surface in the heart, warming the herbs without detracting from their...herbaceousness. I do agree with others that especially in this stage of development, it is reminiscent of freshly opened pack of cigarettes (which to me is endlessly more alluring a scent than the unrelenting stench of a lit one). It's really balanced and downright ravishing.

My bottle is an older formulation, and it is blessed with a generous dose of oakmoss, and after a couple hours, it harmonizes with patchouli and leather, as 80s men's chypres often do, but the quality is more than evident (Italians do it better) and fulfills that desire for a frag of this genres where others have left me a bit underwhelmed and yearning more.

What a delight!

This is my kind of fragrance. To me, Basile Uomo is a close relative to Pour Lui by Oscar de la Renta, Giorgio Beverly Hills for Men V.I.P. Special Reserve (a favorite), which is hard to find and high priced, and Paco Rabanne Pour Homme. From BU, I get a combination of spicy-herbal-incense from V.I.P and soapy-green from PRPH. While both Pour Lui and VIP are on the darker, heavier side and both better for cold winter days, and PRPH good for warmer days, Basile Uomo is somewhat softer, lighter, maybe a greener herbal, and can be worn fall, winter, and spring (probably too dense for hot summer days). Longevity and sillage are good.