Springtime Magnolia Romana by Eau d`Italie

04/16/08 20:46:21

Perfume house Eau d'Italie and its founders Marina Sersale and Sebastián Alvarez Murena consistently and in a very original way keep introducing all who are interested in the beauties of Italy.

The approach is indeed a special one. Their fragrance collection still does not comprise citruses, which Italian fragrances are often associated with, but clay, woods, the rose which can be worn by men as well, autumn leaves, smoke... Italy viewed from inside, Italy whose scents are, as stated by the house, very recognizable and almost intimate to all who love it.

From the Italian south to which most of the earlier fragrances of the collection were devoted, with the new fragrance we are heading towards the centre and the heart, to Rome, and we meet the spring in one of the most beautiful and famous parks of the city – Villa Borghese.

Villa Borghese: former vineyards, which Cardinal Scipione Borghese, the nephew of Pope Paul V, begun turning into a park in 1605, the biggest and most extensive garden since the Antique times.

Initially it was designed after the sketched of the cardinal himself, and was later rearranged and laid out in a more natural style.

Until 1903 the park belonged to the Borghese family, and in 1903 it became a property of the city of Rome. Apart from the beautiful garden, the park contains numerous castles, museums, sculptures, fountains, and an artificial lake in the middle.
More at: wikipedia.com

"A place where the sun filters through rows of tall Magnolia trees that extend their branches across the sky, gently shading centuries-old white marble statues. Where the air is thinly veiled with a warm softness created by the creamy-white Magnolia flowers..."

Sebastián Alvarez Murena: "It all started in the Viale delle Magnolie, a path in heart of the Villa Borghese of Rome, flanked by sixty or more huge Magnolia trees. During the summer the heat and humidity in the air create a perfect means for the fragrance of the flowers to be literally everywhere, mostly when the sun starts to set and the flowers release their scent.
Marina and I very often walk along this path, and once you’ve been there you can’t remain indifferent to the fragrance in the air, it’s really outstanding.

Having walked there so many times along the years and being so impressed by what the scent of a Magnolia can be, our feeling was that in the world of perfumery the personality of the Magnolia flower had never been properly understood, nor interpreted.

In our opinion the traditional rendition of a Magnolia has been that of some sort of “white flower” accord, loosely along the lines of a jasmine or a gardenia, which is a pity because that is just one side of the Magnolia. And these accords very often end up in rather sweet notes.

Now, in our opinion if you take the real-life Magnolia scent in its complexity, it certainly does have a share of a “white flower”, but before and around that it has notes in common with, say, freshly cut lettuce, crushed lemon leaves and freshly harvested basil leaves. And then, yes, there certainly is the “white flower” side of it, but it doesn't get to be really sweet.

The key word for this side of the fragrance (the “white flower” notes, I mean) is roundness. All the effort during the development was about getting to a round heart of the fragrance, which on skin develops fully without ever crossing the border into sweetness, and at the same time isn't dry.

The development of this fragrance has taken a very long time, and each step forward has been very careful, very precise, like painting with water colours: layer upon layer of transparent colours, each note vibrating in its own crystal clear shade of colour".

Magnolia Romana is all that one remembers of a Magnolia:

Top notes feature purple basil from Northern Italy, lemon leaves from Calabria, Neroli from Grasse
(distilled orange blossom), Comore Islands nutmeg, and cypress from Italy.
The heart brings Magnolia flower extract from Italy,
Bulgarian Rose essence, traces of tuberose, lotus, ozone and water notes.
The Base includes Cedar from Virginia, French hay extract and white musk.

Visit the official web presentation of Eau d'Italie

Author (review and collages): (jeca)
Fragrantica Member