She killed, dismembered and boiled three women. She used their fat to make bars of soap, and dried their blood in the oven, crumbling it into dough to create crunchy teacakes for herself and her friends. She was Leonarda Cianciulli, the first Italian serial killer, also known as the "soapmaker of Correggio". Leonarda was driven by a macabre maternal desire to protect her son from harm, which she believed required human sacrifice.
This extrait perfume is an olfactory portrait of Leonarda, part of Spiritica’s Crime Collection. The opening of Marseille soap is clean but strange, combined with the spikiness of a peppery accord that conjures caustic soda. And the dirty, dusty, somewhat stale gourmand background suggests something ominous. Chantilly cream-dipped homemade biscuits reveal a ghastly surprise within: raspberry syrup mixed with notes of clotted blood, oozing a sweet and ferrous odor. The malevolent dissonance continues in the base notes, where oud and dark chocolate combine with sulphur. Leonarda is a perfume that infuses madness with love.
All about this fragrance
Vibe check
Leonarda suits close, charged spaces where its clean-and-corrupt contrast can unfold slowly: a scent that feels almost domestic at first, then turns disquieting as it warms on skin. It projects a strange, intimate aura, more unsettling than loud, with a dry gourmand trail that lingers like a memory you would rather not name.
How to wear
Best in cool weather or evening air, Leonarda benefits from light application: one to three sprays are enough to let the soap, pepper and metallic facets stay legible before the darker gourmand base rises. On skin it reads cleaner and more intimate; in the air it becomes dustier, sweeter and more sulfurous.
Who it’s for
For wearers drawn to unconventional gourmands, dark conceptual perfumery and scents that balance cleanliness with menace. It will appeal to those who like spicy, woody compositions with metallic edges, bitter sweetness and a deliberately unsettling narrative.
Release year
2024
The nose
Paolo Cerizza
Collaborators
Daniele Muratori Caputo, Spiritica’s founder, shaped the concept and creative brief, building the fragrance as part of the Crime Collection. Ariosto, described as an expert in perfumes and criminal psychology, contributed to the idea and narrative framing behind the scent.
Spiritica’s story
Spiritica is a Milan-based niche house built around luxury paranormal perfumery: fragrances as dramatic, symbolic objects rather than safe crowd-pleasers. Its work leans into rare materials, sharp contrasts and storytelling, using scent to explore taboo, spirituality and the uneasy space between beauty and darkness.
Leonarda’s concept
Leonarda was created as an olfactory portrait of Leonarda Cianciulli, the Italian serial killer known as the Soap-Maker of Correggio, and launched as the first fragrance in Spiritica’s Crime Collection. The composition turns her story into a clash of clean soap, caustic pepper, blood, cream, biscuits and sulfur, echoing the contradiction between domestic ritual and brutality.
Extra info
Leonarda is part of Spiritica’s Crime Collection and is presented as an extrait de parfum. The fragrance references Leonarda Cianciulli, the so-called Soap-Maker of Correggio, and Spiritica has framed it as a perfume about madness and love.
She killed, dismembered and boiled three women. She used their fat to make bars of soap, and dried their blood in the oven, crumbling it into dough to create crunchy teacakes for herself and her friends. She was Leonarda Cianciulli, the first Italian serial killer, also known as the "soapmaker of Correggio". Leonarda was driven by a macabre maternal desire to protect her son from harm, which she believed required human sacrifice.
This extrait perfume is an olfactory portrait of Leonarda, part of Spiritica’s Crime Collection. The opening of Marseille soap is clean but strange, combined with the spikiness of a peppery accord that conjures caustic soda. And the dirty, dusty, somewhat stale gourmand background suggests something ominous. Chantilly cream-dipped homemade biscuits reveal a ghastly surprise within: raspberry syrup mixed with notes of clotted blood, oozing a sweet and ferrous odor. The malevolent dissonance continues in the base notes, where oud and dark chocolate combine with sulphur. Leonarda is a perfume that infuses madness with love.
All about this fragrance
Vibe check
Leonarda suits close, charged spaces where its clean-and-corrupt contrast can unfold slowly: a scent that feels almost domestic at first, then turns disquieting as it warms on skin. It projects a strange, intimate aura, more unsettling than loud, with a dry gourmand trail that lingers like a memory you would rather not name.
How to wear
Best in cool weather or evening air, Leonarda benefits from light application: one to three sprays are enough to let the soap, pepper and metallic facets stay legible before the darker gourmand base rises. On skin it reads cleaner and more intimate; in the air it becomes dustier, sweeter and more sulfurous.
Who it’s for
For wearers drawn to unconventional gourmands, dark conceptual perfumery and scents that balance cleanliness with menace. It will appeal to those who like spicy, woody compositions with metallic edges, bitter sweetness and a deliberately unsettling narrative.
Release year
2024
The nose
Paolo Cerizza
Collaborators
Daniele Muratori Caputo, Spiritica’s founder, shaped the concept and creative brief, building the fragrance as part of the Crime Collection. Ariosto, described as an expert in perfumes and criminal psychology, contributed to the idea and narrative framing behind the scent.
Spiritica’s story
Spiritica is a Milan-based niche house built around luxury paranormal perfumery: fragrances as dramatic, symbolic objects rather than safe crowd-pleasers. Its work leans into rare materials, sharp contrasts and storytelling, using scent to explore taboo, spirituality and the uneasy space between beauty and darkness.
Leonarda’s concept
Leonarda was created as an olfactory portrait of Leonarda Cianciulli, the Italian serial killer known as the Soap-Maker of Correggio, and launched as the first fragrance in Spiritica’s Crime Collection. The composition turns her story into a clash of clean soap, caustic pepper, blood, cream, biscuits and sulfur, echoing the contradiction between domestic ritual and brutality.
Extra info
Leonarda is part of Spiritica’s Crime Collection and is presented as an extrait de parfum. The fragrance references Leonarda Cianciulli, the so-called Soap-Maker of Correggio, and Spiritica has framed it as a perfume about madness and love.