By nature, humanity yearns to know what lies beyond: it’s not just about physical limits or overcoming what is imposed on us to satisfy our curiosity. No, it’s primarily an immaterial issue, one that deals with eternity. We, as finite beings, are always seeking the infinite. We thirst for lightness, immortality, and immensity. We want to drink from the fountain of youth, forge the philosopher’s stone, and find the Holy Grail: in challenging what is divine, we demonstrate how incredibly mortal, imperfect, and therefore extraordinary we are.

It wasn’t enough for us to categorize elements into fire, water, earth, and air and draw a line, or rather, a horizon between the terrestrial and the otherworldly. We forged the concept of quintessence: a fifth element to associate it with the essence of the celestial world. We also called it aether, for its eternal and immutable “nature”. The Greeks even thought it was the superior air breathed by the gods, as opposed to the inferior air breathed by us humans. But precisely because we are extraordinarily mortal, aether also finds a useful opposition to describe our world: it then becomes heat, light, fluidity, and vitality.

It almost gives us the impression that we can touch it, and breathe it.

We want to make it ours; we crave the power it can give us even if we can’t really describe it.

I like to think, therefore, that everything that can make us feel infinite in our finite being can be aether: which, in the end, is what we aspire to in our daily lives, to find elements that take us elsewhere without moving from here. Like perfumes: concentrates of notes, memories, and sensations that vanish into the air but remain on our skin.

A link between the physical and the ethereal that, even if immaterial, becomes concrete the moment we imagine it. Through the accords and emotions that only perfumes can convey, we too rise to the aether. We too can, albeit briefly, go beyond and discover new worlds.

Dries Van Noten – Mystic Moss

In the aether, the impossible becomes possible just to amplify our sensations: a similar goal is pursued by the Mystic Moss fragrance by Dries Van Noten, created in collaboration with Nicolas Bonneville.

Here, the earth calls us back to our origins: thanks to accords combining moss, spices, oak, mandarin, and patchouli, the sensorial experience is primordial. The nuances become intense, nature returns to being Mother, and new depths are revealed to be explored. Quintessence is closer than ever.

“nature returns to being Mother“

Byredo – Mojave Ghost

“If I were fire, I would burn the world”, wrote Cecco Angiolieri. A blaze that ignites and involves everything around us, transporting us far away, into a scenario of mirage and infinity like the desert.

“A blaze that ignites and involves everything around us, transporting us far away, into a scenario of mirage and infinity like the desert.”

And it is from the desert, specifically the Mojave, that inspiration for this fragrance comes, capturing the rare flowers that dare to grow in this setting to offer a complex and layered fragrance: Cypriot violet, Chantilly musk, musky ambrette, and cedar awakens the wild instinct jealously guarded in our hearts. And from our hearts, it spreads to new, no longer impossible, destinations.

Jo Malone – Cologne Intense Cypress & Grapevine

The ability to let go is not to be taken for granted and should not be underestimated. Taking that step into the void to experience the thrill of the unknown is synonymous with audacity, some might even say hubris or arrogance. But the price to pay for experiencing that pleasure is too enticing, like the woody and sensual accords of this fragrance.

“The ability to let go is not to be taken for granted and should not be underestimated.”

The aromatic freshness of cypress, and the warmth of vine and amber surprise and attract us towards the desire for change. In other words, it brings us closer to taking that step and discovering that, if we want, we can fly.

L’Artisan Parfumeur – Il Était Un Bois

Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Imagine being in a forest: far from everything, close only to yourself. A new power flows within you: the power to rediscover that anything is truly possible, even if it means being surprised by the unexpected.

Just like the harmony of this fragrance, rich in nuances and woody accords that combine notes like wheat, hazelnut, and vetiver, making every emotion extraordinarily vivid and intense. Making us want to live everything so intensely, again, and again.

BORNTOSTANDOUT – Nanatopia

It’s fascinating how our history and culture are filled with episodes where the unknown provokes both fear and a sense of comfort, becoming almost sweet. This is precisely what drives man to want more, to never be satisfied, to find an explanation for everything, even when it is as volatile as perfume. Yet, there is always a legacy: in this case, the warm and spicy sweetness of the fragrance, given by rum, nutmeg, cinnamon, banana, caramel, and tonka bean, among other things, leaves a captivating, mysterious, and therefore irresistible mark. The unknown has never been so magnetic.

Mani – Manipura

To do more, to be more, to want more: in other words, power. Courage, luck, and enterprise are essential to becoming a modern Prometheus, to challenge the gods and share a change.

Just a whisper is enough to do all this, a whisper that can be a cloud of perfume.

Like Manipura: spicy, warm, citrusy, with cardamom, vanilla, musk, and black pepper, it reassures and invigorates, giving us the confidence that the feat is no longer so titanic. The mala of light sandalwood pearls that wraps the fragrance is an additional talisman for success: the time has come.

Mani – Shamanic

It is the mystery that calls us to itself along our path, but there is no greater mystery than the one hidden within us, the one we long to solve all our lives, and that, for this very reason, gives value to existence.

How can we resist the charm of what is considered mystical and superior?

We can’t, and for this, we need to concretize what is distant into something close. This fragrance, with notes like laurel, resins, myrrh, amber, and coriander, allows us to attract to ourselves everything we desire (aided also by the mala with rudraksha beads), gradually revealing that great universal mystery that is, at the same time, intrinsic to our individuality.

Acne Studios di Frederic Malle

The vibrant symphony of nature resonates over time, in our being and in the world. So strong even when silent, so intense even when delicate, it can be both malign and benign, as Giacomo Leopardi reminds us in his work, especially in the “Dialogue between Nature and an Icelander”.

To conquer it or to be conquered: why can’t they coexist?

This fragrance acts as a mediator of nature’s goodness: with fresh aldehydes, peach, vanilla, sandalwood, and white musk, it releases that fresh and sweet magnetism that reconnects us with what is not human. And that deserves to be felt, considered, and respected.

“…that fresh and sweet magnetism that reconnects us with what is not human.”

Aēsop – Ouranon

Night falls, and the immensity of the universe opens up. If we close our eyes and raise our fingers to the sky, it almost seems like we can touch the stars.

For a brief but indelible moment, the air of the aether, considered superior, and ours, touch, giving us a shiver. We are here, we have existed before and will continue to be hereafter: in an almost primordial way, we follow the instinct and rediscover the greatness of existence. Monolith, amber, hay, lavender, and incense are the muses of a forgotten but jealously guarded ceremonial in the soul and open the doors of the unknown to us.

It is time to open our eyes again: because the unknown is already here.

Rhizome – EDP08 Exclusive x Gaudenzi

Limits: traced, crossed, and rewritten. Overcoming one means having another to climb further ahead. This is not a pessimistic image, but one aware of the willpower that distinguishes us from never giving up. The impossible thus becomes a concept only to show us that we are wrong and that the possible is always able to surprise us.

This fragrance is imbued with surpassed limits and closer contrasts: woody, spicy, with notes of lemon and amber, it envelops us and brings us closer to improvement. Which means one less limit.

Vilhelm Parfumerie – Basilico & Fellini

“Evoé,” shouted the Bacchae in honor of Dionysus when the Bacchanalian celebrations began. Propitiatory, aphrodisiac, and inebriating, they lifted the veil between divine and human to bring us closer to the concept of immortality.

Lost in the sands of time as a custom, but whose cry still resonates in the ears of those who know how to listen, they awaken our intrinsic sensuality, which can also be found in the most unexpected elements, such as basil.

Federico Fellini believed that basil had an aphrodisiac effect, and for this reason, he demanded more of it at every meal: hence the notes of basil, Pitahaya, hay, violet, and vetiver release desire and take us further. Whether forward or backward does not matter: what matters is to be guided by this movement. At least until the effect fades away.

Video by Johnny Carrano.

Photos by Luca Ortolani.

Makeup & Hair by Sofia Caspani.

Total Look Skims

Thanks to Aleksandra Mur.

Thanks to Jazzy Ogaga.

Thanks to Brave Models.