Ebano and Mirra are the two new fragrances Acqua di Parma has added to its Ingredient Collection, a sensory journey that reinterprets the classic Colonia, already an icon.
Since that first Colonia in 1916, the firm has evolved with new fragrances and olfactory products but without missing an iota of its Italian artisan elegance. The myth Acqua di Parma grew alongside the Italian fashion one walking hand in hand. A touch of Colonia vaporized in the fabric before delivering the tailored suit was the latest gesture of sophistication of the garments that traveled to the very same Hollywood.
Colonia Mirra
This is how it got the fame that remains today and that carries a real, vivid, individual style. Based on a whispered and subtle elegance, just like Colonia, the classic destined to an enduring success and that has retained the same composition since its inception, altered only for the creation of Ingredient Collection.
With this collection, Acqua di Parma undertook in 2012 a new adventure that has taken it to go over different olfactory geographies. A sensory journey of original essences and ingredients that tells the story of a trip with surprising nuances. A tour along which, Colonia, the icon perfume of Acqua di Parma selects the rarest and most evocative ingredients to reinterpret itself and create original olfactory compositions, keeping its character intact and recognizable.
Oud, Leather, Ambra and Quercia, first stops of the Acqua di Parma trip
Ingredient Collection travels through a map outlined over time and space. From the Middle East, it recovers the nuances of the sand, the fiery skies and the soul of an ancient culture of aromas and spices. A fragrance that mixes modern suggestions with ancient traditions and in which the magnetic and sensual Agar wood oil meets the elegance of the citrus notes of Colonia, resulting into Colonia Oud.
Colonia Leather
Back to Italy, the tour passes through villages nestled in the Tuscan hills, with stone paths and old houses where the scent of leather craftsmanship emanates from the lowest places. That unmistakable aroma and warm symbol of the tradition of the Italian artisanship impregnates the citric notes of Colonia Leather.
Again, the desire to go back there is surprising where Colonia’s fresh and solar personality can be united with a new aroma. On this occasion, the journey begins from Venice to Damascus, Bucharest or Samarkand or to China and India and back to the city of the doges following the route undertaken by Marco Polo. Going throughout the origins of the perfumery to recover one of its most precious secrets: the gray amber. An ingredient difficult to find that the Venetian perfumers introduced in the fragrances of the nobles. Acqua di Parma introduces its salty and musky notes in the Colonia Ambra.
Colonia Ambra
And, from here, to two other Italian stages that begin in Piedmont, with its aristocratic palaces and forests with majestic oaks to walk around at dawn. The Colonia Quercia uses this precious tree, symbol of the protection and vigor of its imposing trunk and its abundant top for protecting ourselves. Colonia reinterprets itself in a generous and powerful composition as the tree on which it is inspired.
Latest additions: Colonia Ebano and Colonia Mirra
The olfactory journey of Colonia begins again with two new destinations that have as a result the launching of Colonia Ebano, inspired by the cabinetmaking workshops hidden in the city of Milan, and Colonia Mirra, which walks between the distant horizons and the mountains of the King’s Highway to the Far East.
In its first Italian stop, Milan, with its rhythms, its rush and its lights also offers the calmness and intimacy of the narrow alleys of its old quarter. In them, secluded and silent, the cabinetmakers’ old workshops smell like beeswax, with which the cabinetmaker gently caresses the wood to make them glow, and the penetrating aromas of the ebony. Again a story about the Italian craftwork, being Acqua di Parma a maximum exponent.
City of Milan, which inspires the Colonia Ebano
Ebony, exotic wood and perfumed of great value, is worked in the workshops to become a ductile matter in the hands of the artisans along with other materials such as mahogany, rosewood or walnut. The solar and fresh soul of Colonia finds the perfect company in the natural warmth of the most precious woods and the cooing aromas of honey.
Cabinet materials, trade in which the aromas of Colonia Ebano are inspired
A sumptuous and at the same time a fresh and luminous fragrance. On its way out, the citrus notes of bergamot and petit grain. At its heart, the sophisticated intensity of elemi oil is combined with the spicy accents of pink pepper, giving way to the voluptuousness of the ebony chord, with its warm and creamy notes. The balance of the fragrance is finished impeccably in its background, with the soft notes of the honey, in an intricate contrast with the aromatic vetiver accents and the balsamic notes of the patchouli.
Colonia Ebano
And, again on this occasion, it becomes irresistible to travel to distant horizons. In Muscat’s evening, the narrow streets and windows are covered with incandescent lamps in which incense and myrrh emanate their vibrant perfumes. The long caravans traverse the city loaded with spices, aromas and essences impregnating the wind in its path. Behind the mountains, plains and endless deserts in an untiring journey, to reach the Mediterranean.
Desert that caravans of spices traveled in their olfactory way
Myrrh tells a millenary history, the same one that Acqua di Parma now tells with Colonia Mirra. The Egyptians already used it to make the Kyphi, the perfume of the pharaohs. The Greeks mixed it with wine to flavor it. Women in the East continue to use it to prepare cosmetics for rejuvenating effects. While in China, traditional medicine uses it for its therapeutic and sacred virtues.
Even today, myrrh is extracted by hand from the plant of commiphora. Since the origins of perfumery, the elaborated production of myrrh makes it a particularly precious ingredient. Its balsamic and invigorating aroma adds to the luminous transparency of Colonia a suggestive complexity that is gradually discovered, like a caravan that is advancing slowly in the desert.
The Italian style of Colonia is appreciated in its citrus first notes; mandarin, lemon and petit grain, followed by a unique heart in which the delicate aromas of orange blossom and the spicy touches of nutmeg combine with the warmth of myrrh oil. Precisely in the heart of this magnetic olfactory composition, myrrh reveals its first nuances. In a magnificent evolution, the background combines the patchouli enveloping notes with the myrrh resin balsam, revealing the sophisticated soul of this new Eau de Cologne Concentrée.
Colonia Mirra
Ebano and Mirra have just been launched in Dubai to join those that were already part of the history of Acqua di Parma and its Ingredient Collection. An exclusive event for which the firm has chosen the desert, perhaps as a new starting point to continue the long trail of smells and sensations in which it has been immersed for years.
Ebano and Mirra were launched in a desert landscape of Dubai
Acqua di Parma captures the soul of far and near cultures and environments and shapes them into evocative perfumes.
