CORETERNO: The Scent of Seventies Rock and Roll Meets Classical Art

“We come from a lineage of alchemists, engravers, rebels, mystics, and poets. We guard centuries of secrets of immeasurable beauty. We have been trained to use the redemptive power of symbols and words wisely. Our story is one of true love and burning passion for ancient knowledge and unique handcraft. We want to breathe life into inanimate objects, so that people may discover mystery and the power to heal the soul within their messages.”

— From the Coreterno official website (Brand Manifesto)

Essential Information

Founded: 2015

Founders: Michelangelo Brancato and Francilla Ronchi

Official website: coreterno.com

The Founders and the Brand’s Origins

Rome as a Cradle

To understand Coreterno’s world, one must first understand the magnetic pull of Rome. Founder Michelangelo Brancato was born and raised there. His father, deeply passionate about art, took his young son to churches on Sundays and taught him how to see beauty before paintings and sculptures by Michelangelo, the great master, Caravaggio, and Bernini. That he and the artistic genius happen to share the name Michelangelo seems imbued with an inevitability beyond mere coincidence.

As he grew older, Michelangelo came to run a “visionary art gallery” in Rome. Within that space, he sought to bring classical beauty and rebellious energy together. He established a studio in an eighteenth-century castle among Rome’s historic backstreets, making it a base for their creations.

“Living in Rome constantly reminds us that we are the product of the dreams and work of the past. We want to bring a piece of that spirit to fierce, sometimes too-fast New York.”

— Francilla Ronchi & Michelangelo Brancato

Meeting Francilla

The brand’s other pillar, Francilla Ronchi, earned a master’s degree in cultural anthropology at Sapienza University of Rome before building a long career in Italian television. She worked as a programme writer, host, and presenter on at least 100 programmes for RAI, Italy’s public broadcaster, and Magnolia S.p.A. The couple met when she visited Michelangelo’s gallery for a television feature. After meeting several more times, they discovered that they shared values: a love of diversity, beautiful things, nonconformity, kindness of spirit, and loyalty to others. They married.

“Our bond is based on a love of diversity, beautiful things, nonconformity, kindness of spirit, and loyalty to others.”

— Michelangelo Brancato & Francilla Ronchi

A Revelation on the Streets of Manhattan, New York

The seed of Coreterno was planted one day as the two wandered the streets of Manhattan’s Lower East Side. “It was like a dream, like a premonition; now it has become reality,” they recall. Although the brand embodied the soul of Rome, they intuitively felt that it had to be born in New York.

The name CORETERNO is a coinage combining core, meaning “heart” or “core” in Roman dialect, and eterno, the Italian word for “eternal.” Its meaning is “eternal heart.” It pays tribute to the two founders’ Roman character.

In 2015, the pair began creating their first collection, Victorian Rocks, in a studio apartment. As they handmade every pillar candle and T-shirt, candles reportedly filled the apartment until there was not even room for a bed. This anecdote succinctly captures the brand’s nature: an obsession with handcraft, passionate immersion, and a creative impulse powerful enough to consume the space around it.

Artists & Fleas and a Baptism by the Media

A turning point came when they exhibited at Artists & Fleas, the creators’ market held every weekend in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It is an international place of discovery where buyers and trendspotters in fashion, vintage, art, and design gather. Coreterno’s candles and T-shirts quickly attracted attention and were featured in a half-page article in none other than the New York Post. Reportedly, the feature appeared between articles on President Obama and the New York Giants.

The subsequent T-shirt line, Dis.Order, became a favourite of VIPs in music and film and quickly turned into a social phenomenon. Italian rappers J-Ax and Fedez, singer Emma Marrone, and actor and film director Asia Argento became fans; Argento commissioned Coreterno to create an outfit for the Cannes Film Festival red carpet. Having tested the response in the American market, the two also exhibited at NYNOW at New York’s Javits Center, formally presenting their full healing-candle collection to the US market.

The Rebellious Spirit of the Seventies

Michelangelo cites a deep attachment to the 1970s as a spiritual pillar of the brand. That era overflowed with tremendous rebellious creative energy, sustained by ideals of freedom, sensuality, and transgression, or the breaking of conventions. The energy embodied by bands such as the Rolling Stones, Beastie Boys, Ramones, and Led Zeppelin lives within Coreterno. He also says that, if the brand had to choose a single concert, it would be the Clash’s 1979 show at the University of California, Berkeley theatre.

“Believe in your infinite potential.”

— Michelangelo Brancato (a favourite saying)

Michelangelo also has a strong commitment to philosophy and positive thinking. Supporting lesser-known artists and shining a light on undiscovered talent are likewise fundamental to the brand.

A Fragrance Debut at Pitti Fragranze in 2019

As the lifestyle brand gained fans around the world, the pair’s next step was into perfume. The brand had expanded first into T-shirts, then candles, with serious work on perfume coming at a later stage. In September 2019, it exhibited for the first time at Pitti Fragranze, the international perfume fair held at Florence’s Stazione Leopolda, making the world debut of four eaux de parfum. All four were composed by popular young Italian perfumer Luca Maffei, ambitious creations combining the world of seventies rock, pop, and underground culture with a passion for classical art.

What Defines the Brand

A Philosophy of Fragrance Creation

Coreterno’s fragrances are not merely “nice smells.” They are olfactory manifestos designed to “awaken the rock star within the wearer.” Under founder Michelangelo Brancato’s artistic direction, each creation offers a distinctive interpretation that blends the energy of seventies rock and roll, punk, and underground culture with the eternal appeal of classical art.

“I want people to feel like rock stars. It’s about energy, emotion, and transformation.”

— Michelangelo Brancato

Renowned noses, or perfumers, take on the work of composition. Chief among them is Luca Maffei of Atelier Fragranze in Milan, who has created many of Coreterno’s fragrances. Another important partner is Arturetto Landi. Some creations have grown out of his long relationship with the brand, and on its official social media Brancato describes him as “a legendary nose, a longstanding friend, someone who lives fragrance through his heart.”

The perfume concepts are also conveyed through stories printed on the packaging like instructions. All products are made in Italy, and every supplier is carefully selected from companies with Italian artisanal expertise. All the fragrances are also vegan and cruelty-free, made without animal testing.

Bottle and Packaging Design

Coreterno’s bottles are objects that say more than scent alone. The use of black glass combines practicality and aesthetics, blocking light to protect the quality of the fragrance over time. Each bottle bears a five-layer, embossed gold-foil label made exclusively for the brand by a long-established Italian label manufacturer. Combining seventeenth-century engravings, nineteenth-century portraits, and contemporary rock and pop, the design creates the experience of holding a work of art.

Mantra-like phrases such as “You create your own destiny” and “Choose love over fear” are inscribed on the bottles. This “magic of words” is a belief shared by the two founders, grounded in the idea that “words possess a subtle magic that can change people’s moods.”

The candle line is designed around the same philosophy. Natural organic wax is blended with vegetable wax, and natural cotton wicks are used. Black glass containers protect the lasting quality of the fragrance, while vintage-inspired black-and-white labels carry “phrases about moods and states of mind.” The stated burn time is at least 60 hours.

The Fragrance Lineup

There are currently 15 eaux de parfum listed on Coreterno’s official website. The range is structured like a concept album depicting “the rock star’s inner journey,” with each title itself opening a door to a story.

The First Four Creations (2019 Debut)

The four fragrances unveiled to the world at Pitti Fragranze in 2019 form the starting point of Coreterno’s fragrance world.

• Punk Motel / Perfumer: Luca Maffei. Often called the brand’s “iconic creation,” it begins with a bright, delicate opening of white rose and bergamot, while salicylates add a faint saltiness and a nuance of sea breeze crossing a desert. Musk and vanilla envelop the base, and ambrette, or musk mallow, completes its distinctive harmony. With a woody-musky-floral structure, it is a fragrance for nights devoted to freedom.
• Hierba Nera / Perfumer: Luca Maffei. As its name, meaning “black herb” in Spanish, suggests, this is a deep-forest scent with a forbidden resonance. Opening with bergamot, cannabis, and nutmeg, it passes through a layered heart of frankincense, labdanum, cedar, and amber, before sinking into a substantial base of Atlas cedar, Texas cedar, agarwood (oud), and oakmoss. Woody and warmly creamy, it also has a floating quality, as though suspended in a fantastical mist.
• Rose and Me / Perfumer: Luca Maffei. A gothic rose perfume starring a deep black rose, layered with the sharp bite of geranium, jasmine, saffron, styrax, patchouli, and guaiac wood. Although it contains dark elements, it also retains a certain freshness.
• Catharsis / Perfumer: Luca Maffei. A spicy opening of clove, nutmeg, and neroli leads into a heart dominated by saffron, rose, ylang-ylang, and whisky. Its base of agarwood, guaiac, cedar, and a powerful leather accord is a “declaration of war” that seems to imprint itself on the skin. The combination is described as deliberately almost aggressive.

Subsequent Major Creations

Since the Pitti debut, the lineup has steadily expanded. The principal creations currently identifiable are as follows.

• Mystic Sugar: A gourmand, or sweet food-like fragrance, of orange, pineapple, cacao, vanilla, almond blossom, ginger, and cardamom. Cheerful and bold, it combines the nostalgia of penny sweets with sensuality.
• Freakincense: A fresh opening of lime, pink pepper, and violet gives way to a spicy heart of elemi, cashmeran, and frankincense, followed by a woody-spicy base of vetiver, patchouli, and labdanum.
• Psychedelicious, Oceanoir, Night Idol, Ultralove, Hypnorange, Godimenta, No Sleep, HardKor, and Egocentrique have joined the range, bringing it to a total of 15 creations as of March 2026.

Incidentally…

A Collaboration with a Five-Star Hotel in Rome: An emblematic example of Coreterno’s brand presence is its collaboration with The St. Regis Rome. From autumn 2022 to spring 2023, the hotel’s Blue Library was transformed by Coreterno into a “Chambre des Merveilles,” or “Room of Wonders,” a pop-up experience filled with candles, perfumes, and cushions. The Visions of Grace collection followed in 2023. It included toiletries inspired by the iconic Punk Motel fragrance for the hotel’s suites, as well as tote bags, bucket hats, and loungewear featuring patterns in which Brancato reinterpreted the hotel’s classical architectural ornamentation.

Reading More Deeply into the Brand Name: “Coreterno” carries a double meaning. Core means “heart” in Roman dialect and, at the same time, “core” or “centre” in English. Eterno is Italian for “eternal.” Yet the founders also describe it as “an homage to Rome itself.” Given that Rome is called the Eternal City, the brand name can also be read as a declaration of love for the city.