Photo by Bill Gillette Photography
My friend who was raised on a three hundred year old dairy farm had this to say about the smell of hay, “Hay is my childhood; it’s the dry smell of winter…bales and bales of hay. Playing in it and seeing how hard they worked in summer’s sweltering heat to bring it in.”
Bird in Hand by Linda Chamberlain
This week everything stopped. I found myself searching for some peace of mind, and I knew where to find it. I gently pulled Santa Maria Novella Fieno from my dresser, and realized that this little slip of a fragrance that was made so very long ago, in 1886, turned a glum day into a peaceful one. I’ve been wearing it all week long. Fieno feels like wearing a piece of scented antiquity. Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella, located in Florence was founded in the 13th Century by Dominican Monks, and is one of the oldest apothecaries in the world. Lucky for me its sister store on Lafayette Street in NYC is one that I can easily get to. Although I have the cologne, I recently learned that Fieno comes in a triple extract, and was excited to try it in this concentrated form. Fieno’s top and heart is a mix of citrus, myrtle, rose, and lavender. Its overall gist is subtle dry, aromatic, and has a slightly sweet gentle herbaceous and floral quality. The triple extract also holds the same description above, but there is a nutty sweetness to the extract that gives it more depth and fat, along with longevity I might add. Its dry down of hay, sandalwood, vetiver, benzoin, and vanilla brings is calming and pleasant, a fine end to an incredible journey.
Fieno’s strength also lies in its timeless delicacy. A quality that conjures up thoughts of childhood, of how children are and the way they discover the world, and the way they experience things for the first time like holding a tiny bird in their open hand or making a wish, or going to the theater for the very first time. Today on a field trip with my son, a little girl ran up to me and told me that she had a thought that doing nothing is impossible, no matter how she tries to do nothing, she is still doing something, something is always happening. She expressed this with such a wide smile, her head was somewhat tilted back as she looked at me. A single thought can be such a playful and happy revelation for a child.
There is no denying the powerful connection between scent and memory, and today, somehow Fieno made the present and the future seem promising – again.
–Valerie Vitale, of Soliflore Notes, Monthly Contributor