Mendittorosa: Alchemy from Naples, Wearing the Scents of the Soul

“What lies behind Mendittorosa is, in fact, my own personal story. Marketing will never change the ideas behind the brand. I want to keep protecting this wholly artistic approach as the brand’s signature.”

— Stefania Squeglia, founder of Mendittorosa

Basic Information
The Founder and the Origins of the Brand
What Defines the Brand
1. A Philosophy of Fragrance Creation
2. Bottle and Packaging Design
The Fragrance Lineup
1. The Odori d’Anima Collection
2. The Talismans Collection
Incidentally…

Basic Information

Founded: 2012 (according to Scentury, which published an interview with the founder; Japanese retailers give 2013. The event that inspired the brand took place in 2011)
Founder: Stefania Squeglia
Based in: Naples, Italy
Official website: www.mendittorosa.com

As for the meaning of the name “Mendittorosa,” Squeglia herself calls it a “secret” and refuses to disclose it.

The Founder and the Origins of the Brand

Childhood Play: Her First Memories of Scent

Stefania Squeglia was born in Naples, in southern Italy. Her first deep engagement with scent came when she was just five years old.

“I would take out my grandmother’s old jars and put flower petals, oils I found around the house and the remains of my parents’ perfumes into them. Then I would hide the jars somewhere dark and open them after a while, enjoying the discovery of what the combinations had produced. It was a very special time in my childhood.”

— Stefania Squeglia

Why did the mixtures change when left in the dark? As a child, she did not know the reason, but the mystery of that transformation became the starting point for the brand’s later philosophy. According to one account, her grandmother’s jars had originally been used to preserve tomato sauce.

The Management Years, When Scent Was Forgotten

Squeglia grew up having left her fragrance experiments behind. She pursued the arts, trying piano, dance and various other activities, but none felt quite right. She eventually built a successful career as a marketing manager in the media industry, yet inwardly she could not shake the feeling that “something important was missing.”

“At the time, I was a marketing manager in the media industry. I was truly exhausted, and I traveled to Stromboli to recover my health.”

— Stefania Squeglia

The Turning Point: An Encounter with Stromboli’s Volcano

In 2011, Squeglia visited Stromboli, an isolated island north of Sicily in southern Italy. The island has a volcano that remains active, and in an interview Squeglia described the sight of lava flowing into the sea as a “friendly volcano.” This expresses her impression of the island, however; in reality, it is also a volcano capable of causing damage through eruptions and tsunamis. The island’s fishermen called the volcano “Iddu” in their local dialect.

“The power of the volcano helped me find my own path again. And there I decided to change my life. I had always felt the urge to express myself artistically, and I thought the moment had finally come.”

— Stefania Squeglia

Enveloped by the island’s overwhelming energy, she suddenly rediscovered her childhood memories of scent. Squeglia says she began creating Mendittorosa the very next day.

“I love this place so much, and when I remembered the joy of making scents as a child, I realized this was what I had to do. I began creating Mendittorosa immediately, the next day. My life changed. I think I finally found my path.”

— Stefania Squeglia

The Birth of the Brand: Bottling the “Scents of the Soul”

According to Scentury’s profile, Mendittorosa, formally named Mendittorosa odori d’anima, was born in 2012. “Odori d’anima” means “smells,” or “scents,” “of the soul” in Italian. Squeglia is not a perfumer herself. As the brand’s director and visionary, she oversees everything from developing concepts to designing packaging, while the fragrances themselves are created in collaboration with perfumers Amélie Bourgeois and Anne-Sophie Behaghel of Flair Paris, and Luca Maffei of Atelier Fragranze Milano.

Rather than specifying ingredients, Squeglia communicates a fragrance’s direction to the perfumers through philosophical and poetic images.

“I contact the team at the Paris laboratory with a mental image of a scent. Then, without being told the ingredients, I simply smell it and judge whether it is what I had in mind. Sometimes I am surprised when I learn the ingredients. Scents I would not normally like can combine to create exactly the fragrance I imagined. There are no preconceptions, only pure creation.”

— Stefania Squeglia

Squeglia is also a professional tarot reader. Her deep interest in subjects as wide-ranging as astrology, dreams, philosophy, psychology, history and poetry feeds the brand’s concepts.

What Defines the Brand

A Philosophy of Fragrance Creation

Mendittorosa regards perfume purely as art, rather than as a marketing tool. Squeglia says, “Mendittorosa has never made a single perfume for marketing. Every perfume was created to celebrate a special moment in life.” All fragrances are genderless. Alongside eaux de parfum, the range includes extraits de parfum with fragrance concentrations from the 20-percent range up to 35%; concentrations and formulas chosen for each creation produce deep, lasting scents.

The brand also declares itself cruelty-free, with no animal testing, and maintains a policy of using no synthetic plastic in its decorations. Its commitment to small-scale production and limited sales is another expression of its determination to maintain the highest quality standards.

“Perfume can be something for the soul. It is a very private choice. A perfume that suits your soul gives you something positive that you had been missing.”

— Stefania Squeglia

Bottle and Packaging Design

Mendittorosa brings an uncompromising dedication to packaging design unlike that of its peers. Each fragrance is treated as a “work of art” with an identity of its own, prioritizing diversity over uniformity.

The flacons use high-quality French-made glass, while the handmade birch boxes that house them were designed by the Tuscan sculptor Alessandro Reggioli. These wooden boxes are authorized replicas of the art crates Reggioli uses to transport his own artworks around the world, and are known as packaging unlike anything else in the perfume market.

The same attention extends to the caps and decorations. For example:

Le Mat: Each cap is shaped from clay by Reggioli’s hands and bears the maker’s own fingerprints, making it one of a kind. An authorized replica Marseille Tarot card is enclosed with the bottle. A handmade terracotta charm inscribed “LE MAT” and a tiny bell are tied around its neck.
The Time Without Time series (Archetipo, Rituale and Lacura): Spiraling metal-wire caps, individually shaped by hand by the Italian artist Mauro Carrazza. They are said to symbolize “the moment when order emerges from chaos.”
Nettuno: Decorated with a panel of glass beads finished by hand by the Italian mirror artisan Luisa degli Specchi, making every bottle a unique piece.
Talento: A raku-fired ceramic cap by Reggioli. A necklace made from a real rose stem dipped in resin and painted silver also hangs around the bottle.

The wooden boxes use no chemical paint at all, bearing only marks applied by hand with fire. Squeglia practices sustainability through an approach of “making something too special to throw away.”

The Fragrance Lineup

Mendittorosa is broadly organized into two collections.

The Odori d’Anima Collection

The brand’s core collection, offered since its founding. As its Italian title, meaning “scents of the soul,” suggests, its themes are the soul’s journey, memory and the balance between opposing elements. It comprises the following four subseries.

The Trilogy: Three fragrances, Alfa, Omega and Id. Bringing together the beginning and end of the Greek alphabet and gratitude to the volcano “Iddu,” the series tells the very story of the brand’s birth. All three were designed to be enjoyed both individually and through layering.

The Duo: Two fragrances, North and South. Their concept is said to have emerged from Squeglia’s own love story. Her experience of falling in love, as a woman born in Naples, with someone from the north was transformed into a philosophy of “opposites attract.” The gold-colored caps are engraved with a compass-needle motif.

Versi: Meaning “verses” in Italian. It brings together works inspired by poetry and literature, including Ithaka, Orlo and Albatros. Albatros takes its motif from “The Albatross,” a poem in the French poet Charles Baudelaire’s collection The Flowers of Evil, while Orlo is based on Sylvia Plath’s poem “Edge.”

Time Without Time: Three fragrances, Archetipo, Rituale and Lacura. With themes drawn from the philosopher Jung’s concept of the “archetype” and the rituals of ancient cultures, they seek to connect with humanity’s primordial memories in a “time without time.”

The Talismans Collection

The second collection takes the “talisman,” or protective charm, as its concept. Grounded in the worlds of astrology, tarot, dreams, philosophy and spirituality, its vision is to protect the wearer from evils within and without. It is more conceptual and ritualistic in tone than Odori d’Anima. The city of Naples, with its dual nature as both “sacred and profane,” is regarded as the spiritual source of this series.

Key fragrances:

Le Mat: Inspired by the tarot card “The Fool” (0 or XXII in the brand’s explanation). A deep chypre scent centered on materials including Rosa Centifolia from Grasse, Spanish immortelle and Indonesian patchouli. The perfumer is Anne-Sophie Behaghel.
Sogno Reale: “A real dream.” Inspired by Carl Gustav Jung’s concept of the unconscious.
Sirio: A talisman bearing the name of a star.
Nettuno: Inspired by a poem about Neptune written by the Italian astrologer Marco Pesatori. Squeglia created it with the wish to “reconnect each person with the artist within.”
Talento: On the theme of “talent,” it tells a story of rose and mint through scent. Words by the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein are quoted.
Osang: A fragrance centered on fenugreek, myrrh and honey, among other notes. The perfumer is Giovanni Festa.

Incidentally…

The meaning of the brand name is officially a secret: Squeglia refuses to reveal the formal meaning of “Mendittorosa.” It is a characteristic choice for someone who says, “I don’t like labels, because they are so restrictive.”

Five stars from Luca Turin: The internationally renowned perfume critic and molecular biologist Luca Turin awarded Le Mat his highest rating of five stars in Perfumes: The Guide 2018. Having received a full bottle from Squeglia in 2017, complete with wooden box, tarot card and a cap he described as a “marble stopper,” Turin wrote that “the combination of a fantasy aesthetic and an outstanding fragrance suggested a renaissance in Italian perfumery.” Squeglia said of this assessment, “No award could compare with it; I feel truly proud.”

Osang, an Art & Olfaction Awards finalist: Osang, from the Talismans collection, was selected as one of ten finalists in the Independent category of the prestigious 2018 Art & Olfaction Awards.

Stromboli is also the setting of the film Stromboli: The island that inspired Squeglia also happens to be the setting of the 1950 film Stromboli, directed by Roberto Rossellini and starring Ingrid Bergman. Squeglia knew this when she visited the island.

Openly declaring itself “AI-free”: The official website states that “both the perfumes and the copy are AI-free,” a stance Luca Turin himself has described as “novel and delightful.”

References