Profumum Roma
A niche perfume house founded in Rome in 1996, crafting each scent in its own Roman lab.
Italy
About Profumum Roma
Profumum Roma is an Italian niche fragrance house founded in Rome in 1996. Every perfume is made in its Roman laboratory, and each one is built around a place, a memory or a single raw material. Beyond fragrance, the house runs its own boutiques in the city and also offers body milks, diffusers and candles.
History
The story begins in Sant'Elena, a hill village in Upper Molise that many knife grinders left after the war. Among them were Celestino Durante and his wife Luisa, who made their way to Rome. Between sharpening jobs, Celestino spent time in barbershops and artisan workshops, learning their trades. Over the years his grinding wheel gave way to colognes and lotions, and he became one of the city's respected perfumers. In 1996 the next generation, Giuseppe, Luciano, Maria and Felice Durante, uneasy with how commerce and perfumery had drifted, stepped away from conventions they found too restrictive and founded Profumum Roma.
Philosophy & Signature Style
The house describes itself as "alchemists of scent" and puts weight on precious raw materials and an essence concentration of 43%. Its catalogue of around 40 fragrances is sorted into olfactory families, from Amber and Woody to Talc, Vanilla and Mediterranean, and divided into a Classic Collection and a Private Collection.
Iconic Fragrances
Acqua di Sale has been part of the line since the founding year. Built on seaweed, myrtle and cedarwood, it recalls a quiet Mediterranean beach in the early morning, and the fragrance blog Kafkaesque called it the sea in a bottle. Thundra is another creation dating from 1996.
