Amara VitaGourmand Leather Fragrance

Amara Vita by Meo Fusciuni is a gourmand, leathery, woody fragrance, unisex, created by Giuseppe Imprezzabile. A dark cacao, present throughout the composition, always suspended between bitter and sweet.

An ethnobotanist turned perfumer

Before composing, Giuseppe Imprezzabile spent years cataloging the medicinal properties of plants and ran an herbalist shop in his hometown in Sicily. He prefers the old title of aromatario, one who possesses the knowledge of plants. “Meo” is the diminutive of his father’s first name, Bartolomeo; “Fusciuni” is his grandfather’s nickname, which means to flow in Sicilian. For him, a fragrance does not begin in the laboratory but with a poem, a journey, or a revelation.

An opening of cacao, raspberry, and blood orange

Cacao absolute is there from the very first second, dark and slightly bitter. Raspberry and blood orange, which the house describes as candied, wrap it in warm fruit; bergamot brightens the whole, and coffee extends its roasted bitterness.

A heart of iris, sandalwood, and tonka bean

The cacao does not disappear; it changes company. Iris brings it a powdery texture, sandalwood a creamy roundness, tonka bean absolute its warm almond. It is at this moment that the chocolate cake takes shape.

A base of vanilla, leather, and oud

The base is the richest part of the formula: vanilla absolute, patchouli, benzoin, Bourbon vetiver, musk, amber, leather, and oud. Leather, which the house gives as a facet of the fragrance, darkens the sweetness; vetiver and patchouli leave it the bitter aftertaste that the name carries.

The house’s gesture

Amara Vita, “bitter life” in Italian, was born from a precise memory: a love story that ends, and the perfumer sitting before a slice of chocolate cake, his gaze lost. Bite after bite, he writes, the palate becomes the place of healing and the cacao envelops the pain. That is why cacao does not occupy a single layer: it traverses the sixteen ingredients of the composition and meets raspberry, orange, iris, sandalwood, and tonka one after another. Imprezzabile sees in it the very contradiction of love: the most intense sweetness and, at the same time, its most bitter part.

For whom, for what occasions?

For those who love gourmands without loving sweet fragrances: here the cacao is bitter, held by leather and woods. It is a fragrance of autumn and winter, of late afternoons and evenings. Amara Vita Meo Fusciuni will appeal to those seeking a dark, adult chocolate rather than a confectionery treat.