📍 In February, I attended Esxence — the world’s biggest event for niche and artistic perfume brands, right on my doorstep in Milan. Esxence gathers dozens of brands as well as everyone who works in this small, yet intensely fragrant world.
💭 Narici was vivid in my mind, but I had no real launch plan. The perfume formulas were finalized, I had an early version of the brand’s look and feel, and I’d shared a few discovery kits with friends and family — but that was it.
🤝 While wandering among the stalls and reconnecting with colleagues, I met Andrea Meloni, who was organizing "Snouf," a new fragrance event in a Rimini villa just a few weeks away. He took my number and, persistently, contacted me to secure a space. Maybe that was the push I needed... because eventually, I said yes.
🧵 My partner and I worked flat out to prepare at least one tester bottle of each perfume. The juice was handmade in my small lab; we had a handful of frosted bottles, ten spritzers from a fellow perfumer, and spent nights designing and printing labels. I picked up a big blue hazardous goods drum from a local supplier and turned it into our display table with a metal tabletop ordered online (normally used in pubs!). Inspired by the blue uniforms at my local coffee shop, I bought one for myself to wear.
🚗 In a strange whirlwind of events, everything came together the night before Snouf. The next morning, we traveled to Rimini and set up our stand. It was Narici’s very first public appearance — and it went incredibly well. We had queues all day. Our Matcha perfume was a huge hit with perfumers and bloggers, who started posting about it even before it officially launched! Our tomato tin packaging even made it onto the Italian homepage of Fragrantica, the leading perfumery site.
🌟 And just like that, Narici was born.