Spiritica: Reading Forbidden Stories Through the Sense of Smell

“SPIRITICA was born from a desire to explore the occult, esotericism and paranormal phenomena by connecting them with the least understood human sense: smell. You can look at a painting and photograph it, or listen to music and record it, but the impossibility of photographing or recording what lies behind a smell is a mystery with a profoundly intangible allure.”

— Daniele Muratori Caputo (NASODANI YouTube channel, 2023)

Contents

Essential Information
The Founder and the Origins of the Brand
What Matters to the Brand
By the Way…

Essential Information

Founded: 2023–2024, Italy (Milan)
Note: A November 2023 YouTube video confirms the brand’s announcement. The official Japanese press release gives the year as 2024.

Founder: Daniele Muratori Caputo

Official website: https://www.spiritica.com

The Founder and the Origins of the Brand

A Man with Three Creative Identities

Daniele Muratori Caputo, the creator of Spiritica, is a versatile figure who cannot be described in a single phrase. While performing onstage as an operatic baritone, he has also worked as a product designer and ventured into the world of perfume criticism.

His work as a perfume critic and influencer formed the most direct foundation for Spiritica. His YouTube channel, NASODANI, is a pioneering source of Italian content specializing in niche fragrance. Through it, he built extensive knowledge and connections within the fragrance world.

“I created this brand out of love for perfume and for my own life experiences, so that everyone could enjoy it and take an inner journey, as I did.”

— Daniele Muratori Caputo (from the Illuminata Collection page on the official website)

Detailed public information about his early life, including his birthplace and the precise course of his music and design careers, remains limited. This account includes what could be confirmed.

From Nights of Séances to Perfume

The name Spiritica carries an Italian nuance associated with séances. This was a deliberate choice.

“Spiritica is like the séances once conducted by courageous young people, tearing through the veil of reality to reconnect with something greater. Spiritica is a way of exploring within ourselves through a journey beyond the world of death.”

— Daniele Muratori Caputo (NASODANI YouTube channel, 2023)

Daniele says that, at a particular place on Earth, he underwent a spiritual experience that was difficult to put into words. Wanting to record that moment in some way, he arrived at the sense of smell. The atmosphere, temperature and smell of that place, which neither photography nor music could capture: preserving these in perfume became the starting point for the brand’s first range, the Illuminata Collection.

A Determination to Go Beyond Beauty Alone

The Crime Collection, focusing on criminals and criminal cases, followed the Illuminata Collection. It was a conscious step into themes that many fragrance brands had deliberately avoided.

“This is a deliberate yet thoughtful artistic provocation. It is not intended to shock as entertainment, but to question what society does not want to see. We firmly reject any glorification of violence. Our aim is to provide a space for reflection and empathy through art.”

— Daniele Muratori Caputo (NOSE SHOP press release, December 2025)

Just as art, film and novels sometimes explore unsettling themes, perfume, too, can be an artwork that encourages reflection. This is Spiritica’s philosophy. The stance has gone beyond words: in 2025, it also took the form of participation in a national crime-prevention project organized by the Italian government and police.

What Matters to the Brand

Exploring Smell, the “Last Mystery”

Spiritica is committed to very high fragrance concentrations, primarily 35% extrait de parfum. Yuzuyakuza is listed at 41% on the official website. Compared with the approximately 15–20% concentration typical of eau de parfum, 35% is strikingly high. The choice is intended to enable an immersive olfactory experience beyond simply “smelling good.”

GPS Coordinates as a Record of Place

Every perfume’s packaging bears the GPS coordinates of the real place on Earth that inspired it. This is more than a playful design detail: it lies at the heart of the brand’s philosophy of treating each fragrance as a geographical and emotional record.

“The collection is not a conventional ‘olfactory journey.’ Each fragrance contains a photograph of a dazzling experience I had years ago at a particular place on Earth. The packaging shows that place’s exact coordinates.”

— Daniele Muratori Caputo (from the Illuminata Collection page on the official website)

Luminous Flacons: Photoluminescent Caps

The Illuminata Collection uses photoluminescent caps that glow in the dark. Official descriptions present this as a technology using a mixed material patented by Only the Dreamers. Its faint glow away from light seems almost to visualize the collection’s theme of “spiritual light.” The collection as a whole is designed around three colors, red, green and blue (RGB), with reference to the RGB colors of a monitor, symbolizing the intersection of the spiritual world and contemporary digital reality.

A Different Story in Every Cap

For Jeffrey in the Crime Collection, the cap features flocking and laser engraving that recreate the carpet in murderer Jeffrey Dahmer’s apartment. The design makes the story begin from the moment one picks up the bottle, not only when smelling the perfume. Daniele personally oversees every creation, down to the details of concept and design.

Working with Multiple Perfumers

Alongside participating as a perfumer himself, Daniele collaborates with accomplished Italian perfumers including Paolo Cerizza, Leonardo Opali, Luca Maffei and Lorenzo Berti. Spiritica’s usual creative process begins with Daniele’s inspiration, which a specialist perfumer then gives olfactory form.

The Fragrance Lineup

Spiritica’s collections explore places and beliefs in Illuminata, darker stories attached to places in Oscurata, criminal cases in Crime, and people who have influenced the founder in Golden.

Some of the notes below, including blood, lava, starfish and gunpowder, are names for accords used to evoke a scene, rather than statements about literal ingredients.

Oscurata Collection

Oscurata comprises Mangomacumba, Yuzuyakuza and Rosanostra. A story inspired by Brazilian ritual, a fictional criminal underworld set in Tokyo at night, and a rose associated with silence give the three fragrances different subjects. Fruit and flowers meet notes of blood, iron, ink and burnt paper.

Mangomacumba, the first Oscurata fragrance, is set in Tijuca National Park in Rio de Janeiro, at 22.9538922°S / 43.2857242°W. Daniele Muratori Caputo conceived a story inspired by what the brand calls Macumba, with the aim of looking beyond the prejudices that separate cultures. Daniele Cerroni gave that concept its fragrance. The offerings and rituals described are images chosen for this work, not an account of Brazilian religious life as a whole.

Mango and papaya meet lime and pineapple, with mint and ozonic notes, before the bright opening gives way to a heart containing blood and iron accords. Guava and tiare flower continue the fruity thread. Red earth, animalic notes, tobacco absolute and ebony form the base with white musk and milk. This 35% extrait de parfum develops from bright fruit towards iron, tobacco and red soil.

Rosanostra is a floral-incense parfum absolu by Miguel Matos and Daniele Muratori Caputo. Its coordinates, 37.812270°N / 13.301207°E, point to Corleone in Sicily. The fragrance’s brief description connects it with silence.

Bitter orange and a blood accord open the composition. Three roses, black Taif rose, Damask rose and centifolia, meet burnt paper in the heart, with frankincense and damp earth beneath them.

Yuzuyakuza, also part of Oscurata, is discussed in its own section below.

Illuminata Collection

Illuminata connects local beliefs and mysterious stories with the smells of particular places. Each fragrance has GPS coordinates and a photoluminescent cap that glows in the dark. The current range comprises Atmayatra, Suscepto, Weon and Weona, taking in a Himalayan river valley, an Aegean monastery, and Chile’s desert and sea.

Atmayatra: Pilgrimage of the Soul. The coordinates 30.97953°N / 79.02396°E locate the fragrance in the Himalayan Chirbasa valley, near Gomukh at the source of the Ganges. Its scene is of rain falling on vegetation and feet stepping into river mud. Legends of Babaji’s immortality form part of the inspiration.

Tulsi, or holy basil, cardamom and peppermint meet watery and ozonic notes. Benzoin, frankincense, cannabis, rain and petrichor form the heart, while river-mud and earth accords lead towards sandalwood, patchouli, honey and Madagascan vanilla. Damp ground lies beneath the plants and resins of this green-aromatic composition.

Suscepto is set at a hilltop monastery on the Greek island of Tinos, reached by the winds of the Aegean. Its coordinates are 37.5423541°N / 25.162688°E. Silver votive offerings stirred by the wind, beeswax candles and frankincense surround a story of prayer. The name carries the brand’s associations with offering and gratitude.

Sea breeze, ozone, bergamot, eucalyptus and peppermint lead to Damask rose, frankincense, benzoin, smoke and a metallic impression of silver. Sandalwood, eucalyptus, iron notes, honey, beeswax and Indonesian vanilla form the base. Salt air from outside meets the incense and candles within, bringing cool metal and sweet wax into the same scene.

Weon takes its subject from the Valley of the Moon in Chile’s Atacama Desert, at 22.931621°S / 68.308723°W. Red ground and an otherworldly landscape invite associations with space and unexplained phenomena. The brand gives the name an affectionate sense of familiarity and friendship.

Coca leaf and pisco sour introduce a heart of black and white mint, milk, vanilla ice cream and copihue balsam. Salt, ozone, earth and lithium notes form the base. Alcoholic, creamy and cooling plant impressions are set against a mineral landscape. Coca and lithium are listed as scent notes here, not as evidence of their presence as ingredients or of any bodily effects.

Weona brings together the cold sea and volcanic heat of southern Chile, at 42.75489°S / 72.83937°W. Inspired by Pincoya, a spirit in the maritime folklore of Chiloé, it was developed by Arturetto Landi and Daniele Muratori Caputo, with Chile’s Matías Ross contributing ideas for local materials and smells. It was also presented as a new fragrance at Esxence 2026.

Blueberry, maqui berry, pineapple, grapefruit, sea breeze and maritime pine lead into frozen sea, nalca, calafate, lavender and a hot-lava accord. White and aquatic musks, a starfish accord, cypress, ambergris and sandalwood support the base. An impression of heat interrupts the cool fruit and sea. The meeting of lava and water also appears in the handmade glow-in-the-dark cap.

Crime Collection

The Crime Collection draws on criminal cases and unsettling stories surrounding historical figures. The current range includes Leonarda, Jeffrey and ERZSÉBET. Soap, cakes, room smells and white flowers meet blood and metallic accords, turning familiar, everyday impressions into sources of unease.

Leonarda: The Soap-Maker of Correggio (2024). The first fragrance in the collection takes its subject from the case of Leonarda Cianciulli. Its coordinates, 44.76987°N / 10.77958°E, point to Correggio in Italy. Daniele Muratori Caputo and Ariosto, an influencer working with perfume and criminal psychology, developed the concept, which Paolo Cerizza composed. Clean-smelling Marseille soap and sweet pastries are placed within the same disturbing story.

A soap accord meets blood orange, black pepper and notes recalling caustic soda and blood. Chantilly cream, homemade biscuits and raspberry syrup occupy the heart, their sweetness interrupted by a metallic impression. Oud, sulfur-like notes, dark chocolate and ambergris form the base. The juxtaposition of cakes, soap and an iron-like smell carries the narrative.

Jeffrey (2025), inspired by Jeffrey Dahmer, is the second Crime fragrance. Paolo Cerizza and Lorenzo Orlandi Berti translated Caputo’s concept into scent, while criminologist Daniela Cavallo contributed to the characterization and narrative. Coldness meets sweetness, and an apparently clean space contains an unsettling interior.

Ice-cold beer, a poppers accord, white orange, yeast and sour aldehydic notes open the fragrance. Carnation meets impressions of dirty carpet, clotted blood, sweat and a blade in the heart. Amber, birch and vetiver support accords of melted plastic and a damp basement in the base. These are names for narrative scent effects, not a list of substances used unchanged as ingredients. Only the Dreamers flocked and laser-worked the cap to suggest the surface of the room’s carpet.

ERZSÉBET turns to the legend of Erzsébet Báthory and Čachtice Castle in present-day Slovakia. The story that she bathed in blood to preserve her youth is treated as a legend that spread after her death. Miguel Matos and Daniele Muratori Caputo placed tuberose at the center of this obsession with beauty, confronting rich white flowers with cold metal.

Cool aldehydes, violet leaf, black pomegranate and a blood accord lead to tuberose absolute, jasmine sambac, iris and withered rose. An antique cosmetic-soap accord evokes an aristocratic dressing ritual. White musk, sandalwood, Cashmeran and soft suede combine with wet stone, benzoin and transparent labdanum, placing the textures of skin and castle walls beneath the flowers.

Golden Collection

Golden pays tribute to people and presences whose influence on founder Daniele’s life has been so profound that he associates it with the paranormal.

Lynch aka Smoked Styrax (2025) is a tribute to filmmaker David Lynch, with coordinates pointing to Los Angeles: 34.115775°N / 118.343448°W. Leonardo Opali and Paolo Cerizza developed Daniele Muratori Caputo’s concept. Cherry pie in the diner, red curtains and misty woods from Twin Peaks connect the filmic scenes with sweetness, smoke and resins.

Saffron, clove, night-blooming jasmine and cherry pastries lead towards Latakia tobacco, oud, myrrh, styrax and Xanthorrhoea australis. Dark woods, benzoin, patchouli and vanilla follow. Smoky woods and resins cover the homely sweetness of cherry pie. It is offered as a 50 ml extrait de parfum; the home-market listing checked in November 2026 priced it at €300.

“I never needed to know him to know that he was speaking to me.”

Daniele Muratori Caputo

Yuzuyakuza

Yuzuyakuza, released in 2025, belongs to Oscurata. Its coordinates, 35.693806°N / 139.701555°E, locate it in Kabukicho, Shinjuku, Tokyo. Yuzu meets a nocturnal story built around yakuza codes and tattoos. Rain-reflected neon, ink and banknotes are props in the brand’s fictional urban scene. Luca Maffei, Lorenzo Orlandi Berti and Daniele Muratori Caputo are credited in its creation. There are three tattoo-inspired cap designs, all containing the same fragrance.

Yuzu, sudachi, grapefruit and pineapple meet gunpowder in the opening. Cherry blossom, an ink accord, petrichor and sun-warmed asphalt form the heart. Mahogany, cedar, incense, suede and the smell of banknotes follow in the base. It is a 41% extrait de parfum.

By the Way…

When Weon Went Viral in Chile
The name “Weon” is a colloquial expression in Chilean Spanish slang, carrying nuances such as “guy” or “you.” When Chilean perfume critic Matías Ross posted a review on social media, it spread amid surprise at why an Italian luxury perfume would have such a name. Daniele himself expressed thanks on social media for the response from Chile, an example of the brand gaining international recognition in an unexpected way.

A Tribute to David Lynch
Lynch aka Smoked Styrax was released in May 2025, while Lynch himself had died in January 2025. It was the first creation in the brand’s Golden Collection, and his spiritual pioneering role, together with the coincidental timing, gives the perfume a special meaning.

References