Terra Mia

At times we all buy a perfume and receive a sample - and then experience an instant regret the sampled one is not the one we bought. It's more or less the story of how I got acquainted with this character on the label I always see as sad despite his grin. The Internet tells me that he's Pulcinella from Italian commedia dell'arte. A persona characterized by exaggerated physical features and a rather shady behaviour, but at least according to the Wikipedia in its English version, it's also a saviour of all, but saved by none. This could explain my impression of sadness. However, with this kind of introduction, one would expect this scent to be a bit sombre, a tad grotesque, over the top, unmistakably artistic - a fragrant equivalent of the scornful pity towards the futility of human existence and ridicule of the human condition in general. Or something similar. Not this time, though. It's beautiful. And an opposite to what is written above. I would describe it as utterly feminine and addictive. Perfectly blended - if I force myself to think about it, I can find there roses, coffee, hazelnuts and vanilla, but I would rather not, since for me it's rather a mesmerising monolith of sweetness enhanced with flowers, however, I don't categorize it as a pure gourmand in my personal classification because of the captivating flowers. The perfume is sweet indeed, and this impression deepens with the drydown phase. I've never remembered to make a side by side comparison, but from my perspective it resembles Delox or the other way round - they share the coffee and rose notes, and both premiered in 2017! However, in case of Delox the sweetnes results from honey. Subjectively, Terra Mia serves as an epitome of coziness and feminine energy, subtle, tender, gracious, evoking positive feelings and letting one reminisce. It could be a comforting warmth of your favourite kindergarten teacher as she bended over your drawing to praise you or the moving fragility you might see in the woman you are walking home after a date to make sure she's safe. But it's just me - maybe the warmth is not feminine at all and it simply comes as a shield provided by the saviour of all...? ;-) Nobody can be sure until they try and offer their own interpretation.

WOW! I feel I hit the fragrance Dream Lottery with "Terra Mia." This fragrance is really, really incredible. It's beautiful! So, this fragrance has coffee notes but those notes are anything but mediocre gourmand. When I detect coffee notes in the opening, the notes are akin to those I experience with Akro "Awake." No, this coffee does not have aromatic cardamom in its opening (as Awake does). But Terra Mia opens with a spicy, peppery note, along with some neroli (citrus) and bergamot. The citrus dissipates but the pink pepper, neroli and orange blossom DEFINITELY remain. This combination of notes gives Terra Mia a bright, VERY spicy and complex opening that is not a straight black-coffee gourmand experience. As the fragrance develops, it's the combination of opening spice with florals and amber-wood that jumps out. Incredibly beautiful, middle floral notes push through, which add a gorgeous layer and marked complexity to this fragrance. There are FLORALS...LOTS OF ROSE, LOTS OF ORANGE BLOSSOM, some jasmine. All the florals beautifully blend over a slightly nutty, hazelnut, coffee accord. And the base is clearly AMBER, lots of ambroxan, vanilla and musk. And I do detect more coffee in the dry-down, I do. This is NOT a creamy, warm, lactonic, milky, comforting, gooey, gourmet fragrance. Terra Mia is more reminiscent of sitting at an old oak table in Italy, a table that just had the pepper shaker spilled on it. The table setting is surrounded by lush floral bushes. And a double shot espresso cappuccino is served. Cannot stress how beautifully all the notes in Terra Mia blend and develop. Longevity is about 4-6 hours after initial application. And I'd say silage is minimal-to-moderate. GOSH, do I ADORE this stuff. It is magical, it really is. And I LOVE the bottle and the label!! Happy!!

Oohhhh yes. This is a masterfully blended, long lasting, well projecting Italian gourmand that deserves WAY MORE recognition! I wore this today on a beautiful sunny day in Melbourne, the final day of winter here in AUS. It was so damn good. Sweet vanilla and nutty coffee beans .. absolutely beautiful. After the first hour, it becomes creamy sweet and milky to my nose, and the vanilla becomes very clear. I get a small amount of rose too, but it's not prominent. This is not a black coffee bean scent like Follow by Kerosene, but a lighter blended brown coffee. This could 100% be a successful Tom Ford fragrance. Perfect performance. First 2 hours are big. I'm smelling my hand after 8 hours and it's still going strong. 12 in and it's nice and present. I can usually smell this after waking up in the morning, which is really pleasant to experience. I feel like this is suitable for any season. I'd wear this in summer.. just not in anything over 30°C, might be a bit too milky for "high" heat. I feel like the smell of calming sweet coffee is welcome at any time of the year. I really love this. I bought a 25ml decant, but I'm guessing that I'm going to need more. A big bottle will likely be my next big purchase, and at $130, it's not too bad! Just wow, man. Go try this stuff. *edit: 30/12/2019, finally pulled the trigger on a 100ml of this. Spent $175 but I'd pay more for a full bottle. This fragrance is incredible.

One of the most underrated coffee fragrances currently available on the market. Terra Mia is a niche perfume, native to the famous island of Capri, that smells heavenly. That if you’re into sweet, gourmand rose/coffee/vanilla fragrances but this has a unique twist, market by the addition of hazelnut. It’s same coffee DNA, but feels more nutty, than the more popular and often compared to, Intense Caffe or Ristretto Intense Caffe. More similar to the latter in my opinion, I can smell coffee here and in Ristretto Intense Caffe, but not in Intense Caffe. Performance is strong, as with both Montale’s fragrances, so you can pick and choose which one you want. Terra Mia might be less popular because it’s not as easily accessible to purchase, I got my bottle a few years back, when I have been on holiday in Capri. Fall, spring and winter season only since it’s strong and sweet. The amberwood and ambroxan took care of these two aspects. More feminine I’d say, since the rose is king here, it has jasmine, neroli and orange blossoms in the top and heart notes, but I don’t really smell the other flowers besides the rose! Phenomenal value for money, at least when I’ve purchased my bottle! Can’t recommend Terra Mia enough to the people who enjoy this scent profile!

I ordered a bunch of samples from Carthusia not long ago. Most of them were too lightweight for my decadent taste. The one that stood out was Terra Mia. Not in a good way at first. I found it pungent and nauseating and I could not discern the listed notes. But coming back to it a few weeks later I adore it. Ordered a 100ml EdP straight away. I mostly get the coffee and roasted hazelnuts, some indistinguishable floral notes and vanilla. A very slight burst of citrus in the very beginning. The overall impression is sunburnt soil leaning towards the ambery side. I would love to try the perfume extract version as well. A gorgeous scent! Update: Just recieved the Extrait de Parfum version a few days ago. It is very much the same fragrance as the Eau de Parfum but lasts longer and is, according to my perception, slightly heavier on the pepper. I strongly recommend the Extrait. Update no 2: When wearing this lovely fragrance this season, I get a lot more of the ambroxan than last year. Dry and salty, but at the same time creamy and rich. This goes for the EdP as well as the Extrait.

This perfume is so dualistic it's difficoult to comment on it. It's sweet and nutty with a strong coffee aroma, but imagine it mixed with pepper, white flowers and amber. Once it dries down the sweet component becomes more dominant. It projects enormously but on me doesn't last an eternity (usually I am able to smell this kind of notes even the day after, this vanishes after a few (4-5) hours without trace). It makes me feel like I'm wearing a spicy halzenut cappuccino but with the classy touch of flowers which makes it really interesting to smell. Surprisingly I don't find it cloying even on hot weather, something about it makes it elegant no matter the temperature or time of day. But definetly not for work. The bottle is unique and fun and I'm so happy to own it. I would say, if you like gourmands and are open to try something different, buy a sample and see for yourself. I have personally fallen in love with it immediately and purchased it shortly after. A big thank you to the nice salesgirl in Paris who made me sniff it! ♥️

I've been wearing my bottle for about 3 years, usually in autumn when the rose is more prominent. This year however I wore in mainly in December and it was utterly transformed. The rose faded in the background and the concentrated hazelnut note took center stage, making me visualize an espresso with a shot of hazelnut liqueur. I had no idea if such a thing even existed, so I looked it up, and then ordered it. Terra Mia is Frangelico café- espresso with a shot of Frangelico- an Italian hazelnut liqueur from the Piedmont region in Northern Italy, named after the Franciscan monk Fra Angelico. The bottle is shaped like a monk's cassock. Maybe the connection is too obvious to many Italians and that's why it isn't even mentioned. Although I've been to Italy many times I never came across it. Now I'm glad I did. I'm thinking of getting a second bottle of each. They complement each other beautifully. A must have for coffee lovers.

Sweet coffee tinged rose and orange blossom with a warm vanilla musk dry down in the vein of Montale’s Intense Cafe - this feels a bit sweeter to me and stronger on the candied orange blossom vs rose especially in the opening (very similar to the cotton candy / orange blossom vibe in Love or Sweet Redemption by Kilian). Don’t really pick up on the hazelnut, but it could also be that my nose isn’t very familiar with that particular note. I like but could never wear Intense Cafe because something in the Montale always gives me a headache. I can spray Terra Mia however with abandon and it doesn’t bother me at all! A new love, and curious to try the parfum version of this as well. Edit: After repeated wears I’m finally getting the hazelnut in the form of wafts of Nutella like nuttiness in the middle.

I came across this scent in one of the shops in Sicily, and oh boy-love, love, love! One thing I noticed is how differently it smells depending on the weather and temperature. In Italy, the coffee, vanilla, patchouli ( not listed) and rose notes were very prominent in the warm, dry climate. But in the UK, I pick up more coffee, hazelnuts, and amber, bit of rose and no patchouli- I actually prefer it this way. This was my first “coffee” scent and I absolutely adore it. It reminds me of the time my husband and I were sitting in a little local shop in Ortigia, enjoying an espresso and a cornetto. I’ll definitely be checking out more perfumes by Luca Maffei -he’s an absolute genius.

I really enjoy this fragrance. Straightforward coffee with hazelnut, some sweetness from the vanilla and rose, and some white florals added in there. Maybe even a tiny bit of chocolate? At $80 USD for a 50ml, not bad at all! Similar to Noir Exquis by L'Artisan as well as Café Tuberosa by Atelier Cologne. The difference is that while NE smells like a latte with pastry and CT smells like straight black coffee, Terra Mia strikes the right balance between the two. I'm usually not big on gourmands but this is really lovely. Perfect for fall and winter. I could also see this working really well in spring because of the white florals. Simple, easy, and comforting.

Terra Mia feels like stepping into a tiny café on a cold, rainy evening - espresso machines hissing, fogged windows glowing, and the scent of coffee, chocolate, and roses melting into the air. It opens with powdered cocoa and dark roasted coffee beans, but the jammy rose and syrupy hazelnut soften everything into something rich, velvety, and addictive rather than bitter. This isn’t black coffee — it’s hazelnut cream stirred into espresso, lipstick-stained porcelain cups, rose preserves, and warm cashmere in cool weather. Heavy, cozy, and nostalgic, like an Italian café memory.

The only perfume I've ever bought on first sniff. Usually I hum and haw over a purchase for months but Terra Mia is something special. People say this is a coffee scent but I'd be more inclined to say that it offers the elements of a coffee scent without actually making you smell like coffee. Warm, sweet and bitter, spicy, nutty, aromatic. I'm very sensitive to an amber base but this one avoids that disgusting dirty ambroxan note instead for something elegant, deep, and feminine. Lasts really well. I wish I had picked up a full sized bottle instead of just the travel size!

Terra Mia is what I wish Intense Cafe were. It's the exact same genre so sure if you have Roses Vanille or Intense Cafe, it's duplicative, but if you're looking for that and haven't locked in one scent yet, make it this one. It opens with a very deep realistic coffee note, with stunning white florals surrounding it. Very quickly it goes to that very familiar Intense Cafe smell, but here's where it's different. There's something in a lot of Montale frags that gets plasticy and fuzzy in the drydown -- synthetic even is. This has none of that. Simply lovely <3

This is indeed similar to intense cafe and ristretto intense cafe, but better. richer and without all the montale signature syntheticness. Will definitely be replacing the montale one in my collection! edit: i’m not sure what to do now because the more i use my sample, the stronger the alcohol is (just like with ristretto intense). strong alcohol in perfume is a huge pet peeve of mine and i feel like i’ve been having this problem a lot more lately. It's almost like I'm anosmic to this scent profile.

Its such a lovely coffee scent though i find that the rose could have been toned down more. Without having a look at the pyramid or notes, i found the blend to be reminiscent of a toffee candy with some jam. The rose and vanilla sticks for such a long time with the nutmeg and coffee running out earlier. Love that they made both edp and parfum for this. A bit pricy though i think it can be worth it if you enjoy the sweet rose and vanilla a bit more than the coffee nutmeg

I love the smell, but there must be something in it that I'm sensitive to because I always sneezed after I applied it. The smell itself is divine, which makes it worth the sneeze and a bit of runny nose haha!. It is a sweet gourmand coffee, slightly floral but still unisex in my opinion.Sadly it doesn't last that long on me, maybe 4-5 hours before it become a skin scent (or maybe I just become noseblind due to its strength 😄 ).

This is a softer, more lactonic, version of intense cafe. To me this smells like a rose latte, with soft rose petals sprinkled on top. Sadly, the lasting power on this is disappointing, you really have to over spray. One nice aspect though, is that this scent can be used all year round, because it's not as heavy as intense cafe. I can wear this in the winter and summer.

double shot of espresso with a pump of caramel & fresh flowers picked for breakfast on the coast of southern italy. i bought this in positano and wore it all over italy. its a fragrance that should make sense but smells very complex and intriguing. each whiff brings up a different note so its forever refreshing. coffee lingers with subtle floral and vanilla notes

i got a decant of this fragrance and the scent itself is heavenly, i love the bitter coffee and gorgeous rose opening, and later i get hints of jasmine and hazelnut too. at first it faintly radiates within arm lenght but after an hour or so dries down and becomes more of a skin scent. it’s amazing just wish it didn’t “fade out” so quickly.

It's sweet and addictive, but not overly so. For some reason, it has a nostalgic quality for me. In terms of performance, its pretty good for what you pay for; it doesn't last an eternity, as with its projection being decent, but not all fragrances have to be 'beast mode' or overly powerful. You can also wear this all-year-round.

@Silviaci explained it best to a T! Terra Mia is a more refined version of Montale's Intense Cafe. But in contrast to Intense Cafe, Terra Mia is suitable for both cold and warm weather (with exception of the summer heat). A must-have for gourmand lovers, 8.5/10 Luca Maffei, we salute you!

Strong somewhat bitter coffee opening with roasted hazelnut Vanilla and some floral and fruity sweet notes Drydown is more soft and smooth, noticeable amber and musky undertones Overall is very unique and reminiscent of sitting in the cafe outside in fall as it is quite a heavy fragrance

This perfume is incredible! It's warm, inviting and has the most delicious coffee note I've ever smelled. The rose and hazelnut add a touch of sweetness that balances out the deeper woody and amber notes perfectly. Terra Mia lasts forever on my skin - I get compliments all day long!

Very nice gourmand vibe indeed. Flowers mixed with creamy coffee gets sour yummy delicious drydown. Longivity 3h with good projection, then 4h skin scent. Great Italian shiny coast mood. Reminds me Hanae Mori HM, but with nuts & coffee instead chocolate note and more crispy.

Strict coffe cure. Laying on the sofa, in my Nonna's house, waiting for the angelic sound from the boiling moka , followed by the intense smell of arabica. Drinking the coffe and reaching for some christmas leftovers, fruits and hazelnuts.

Sweet oranges and hazelnut coffee, without any of the bitterness. Very well balanced between fresh citrus (I'm not usually into citrus scents), sweetness, and nutty coffee depth. Good performance and a very wearable scent for all seasons.

Opening is strong leaning bit bitter, but drydown is divine- creamy vanilla coffee with hint of rose sugar. Beautifully blended, suprisingly strong sillage and long lasting. I recommend it for colder weather.

This is very good. A bit linear, but it has subtle transitions. The main notes are hazelnut, coffee, neroli, rose, amberwood. It is a comforting frag for fall, winter and spring. Great quality sprayer. 10/10

If you were to take Montale's Intense Cafe and dial back the sweetness and rose...viola, you have Terra Mia by Carthusia. I own both, and both are must-haves if you are serious about your fragrances.

I like this one. I bought it blinded but it could be my signature scent. Not that creamy, jammy. It is sweet but a little bit dry scent. I think this is absolutely unisex. Definitely delicious.

Right from the get go of Terra Mia, I get Intense Cafe vibe with the rose note toned down. However, some floral notes are added to Terra Mia. The coffee note is a tad more prominent too.

Incredible perfumery! Interesting, intoxicating, sweet, warming, projecting, lasting, smooth and well worth a try!

It’s very similar to Montale Ristretto intense cafe. If you like the montale it’s worth trying this one

root beer hard candies. very yummy but also sophisticated in a way from the wood vibes;);)

An amazing scent I prefer this a little bit more compare to Intense Cafe!

Selling my bottle. Full present, few sprays missing. UK shipping

My favorite. Unlike anything I've ever smelled. Just magical.

I usually don't love the opening profile of coffee scents - I find them far too gritty or punchy - like I'm suffocating in thick gooey molasses. Terra Mia opens with a sour coffee vibe instead. It's not 'bright' (like Awake by Akro) but it’s floral. From the start the three notes that jump out are neroli, rose and coffee. After about 20 minutes of wear the perfume starts to become sweeter and more floral. On my skin the coffee has faded into the background, but it's still recognizable. The vanilla and the hazelnut have really begun to pull through. After a few hours of wear it’s settled into something I think could be far more mass appealing and a much softer and sweeter scent than the opening. Its story ends with a similar profile to Montale Ristretto Intense Cafe, but it’s far less screechy and way more refined and smooth. Vibe: You’re the new witch in town and it's time to go on a shopping spree. It’s late afternoon and you try to hit up every witchcore boutique you can find before they close. You meet a lot of cool people, but you are still, by far, the coolest. It's a strong like for me!

I purchased a full bottle of Terra Mia (2017) in Venice for around €90. I am crazy about gourmande fragrances, especially coffee, and this was firing on all cylinders when I sampled it in-store. However, when I got it home, I found the inherent sweetness of TM quite suffocating. After several valiant attempts at making TM work, I shelved it for many months. Now after playing around with it again this winter, my feelings are: TM is exclusively suited to cold weather, as extreme heat or humidity does it no favors. I've also found that a great layering option is TM + Fleur d'Oranger (2020) by Jo Malone for Zara. FdO is a bright, wildly inexpensive (€26/90mL) fragrance that consists of mostly orange blossom and neroli, which beautifully complement the resinous coffee-nocciola-vanilla of TM.

Terra Mia opens with a hazelnut-flavored coffee, the kind with sugar and a little milk. If you prefer espresso or Americano, the first few minutes might feel too sweet. (A friend of mine said there is a strong boozy note, but I hardly notice it. If I focus, the pepper is more noticeable.) After a while the scent becomes smoother. What I find interesting is that I barely detect any florals, even though my friend says the floral notes are quite obvious. To me it leans more toward wood and amber. The coffee is still present in the middle and later stages, but the sweetness fades. It feels more suitable for winter. On a day when the snow is melting, sitting at home with a cup of coffee, the scent of Terra Mia seems to melt into the skin in the warmth of the room.

The initial coffee note in this fragrance is very bitter, like a dark roast espresso. The bitterness for me dies down quite quickly and leaves me with a strong coffee notes with more of an amber, vanilla feel to it, with a nutty note starting to become more prominent too. The rose starts coming out after a few minutes of wearing this, but to me it's quite subtle because it's so closely mixed with the coffee/amber/nutty notes that I get. This fragrance to me is a spicy, warm coffee scent, with subtle florals that lift the fragrance up from being too heavy or cloying. It's well blended, and I appreciate it quite a lot, but there's something that's stopping it from being a 'love' for me. I would say this is well worth a sniff though!

I was reluctant to try once I saw coffee listed as an ingredient. But interestingly enough, for someone who DOES NOT like coffee in fragrances, this is pretty nice. I won't wear this but it is the best and booziest coffee (Irish coffee?) fragrance I've ever smelled. What is that liquor-like note I smell? Reminds me of the boozy vibe I get from Elizabeth & James Nirvana Bourbon, and also the boozy fermented-apple in See by Chloé.🤔 I own See by Chloe and find it hard to wear but I still like it and will wear it from time to time-probably not in the summer. So there, Terra Mia Carthusia is a bit complex and THEE slightest gourmand. It is nice and has prompted me to try more from this line. I'm excited! 🤗

The dna is not something new and I have two similar scents that are almost the same as this one which are intense cafe by Montale and roses vanille by Mancera The great part of the frag it’s the best of the bunch Such syrupiness in the opening as if you just poured honey on yourself And the slightest coffee notes show up as well maybe not that much roses but enough to enjoy The performance is good but the other scents are better in power Although this one is discontinued if you don’t have any of the three scents I mentioned I suggest you try this one first it won’t be around for long It’s a very good scent and better than it’s relatives

A nice & straight forward coffee scent. Terra Mia opens fresh, immediately the hazelnut latte accord comes to the forefront. In the opening, there is pomarose and also orange blossoms, keeping the scent from being too single noted. Our cup of coffee becomes warmer and sweeter over the first hour. The scent drying down with vanilla and amber rising. This gourmade scent gives around 2 hours of projection before receding close to the skin. Overall, a simple but well blended gourmand. A lighter, sweeter coffee scent. Easy to wear, inoffensive, but also somewhat one dimensional after the flowers fade. Coffee lovers could sample this.

I find this one a little too sweet (like most Italian pastry) so have started to add a spritz of lemon cologne to freshen it up--maybe sacrilege, maybe okay as notes are reminiscent of Capri/Amalfi Coast. More coffee might have balanced it better for me, or maybe I'm just thinking about dessert. I liked it more on the tester than on my skin, so I might also just spritz it on a scarf. The Carthusian line is impressive and Mediterraneo is my fav.

Not bad, not bad at all. I have a sample of it and am just trying it a little. It's surprisingly sweet considering the notes. I don't get any coffee at all. It reminds me of Paco Rabanne's Olympea. I also get tangy preserved plums (Chinese HuaMei, if anyone here knows what that is) in the opening. Certainly quite gourmand. Sweet vanilla, smells a bit like Azuki bean paste too. That's the aspect that associates it to Olympea.

Rose and coffee. Rose is the same rose on steroid i smelt in Zaras rose gourmande. Super sweet, bright, like a rose lolipop rather than a natural clean one. Coffee isn’t the protagonist in here, more of a supporter of the rose, making it a little oriental, aristocratic, elegant (in a hooker way ? Sort of?). Cute, sweet, pretty unisex, but not the gourmand coffee and hazelnut perfume i was looking for.

Opens smelling like a dark red wine. Settles in as a mellow roasted coffee with strong rose. I don't get anything really nutty or creamy or vanilla-y here. I would call it a dark fresh... as odd as that is. Reminds me of Sorcery by Oakcha with a little coffee in there. I do wish the coffee note was more realistic.

Sweet coffee, rose, vanilla, a cheaper Intense Café, although with some tweaks. This comes off more fruity and nutty, would smell good on others, definitely not for me tho. Not natural smelling which necessarily is not bad but not my vibe atm. My girlfriend can happily have my sample.

This is high on my list of favourite coffee perfumes, but may I add also this smells like a cup of cocoa too. Cozy is the most important adjective to describe it. Absolutely love the nutty - hazelnut side to it. Such a beautiful vanilla. I love Luca Maffei. Luca, you are a genius!