Santa Maria Novella believes in discretion. Tucked away in a (plush) back street that’s off-off the Fulham Road, the sight of me and my notepad has the sales assistants squirming.
“We don’t advertise,” says the chief assistant, slightly scandalised.
A steady stream of customers suggested that they probably don’t have to. The wealthy residents of Kensington know all about Santa Maria Novella. It’s essentially their local Bath & Body Works.
Santa Maria Novella — the mother shop — is the famous Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica in Florence, Italy, one of the world’s oldest pharmacies and the creator of colognes and unguents whose recipes have been handed down for hundreds of years…
Sometimes it seems as though high-end beauty-product companies have been competing in the “green” arena for ages. In fact,
French jewellery and perfume house 

