Who: Paola Paganini: global marketing manager for Acqua di Parma. Paola has been with the smart Italian lifestyle brand since its relaunch in 1997. She is responsible for the marketing and visual development across all products and describes it as “a very nice job”. We say, lucky her. We caught up with her amongst the beautiful floral arrangements at the recent Peonia Nobile launch.
Today I’m wearing Acqua di Parma Peonia Nobile, because we’re at the launch of the scent so of course I’m wearing it! It’s the latest addition to the Nobile collection, which represents the feminine universe of the brand.
All of the Nobile scents are inspired by the noble gardens of Italy, I know that the English are very famous for their gardens, and it’s true you do have beautiful ones, but Italy too has beautiful gardens. So we took inspiration from this magic atmosphere to create a collection for women which represented the different flowers you find in the garden. We started ten years ago with Iris Nobile, one of the most aristocratic of Italian flowers with strong links to perfume, then we did Magnolia Nobile, again a majestic flower – and two years ago we added Rosa to the portfolio, using a special rose cultivated in Italy.
This year is the time for Peonia Nobile. Why peony? Because it is a fantastic flower, The fragrance smells like a garden of peonies in Italy in the month of May, on a very sunny morning, with a soft breeze encouraging the petals to gently fragrance the air.
There is a rich floral fruitiness to the flower, in the fragrance pyramid there is some strawberry, raspberry and pepper to give it a dynamic edge. There is also a little geranium to add a green/citrus note and on the dry down there is a warm, lasting amber note. It’s modern and strong in a discrete way – very Italian!
When I wear perfume I do regular things like spray my wrists, but I also like to spray behind my neck and my hair, because when I move my head I can smell it and it makes me feel comfortable to recognize it.
In the summer, I like to smell the top notes because they are refreshing, so I’ll spray a fragrance few times a day. In the winter when I want the warm comforting base notes of the dry down, I spray less…I wear the body cream of the fragrance too, to make it last longer.
