A discerningly located alternative to the existing Santa Maria Novella stores, in Piccadilly and on Walton Street, this new space echoes the frescoed vaults of the original store in Florence with its marble worktops, wooden floors and distinctively perfumed air.
Established in 1612 in Florence, Italy, Santa Maria Novella began in the small infirmary adjoining the eponymous church of the Dominican order. With the patronage of the Medici family the church’s friars began producing a range of distilled herbs, essences, fragrant waters and elixirs, which acquired worldwide renown. As word spread, the infirmary developed a reputation for providing miraculous cures and began to offer more products: classic perfumes and colognes, flower extracts, rose waters and hand creams based on almonds ground in mortars. The soaps sold today are still manufactured with machines dating back to the mid-19th century and are moulded one by one. Modern additions to the product offer include nourishing face creams, body milks, tonics, shampoos and bubble baths, prepared entirely from natural ingredients.