Vero Profumo’s first three fragrances; Rubj, Kiki and Onda are unusual, not only in their style and composition but also in the fact that they are each five star fragrances that can easily be considered as modern masterpieces. They each also have strong personalities, multi-faceted in themselves, but incredibly diverse in character as an entire entity – a collection to be envied.

With her initial collection Swiss indie perfumer Vero Kern proved that she has a natural talent for perfumery as well as a clear and fascinating artistic vision that translates effortlessly into her creations. For her line’s fifth anniversary year Vero Kern is introducing a brand new fragrance, one that doesn’t break cohesion of the line but also brings an entirely new approach to Vero Profumo.

Mito (Italian for “Myth”), will be the latest fragrance from Vero Profumo to join her Eau de Parfum collection. Taking inspiration from Italy, specifically the Villa d’Este in Tivoli, smelling Mito is like opening a time capsule, unleashing a single moment where as time has stopped in the garden of Villa d’Este, allowing Vero Kern to paint an olfactory oil-painting of the trees, mosses, flowers, stones, sculptures and water that inhabit such a beautiful space.

The Notes

Citrus Blend, Magnolia Grandiflora, White Magnolia Champaca, Jasmine, Galbanum, Hyacinth, Cypress Blend and Moss

How Does it Smell?

I was lucky enough to win a sample of Mito as part of a competition held on Facebook by Campomarzio70, the fragrance’s distributors. The premise behind the competition was that 50 lucky winners would be sent a sample of the new fragrance to test blindly with no name, story or notes provided. Winners were then asked to post their impressions on the Campomarzio Facebook Page. Now being the disorganised chap I am I didn’t actually post my thoughts on the FB page until yesterday evening because I forgot (you may slap my wrists if you wish), but I did do my blind testing and without further adieu, here are my impressions:

“This fragrance captures nature in a million shades of green; the green of grass, the green of flower buds and stems, the green of citrus fruits, the green of trees, the green of moss and the green of algae. This myriad of hues come together to create a bright, lively picture of nature, one where you can sense the movement of everything from the swaying of the trees to the crawling of the bugs. This is a fragrance that is bursting with life.”

As you can see my overall impression was GREEN and since reading the notes and story I’m glad to see that I wasn’t too far off the mark in terms of the image that Vero Kern was trying to create, which really is a massive testament to her incredible talent. Below are my impressions of Mito having spent more time with the scent, notes and story.

Mito opens bright and fizzy with candied citrus, namely lemon. It has a lively quality to it, as if it is alive and buzzing with nature and brimming with life. You sense the movement of the trees, the rushing of the fountains and the slow, sleepy languor of the afternoon sun, it’s all there, all parts of life moving at different paces. It’s also hard not to smell the juicy, sun kissed candied citrus and not think of a hot, cloudless summers day where happiness is the main activity of the day.

This sun kissed quality carries through to the floral heart. Hot sunlight beats down on the garden, flowers bake and explode in the sun, silently and invisibly throwing their seed into the air. Bees, bugs and pollen fill the air with sound, colour and life. What I find really gorgeous about the florals in Mito, the majority of which are white by the way, is that they don’t follow the typical creamy and tropical pattern that most do, instead they are green, dry and almost bitter with a rich honeyed nuance.

True dirt and moss is unusual in a modern fragrance and Mito showcases a wonderful note of cool earth and slow, melodic moss. The mossy base is the darkness to the opening’s light, the shade under the trees as opposed to the symphonic, sun-baked citrus and flowers. As Mito really dries down the moss note becomes deeper, richer and colder. It gains a mineralic quality, almost like the smell of green algae clinging to cold stone.

Many things fascinate me about Mito; the fact that you can really smell the inspiration behind it, and the fact that it speaks of nature in so many ways that is impossible to count. But the most fascinating thing is that it’s a green fragrance (I think we’re classifying it as a green floral chypre FYI) that I actually like. Those who read regularly will know that green is the genre of fragrance that I struggle with most, but now Vero Kern has come along and thrown a great big spanner in the works. I’m not complaining though, I like to be surprised and that’s something that the Vero Profumo line is not short of, each one of the fragrances is chock full of surprise and Mito definitely slots in to the collection rather nicely.

Other non-fans of green fragrances really should try Mito, it could change your mind about how nature (of the green variety) can be represented in fragrance. If anyone was going to change my mind it was going to be Vero Kern.

Availability

Mito will be released in September and will be available in 50ml Eau de Parfum for €145.

Disclaimer

PR sample. All notes, quotes and images (except Image 2) via press release. Image 2 explow.com.