The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Menta Sui Navigli is Step Aboard's postcard from Milan's canalside evenings. The Navigli district is the city's drinking artery, bars stacked along the water where aperitivo spills onto the sidewalk and nobody rushes. The brand framed this scent around that scene: the clink of colored glass, the whiff of cocktail garnishes, the chaos of a warm summer night that hasn't peaked yet. Mint arrives as the cooling thread that ties the whole atmosphere together, the herbed rim of a drink rather than the drink itself. Perfumer Morgane Collinot translated the moment into a compact composition, four notes total, designed to feel less like a structured fragrance and more like the air around an outdoor bar at dusk.
What makes this composition interesting is its refusal to overstate. Four notes against an industry that typically layers fifteen or twenty. Mint up top, watermelon, blackcurrant, and raspberry in the middle, then a single musk closure. The discipline is the design. Each note has a job: mint provides the cooling sensation, red fruit carries the sweetness people associate with a warm-weather cocktail, and musk holds everything to skin without forcing projection.
The evolution
The first spray lands sharp and bright. Mint takes the lead in the opening minutes, almost mentholated, the kind of cooling sensation that doesn't whisper. After roughly twenty minutes the red fruit layer arrives: watermelon first, juicy and a touch synthetic in the best way, then blackcurrant adds a tart edge that keeps the sweetness honest. Raspberry rounds the heart, slightly jammy, settling in alongside the fruit compote impression. The accord reads fruity and gourmand-adjacent without ever tipping into candy territory. By the two-hour mark the fruit starts fading and the musk takes over, quiet and slightly clean, almost skin-like. The drydown stays soft and close. Sillage stays moderate throughout, and the scent keeps mostly to your personal space rather than projecting across a room.
Cultural impact
Menta Sui Navigli entered the market in 2018, drawing its anchor image from the Navigli district and its canals, aperitivo culture, and creative energy. The mint-plus-watermelon accord reads as a stylized version of a summer evening by the water, where the cooling green of mint meets the bright splash of sliced fruit under a low sun. The combination captures something specific about warm-weather nights along the canal, that mix of refreshment and easy conviviality. Within the brand's lineup, the fragrance holds its own as a summery, approachable composition, the kind of bottle that feels right for an aperitivo hour or a walk along the water.
The House
Step AboardStep Aboard is a Milan-based fragrance house creating gender-fluid scents that blur the line between perfume and personal care. Founded in 2016 by Georgiana Mocanu and Daniele Morando, the brand emerged from a specific practical need: the founders sought a fragrance compatible with both skin and hair, leading them to develop formulas that perform across multiple surfaces. Their collection takes inspiration from urban landscapes, Italian geography, and everyday moments, with fragrance names referencing places like Milano Centrale and Sunday Street alongside more conceptual titles such as Infinite Square and Transitions Gate. The brand presents its scents as accessible experiences rather than luxury statements, positioning itself at the intersection of functional fragrance and artistic expression.
The Creator
Morgane CollinotCollinot works within TechnicoFlor's ingredient-rich environment, where natural extracts from the surrounding Provençal landscape shape what is possible in the lab. Her work suggests a preference for compositions that foreground botanical clarity, allowing individual naturals…
