Santa Maria Novella
Santa Maria Novella
106 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Rose and jasmine collide with surprising powder, the florals immediately diffusing into a soft, almost dusty haze rather than projecting with typical floral brightness. Within moments, you're not smelling individual flowers but rather their dried essence, a vanillic sweetness beginning to creep beneath the petals.
The lily of the valley emerges to deepen the creamy, powdery signature, whilst the musk begins its quiet work beneath, adding a subtle animalic presence that feels intimate and skin-close. A whisper of spice surfaces here—likely from amber's natural warmth—creating a gentle tension between sweetness and something quietly mineral, almost salty.
Musk and amber dominate entirely, the florals having retreated into abstraction, leaving behind a warm, creamy, faintly animalic second skin. The fragrance settles into a soft powdery embrace, honeyed and clean rather than musky in the aggressive sense, with just enough subtle spice to prevent it becoming purely sweet.
Santa Maria Novella's Muschio is a fragrance that doesn't whisper—it exhales. The marriage of rose and jasmine in the opening creates an unexpectedly powdery florality, one that feels more like inhaling the dust from an antique velvet cushion than fresh petals. What distinguishes this composition is how rapidly it pivots toward creamy abstraction; the lily of the valley, far from adding green freshness, instead amplifies that powdered quality, turning the heart into something closer to orris root and talc than botanical florals.
The real character emerges from the base. Here, musk and amber don't merely anchor—they animate. The musk carries a distinctly animalic undercurrent (52% of the accords), lending a faintly salty, skin-like warmth that transforms the fragrance from pretty to provocative. There's a gentle spiciness threading through, which prevents the sweetness (88%) from cloying; instead, it reads as honeyed amber rather than confectionery.
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3.6/5 (231)