He doesn’t just smell like incense!

It might not be obvious, given his stature as the head of the Catholic Church, but in Italy Pope Benedict XVI is considered quite the fashionista. He prefers red fedoras and tailored red shoes, apparently gets quite picky about the cut of his robes, and now, according to the Italian press, he even has his own scent.

The fragrance, which mixes hints of lime tree, verbena and grass, was concocted by the Italian boutique perfume maker, Silvana Casoli, who has previously created scents for customers including Madonna, Sting, and King Juan Carlos of Spain.

His Haute Couture-ness heard about Casoli after she created two perfumes for some Catholic pilgrims in Spain, called Water of Faith and Water of Hope, which were such a hit in the local priest community, that they sent a sample to the Vatican. The rest is signature scent history.

The devout adherents among you might imagine there’s nothing better than getting a little Eau de Pope for yourselves, for a little whiff of the Holy See on your collar, but think again, because Casoli refuses to reproduce the signature scent for anybody else. Casoli said she had a “pact of secrecy” with her most illustrious client to date, and refused to release the full list of ingredients that had gone into his scent – but she did reveal that she had created a delicate smelling eau de cologne “based on his love of nature”.

Never fear, because Casoli also produces a range of other sultry scents for all occasions, such as Perfume of Italy, which sums up the smell of Italy’s “seas, mountains and countryside” (fishy?), and a one called Cannabis, which is described as “hypnotic” (roofie?). One Casoli fragrance that you’re not likely to see around the local Rectory is Nude, a scent inspired “by the smell that only a woman’s skin emanates in a state of ecstasy”.

(Thanks, Steyn!)

[Source: Guardian]