Santa Maria! This factory is so cool
As I stroll through the piazza in front of the Santa Maria Novella Basilica, I feel like I am transported back to the 15th century when Florence was the seat of Renaissance culture.
The only scenario missing is the sight of artists, philosophers and genteel princes in their gilded frocks, to make my postcard-pretty fantasy complete.
My fantasy continues at the Hotel Santa Maria Novella where I enter my room and see gold and royal blue curtains matching the canopy of the bed; the kind that someone like Catherine de Medici might have used.
On the bed, I see a box tied with a satin bow and a card that reads: “Maligayang pagdating sa Italia. Mabuhay!” Signed Eugenio Alphandery.
To receive a note in Filipino from the head of the Oficina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella is a very thoughtful and personalized gesture. Inside the fragrant box are soaps, lotions and other bath products beautifully wrapped in paper surrounded by a bed of confetti.
Personal touches like these are quite rare in this high-tech, fast-paced modern world where most everything is mass-produced. The folks — or should I say the genteel princes — of Santa Maria Novella obviously still believe that life’s simple pleasures consist of products made by hand, and crafted with loving skills and devotion.
I saw such devotion at the Santa Maria Novella factory where two modern princes — head honcho Eugenio Alphandery and his VP Gianluca Foa — gallantly showed me the processes that every Santa Maria Novella product goes through.
Many of the methods used by the Dominican monks some 400 years ago are still used in the factory, but combined with modern technology. Eugenio, who is a mechanical engineer, explains: “To improve the factory, I designed machinery to upgrade the production techniques. I have committed myself to Santa Maria Novella since my family took over and I intend to give it my all. “His family was in textile production, so Eugenio is used to the hum of machines. In fact, some of the machinery in the Santa Maria Novella factory is better than a Ferrari.
“It’s like creating a car that already has a pilot,” Eugenio says of the machinery that he has redesigned. “I learn a lot from the past, and I like to combine super-modern technology with the ancient methods that are still important to preserve some handmade details.”
The pilots, of course, are the factory craftsmen and workers who have the skills to put in those touches that make Santa Maria Novella products so different from the rest.
“We are crazy,” laughs Gianluca. “We can probably save on labor costs by simply making everything automated, but we don’t. You cannot see this kind of labor anywhere in the world, where products are still done by hand. We don’t want to scrimp. We want to assure quality control on production and packaging.”
The factory is divided into five workshops: cosmetics, liquor, potpourri, wax for candles and herbal products. We make our way to the soap factory and as I catch sight of one of the employees, my Pinoy radar immediately spots Augusto Domingo, who greets us in Tagalog. Augusto oversees the soap production and he is also obviously responsible for the greeting that his boss Eugenio wrote on the card that I received earlier.
The soaps here go through a very unique process that is similar to aging cheese. After the soaps are formed, they are put in a dehydrator for one month, to allow as much liquid as possible to evaporate. That is how the fragrance becomes concentrated in a soap bar.
At the liqueur area, we have a taste of chocolate-flavored liqueur, our senses work double time as we smell their best-selling potpourris stored in beautifully pomegranate-molded terracotta pots drenched in fragrant essential oils. Our senses are lit up as we see the colorful handmade candles that are refined and painted by hand. Such scenes could have come out straight from a more charming time and place. The only thing missing is Catherine de Medici holding a bottle of fragrance, while ladies in waiting fix her hair with a silver comb.
I can never take for granted now every Santa Maria Novella product I see, after observing how much love, care and dedication is given to every step of their production in the factory. In every perfume bottle, soap bar, potpourri or lotion that I hold, I see the faces of those true artisans and craftsmen who have mastered the ways of turning raw natural materials into delicate treats for the body. Just like in the Renaissance days.
Coming next:
Q&A with Santa Maria Novella head honcho Eugenio Alphandery
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In the Philippines, Santa Maria Novella products are exclusively available at Rustan’s Essenses.
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Thai Airways offers excellent service, cuisine and comfort as it flies to Italy via Manila-Bangkok. For reservations and inquiries on the most attractive rates and packages, call 817-5442.
