Marta

Marta is a 1986 fragrance from the Italian house Battistoni, and it has the spiced, slightly peppery character of its decade. Everyone who describes it calls it spicy, about half add musky and floral, and a quarter mention sweet, green and woody.

Tangerine and peach open it with a soft, juicy fruitiness, and coriander and angelica add a green, herbal, faintly musky edge. The pepper is layered: pink pepper for a rosy sparkle, white pepper and pepper for a drier heat. The flowers are osmanthus, which smells of apricot and tea, and rose, full and slightly spicy itself. The base is musky and smooth: ambrette, the plant musk, gives a warm, skin-like softness, musk extends it, and patchouli adds a little earth.

Marketed for women, it suits autumn and daytime or evening wear, and a person who likes classic, spicy florals with a peachy, apricot warmth rather than modern sweetness.

Marta — for women fragrance by Battistoni (released 1986). Notes: Ambrette (Musk Mallow), Angelica, Coriander, Musk, Osmanthus, Patchouli, Peach, Pepper, Pink Pepper, Rose, Tangerine, White Pepper. — Parfica open fragrance database