Italian niche line Carthusia has launched Capri Forget Me Not, a new unisex fragrance…
5 Perfumes: Bittersweet Bay
When the topic of past lives comes up, what time period do you picture yourself inhabiting? For some reason, I always regress to a city in the Middle Ages. No other era or geographical location ever comes to mind. Perhaps I was an inn-keeper, goutishly solid and pink-cheeked and wary. If gender and physical talents are passed through the centuries, then I could have been a wet nurse. If they are not, then maybe I was a monastic scribe and illuminator. (My handwriting is awful.) It is strange to feel so connected to the sights and sounds of medieval Europe. I don’t actually believe in reincarnation. I think my visions come from the more recent past, from pop culture references about the dark ages like The Lion in Winter and The Name of the Rose. What the books and movies are notably short on, however, is odors.
Most of us think of this time period as smelling pretty ripe: burning garbage, sewage in the ditches and rivers, halitosis, mildew everywhere, the sick and dead of the Bubonic plague years, all those buckets of fermented urine that alchemists were supposed to be distilling into gold, etc. But years of reading foodie articles on panforte, mead and sweetmeats have perfumed my personal medieval fairy tales with honey and almond milk, dates and chestnuts and raw milk cheese, fruit jellies and poached pears with long pepper. Most particularly at this turn of the seasons, I start to dream of the scent of mulling spices. As the cold sets in, there is something instantly cheering and sustaining in the thought of hot mulled wine or cider. And for me, no simmering pot of either would be complete without a bay leaf…
Carthusia Lady ~ new perfume
Italian niche line Carthusia has relaunched* Carthusia Lady:
An extravagant and glamorous trip to Capri in the years 1919/1920…
Carthusia 1681 ~ fragrance review
Carthusia’s Mediterraneo fragrance — a bright and sunny mix of lemon, verbena and green tea — has long been a summer staple of mine. So far, nothing else in the line had really captured my affections, although I’ve been meaning to revisit the florals since I haven’t smelled most of them in quite some time (if you have a favorite, or if you’ve had the chance to try any of the solid perfumes, do tell). Their new 1681, though, was a pleasant surprise.
1681 is named for the year the Carthusian monks of the Certosa di San Giacomo on the island of Capri reportedly began crafting fragrances using local materials…
With that old moon above the Mediterranean sea
An (adorable) animation for the Italian niche brand Carthusia.