Laura Bosetti Tonatto and the art of narrating the beauty and history of Italy with perfumes

Creating a made-to-measure perfume is like making a portrait: "It starts with a psychological investigation, you have to see the person and grasp aspects that you hadn't guessed, telling them about your life, your passions. It's a very intense dialogue and that's why I never create more than a dozen customised fragrances a year". After almost 40 years of activity, which she will celebrate in 2026, Laura Bosetti Tonatto is not only one of the most important and famous Italian noses, but a woman and an entrepreneur who has managed to tell her own story through the stories of her fragrances: her education, between Egypt and the schools of Grasse; her vision, which she shares with the students of the University of Ferrara, where she teaches "Perfumes: Art and Production" and "Aromacology" at the Faculty of Pharmacy; the city of Rome, where she, a native of Turin, has chosen to live, after starting her career in Milan, where at just 23 years of age she opened her custom-made fragrance atelier, the first in Italy.

But it is in Rome, in fact, that Laura Bosetti Tonatto has opened her boutiques after launching the brand 'Essenzialmente Laura': in 2015 in Via dei Coronari, in 2021 in Campo Marzio, and last summer a new space within the walls of the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, to which she has dedicated a collection of four fragrances that, like the others, interpret her: "Nives, with white musk and amber, recalls the miracle of snow in August 358 that led to the foundation of the basilica," he explains, while the air is filled with the scents and tolling of ancient bells. The incense and myrrh of Aurum come from the golden mosaics of the Nativity, rose and amber give life to Mater, the scents of the mosaic garden of the apse mosaic are found in Vita'.

The collaboration with the Vatican (the shop is part of it) is not unprecedented: back in 2020, the Vatican Museums asked her to create fragrances inspired by some of their spaces, namely the Galleria delle Carte Geografiche, the Ethnographic Museum and the Vatican Gardens. And this is just one of those that make up the long curriculum of Laura Bosetti Tonatto, who conducts 'philological' work for each creation, such as those, to mention only the most recent, for the Galleria Colonna in Rome and for the Odescalchi Castle in Bracciano. His fragrances are also historical and artistic investigations, such as 'Leonardo's Lavender', based on rose and lavender, inspired by an annotation in the Atlantic Codex ("A ffare odore: tò buona acqua rosa e mòllatene le mani, di poi togli del fior di spigo e fregatelo tra l'una mano e l'altra, ed è buono") and the fragrance created to narrate in a synaesthetic way Caravaggio's 'Lute Player', at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. It was precisely this project that aroused the interest of Queen Elizabeth II, for whom Laura Bosetti Tonatto created a personalised fragrance (with a secret composition) in 2008: "She chose it during the Easter holidays, while she was in her beloved Balmoral, from the 12 I had proposed, three for each season," she recalls.

A story like this cannot be improvised, and this Laura Bosetti Tonatto emphasises energetically: "I see too much improvisation in the world of fragrances, which is wonderful but requires a lot of study and preparation," she says referring to the proliferation of people launching 'their' collection, without an authentic and coherent project. The market for artistic fragrances is growing steadily, exceeding 310 million euros in 2023, and dedicated events and fairs are also on the rise. "We need vision, but also investments, a production chain and a very precise distribution network," he notes. "I follow everything closely, which is also why I carefully evaluate possible openings in other cities and countries, such as Saudi Arabia, which is very important for us. I purchase raw materials in Grasse, which comply with the guidelines of Ifra (International Fragrance Association, nda), the most rigorous method for guaranteeing product quality and safety and protecting human health and the environment, and we produce in Italian laboratories'. Among the entrepreneur's recent projects is the H Collection, designed for the most beautiful hotels, with tailor-made fragrances housed in bio-plastic containers: "Another way to reveal the essence of a place. As Plato claimed, ideas exist and it is we who have to recognise them".