Mastro del Cuore

It is early evening in a medieval Italian hill town. You have wandered down a narrow alleyway, intrigued by the shop sign reading "Spezieria" which hangs there in the warm dusk. As you enter the shop, a warm draft of air carries the fragrance of tea, ginger and dried fruit around you in a perfumed cloud. Then the eccentric old man behind the counter pulls at your sleeve and takes you by candlelight down a winding spiral staircase to savour the contents of the cellar: ancient wooden chests filled with dried spices, hessian sacks containing nuggets of resin in varying hues and tin-glazed earthenware jars filled with unguents. You realise you are a million miles and several centuries away from the synthetic and soulless, mass market glamour of today's perfumery. Mastro del Cuore is a total immersion in the ancient art of the 'speziale' (apothecary, from the Italian 'spezie' meaning spices). It presents a luxurious sequence of all the most enticing contents of an Italian apothecary's storage chest, with a gourmand vanilla/ cardamon(?) note predominating at first, a beautiful mix of tea, spices and fruits in the heart, before the powdery/woody dry down consolidates the balsamic/resinous theme which is woven throughout. At its core is the beautiful fragrance of amyris: slightly sweet, balsamic, woody, and slightly fruity. It is quite captivating and delightful. Edit: It seems that Silvia Monti's Peccato Originale line has been rebranded under her own name. There are currently five fragrances in a collection on sale exclusively at Lafarmacia stores, called "Silvia Monti Profumi D'Artista." They are presented in bold Italian style, using contemporized alchemical signs in the classic blue tone of ancient pharmacy jars, on a pure white background. They replace the original design, stamped with the ancient symbol of the caduceus (the golden rod depicting two entwined serpents, surmounted by wings). Often adopted by pharmacists, this represents the rebalancing of disordered elements in human nature, which Silvia sees as the work of medicine and perfume alike. I fear that in the process of this rebranding, MDC may have been discontinued. I made a pilgrimage to Farmacia Santini in the Italian town of Cesena, where Silvia worked for many years ... and picked up the last remaining bottle! Internet research informs me that Silvia was originally inspired by the lingering scents and ancient recipes she discovered as a child in the cellar of her family's pharmacy (hence the Spezieria fantasy in my original review). It seems she has successfully combined her professional training as a pharmacist with an ongoing fascination with esoteric philosophies such as alchemy and traditional medicine. A 2022 article in the Italian daily "La Repubblica" quotes Silvia as saying: "I love experimenting, so I decided to start working in the world of artistic perfumery. The degree in pharmacy does not train you in the creation of perfumes, but it makes it easy to move inside a laboratory with real 'olfactory libraries' of essences available, with which to realize perfumed dreams to wear. Thus was born the idea of creating 'artistic prescription perfumes' (they are called 'Peccato Originale' = Original Sin) that take care of the souls of the people who use them. Reading ancient texts of pharmacopoeias from 600-700, found in the cellar of the family pharmacy, I thought of transforming these recipes of old galenic preparations into fragrances to wear. The aim is to give pleasure to anyone who wears them: a new way of 'dressing' one's soul with the scent". Fascinating stuff! Perhaps Silvia and her work are ripe for a feature-length article in Fragrantica?

Mastro Del Cuore was launched in 2020 and its name means, in English, “Master of Heart”. The creative concept speaks of the Heart Meridian - also called the Master of Heart - and is related to the Acupuncture Meridians, which are paths through which energy and blood circulate. The Heart Meridian begins in the chest, penetrating the Pericardium, descends through the diaphragm to the abdomen, communicating with the Upper, Middle, and Lower Heaters. A branch from the center of the chest emerges laterally from the nipple, passes through the armpit, and descends to the medial aspect of the arm, ending at the middle finger. It is directly linked to the feelings of joy, happiness, and contentment and its hours of greatest energy are from 7 pm to 9 pm. According to the perfumer, the fragrance of Mastro Del Cuore brings notes of cardamom, cinnamon, Indian ginger, and black pepper, in the head. In the body, notes of dried fruits, Chai (tea), juniper berries, mate, and iris. In the base, were combined notes of sandalwood, cedar, vetiver, musk, Amyris resin (Amyris Balsamífera tree), Sumatra benzoin, and birch tar. Mastro Del Cuore is a mutant fragrance, with woody, spicy and smoky aspects. There is nothing like it in the universe of Peccato Originale fragrances. When the fragrance touches the skin, the notes of cardamom and ginger stand out, paving the way for a spicier accord with the smell of hot spices and plenty of aromatic content. In the heart, the iris flower gives a little of its powdery nuances, but nothing in exaggeration. On the contrary, here we have the iris showing its most elegant side. The evolution brings light woods and balsamic facets, reminiscent of the smell of pine trees. The resins bring the smoky incense side and the birch tar gives a subtle leathery look. Mastro Del Cuore seems to me a perfume more suitable for the male audience and its fragrance gives me a feeling of confidence, raising self-esteem. The performance is excellent, as in the other creations of the house. It remained to comment that, on the bottle, there are words (in parentheses) that say: a soffi, from Italian. The translation means puffs. Mastro Del Cuore reinforces that teaching that says: "put your heart's energy into everything you do with your hands, be it cooking, writing, massaging, painting, caressing, etc.". And of course, it also works when pressing the spray to spread the fragrance on the skin.