Nice, France Perfume Series: Part Two
Hello, welcome to part two of the Nice, France Perfume Series! This post is dedicated to the perfume that I brought on our vacation to the South of France. Before I dive into that, I want to say a quick thank you to everyone who keeps up with my posts. I love writing about perfumes all while tying them into my European travels and personal life. I am very excited to discuss my new perfume, “Angeli di Firenze” by Santa Maria Novella. I packed this Italian perfume for our long weekend in Nice, France. I chose this perfume to bring on the trip because it was a perfume that my husband recently gifted me (for launching this perfume blog!) and it was perfect to wear on a day at the beach – which I did! We spent the day at Ruhl Plage beach club, and I thoroughly enjoyed putting on a full photo shoot/unboxing for this perfume. Check out @scentlena on Instagram to see the full production! We highly recommend visiting a beach club if you are traveling to the South of France in the summer season – just watch out for jellyfish!
I originally sampled this perfume at the Officicina Profumo-Farmaceutica of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, Italy and toured their museum in early 2023 with my husband and friends. The was such an incredible experience because this perfumery dates to 1221, and “is renowned from its beginnings for the formulation of perfumes and remedies” (Santa Maria Novella). It was such a wonderful surprise to visit what is considered the oldest pharmacy in the world that has expanded into fragrances and wellness products. Although we did not make any purchases at this location, we eventually did at their store in Verona. Since Verona is not too far away from where we live, we often visit the city for a day trip.
Upon discovering that there was another Santa Maria Novella shop, I knew that my next perfume would be from them. The sales associate who helped us was so kind and helpful. I am glad that I was able to visit the store once before picking out a perfume to purchase. I rarely bring up the fact that I have this perfume blog, but after taking many pictures and videos of this experience in their Verona store, I told the sales associate about it (thanks to my husband for encouraging me to bring it up!). From there she looked up my Instagram and followed it right then and there! She was very generous to do that, and I of course followed the store’s Instagram back. If you would also like to check out their Instagram, their handle is: @santamarianovella.verona
The final three contending perfumes were the “L’Iris”, “Rosa Gardenia”, and the “Angeli di Firenze”. While we were in Florence, we very much adored the scent of “L’Iris” and its purple velvet and gold detailed bottle. However, Santa Maria Novella no longer uses that bottle design! We were disappointed to find that out, otherwise we would’ve purchased the “L’Iris” eau de parfum for its scent and intricate bottle design. Although I have a growing admiration for rose scents, I concluded that “Rosa Gardenia” was not as memorable as the “Angeli di Firenze”.
“Angeli di Firenze” is the freshest perfume that I own. It belongs to the olfactory family of fruity and marine. This name is translated to “Angels of Florence” because it was made to remember the “40th anniversary of the flood of Florence. It is dedicated to the Angels of the Mud, boys from all over the world who, following the disastrous flood of November 4, 1966, came to Florence doing their utmost to save the heart and history of the city” (Santa Maria Novella). The flood was caused by the Arno River breaking over its banks and flooding Florence. It is listed that it claimed the lives of 101 people, destroyed thousands of works of art, and millions of books. The Mud Angels, also known as “angeli di fango”, from all over the world came to clean up the three meters of mud in Churches, museums, and libraries (The 1966 Flood of Florence). In this time of tragedy, there was the silver lining of people coming together to make things right again. Today’s society could use a bit of the courage that the Mud Angels had.
This perfume happens to be the most similar perfume that I own to the last perfume that I blogged about, “Ile d'Amour” Fragonard eau de toilette. The main difference between that perfume and “Angeli di Firenze” is that the “Ile d’Amour” is floral and marine and “Angeli di Firenze” is fruity and marine. “Angeli di Firenze” is therefore more sweet scented because it has the top notes of peach and orange alongside one of the bases being vanilla. In addition, it is interesting to think that Santa Maria Novella intentionally picked the marine notes to be featured in this perfume in remembrance of the 1966 Flood of Florence – what are your thoughts?
Outside of the historical tribute of this perfume, the best word to describe the smell of the perfume would be delicate. I would categorize it to be a perfume for the daytime during the spring and summer months. While this perfume does not have a lengthy longevity, it is fresh and subtle enough to build upon throughout the day. It is a young and uplifting fragrance that isn’t too ambitious, yet it is a noticeably clean scent. The Santa Maria Novella website depicts it to be a part of the ‘marine floral’ olfactory family, and I agree. The longer I have the perfume on my skin, the more I can identify the jasmine and the ozonated notes. I hope you can find and sample this perfume yourself!
Thank you for reading!