Paolo and Tiziana Terenzi tell their story of their scents
L'Officiel: How did you become a perfumer Tiziana and Paolo?
Tiziana: I didn't even realize it...smelling everything in my surroundings and learning how to recognize smells while being blindfolded which was a game our Grandpa used to play with us as kids. We thought it was a normal game to play as a kid but as we got older, we discovered that we had been taught the craft of perfumery which has been passed down for three generations.
My family let me choose what I wanted to do with my life and I will always be grateful for that. I chose to study the arts of jewelry but the perfumes were already in my mind and heart. Today I am able to unite all of my passions in my work, telling a coherent and harmonious story about the design of the object and its packaging and the olfactory story it contains.
Paolo: I have always been passionate about perfumes since I was a child: the environment in which I grew up with my sister Tiziana highly influenced our perfume addiction. I was born in a candle, swimming in a spot of perfume! I was really a crazy boy, looking for different kind of experiences, travelling around the world. I was a musician and played guitar in the streets or into big theaters, living a bohemian life! At that time my future was at last 5 minutes later and I was living my life second by second without any plan. I was lucky because I had a lot of different experiences and I have improved myself but every day the music of my family was playing for me as some part of my soul. At a certain moment I understood that it was my way. I was 25 years old and I never stopped to love this artisan job, through the perfumes and emotions! My Grandfather, Guglielmo, taught me all about perfumes. He was my Teacher and my eternal example of style.
L'Officiel: How would you define the style of your perfumes?
Tiziana: Our perfumes are not just perfumes, but an actual journey through personal emotions and memories. The Tiziana Terenzi collection has always taken inspiration from travel, from emotions shared around a fire and from life experience, all of which is contained in the collection. It represents that specific period in life when beauty entertains the soul, and a moment becomes eternal. These universal feelings are transformed into scented journeys that are captured in priceless bottles of perfume extract.
L: Could you describe a day in the life of a master perfumer when working on a project like Tiziana Terenzi? What is your schedule like?
Paolo: There is no predefined scheme or process, inspiration is what guides our hands for the molecules’ selection, while our heart drives our senses.
Our fragrances are born from emotions experienced during our travels; emotions gathered and lived in front of the fire, the evocative power of the eternal moment etched in our hearts!
A beautiful moment of real life, and since life is wonderful but not perfect, even our creations must be rich in precious tensions and dissonances to give us unique emotions. Memory is our ultimate inspiration: the bond with our family and all the loving experiences shared with them.
Tiziana: I am not habitual in my character, especially in my emotional and creative sphere. I always try to stop and listen to my emotions and try to understand the emotions of the people around me. For me, creating is always an act of love, something that must have a stimulus and a precise and important reason to exist.
L: How do you find your ingredients?
Tiziana: This is a very important question, thank you for the opportunity to talk about it.
We use precious natural ingredients that come from many different countries and some are very far away, it is complicated to manage this production quality.
This point, in my opinion, is the real objective difference that defines the fragrances we produce "not commercial". In fact we cannot manage production following the market rules but we must abide by the rules of availability of ingredients that are affected by the weather and seasons.
Just like in the kitchen, the result of every recipe is strictly connected to the quality of ingredients. In Italian cooking, which does not "correct" flavors by adding sauces and creams, this concept is very evident.
Therefore in our creations the ingredients are fundamental.
Our great fortune is that with the knowledge of processing we also inherited a huge amount of knowledge on where to buy excellent and unique essences. However our research and our desire to discover are always endless.
L: Do you have any favorites among your fragnance collection?
Paolo: My favorite scent is the one that I have yet to be created, because this wonderful journey through emotions and experiences around the fire of life will never end.
"Listening" to a perfume takes time and patience. Scents, like a symphonic melody, evolve over time and a quick sniff is not enough to fully understand its explosion of perfumes. I consider all our creations as children and I do love them all equally; it is tough having to choose which one is the favorite among your children.
L: How many scents should a person have in their scent wardrobe?
Tiziana: It depends, there is not a real rule but I believe that there should be many essences and that one should never turn off the curiosity to know and explore new scents. Olfactory for its strong connection with our unconscious part can help us to live better by stimulating and evoking positive emotions and beautiful energies. The challenge of improving ourselves and our quality of life is embedded in our own life.
L: All creative projects have their challenges. What was your biggest challenge working on your collection?
Paolo: I have always worked with my sister Tiziana and we share everything about business, creative and personal life. For me the biggest challenge is always to satisfy her creative taste. We often have conflicting ideas and different visions so every day there is a moment of honest and sincere confrontation in order to constantly improve each in their own field! Tiziana is therefore my motivation but also my most difficult challenge!
L: What are your 3 favourite smells?
Tiziana: My absolute favourite notes are Grey amber, Tuberose and oudh.
L: Tiziana Terenzi has a very unique bottle design, for example the Sea Star Collection. What was your inspiration?
Paolo: We highly value the quality and style of our packaging. In our creations every detail is important, and nothing is left to chance! The shape of the bottles was studied to be stylistically complementary and careful attention was given to every minute detail, enabling the bottles to safeguard the special significance.
Not only the bottle or the box is significant yet every single component, even the imperceptible ones. For instance, the pump mechanism is selected with the greatest attention and dedication, because an artwork does not accept compromises. Production is entirely handmade, following with patience and love the slow passage of time, without haste or anxiety, because quality deserves attention and beauty deserves admiration.
I try being very coherent, the fragrance story must reflect how the perfume is aesthetically told. Tiziana, as designer, is stimulated by the idea of telling emotions with a sincere feature that runs through all our senses. The Sea Stars Collection was born as a very precious and powerful gift from Tiziana for my 50th birthday. The intensity of the sea and the blue spirit that animates it are contained within this Collection, dedicated to the future of memory in an unending journey towards the discovery of wonder. The bottles of the sea star collection are the most precious and iconic bottles of the entire collection, inspired by the sea and seafaring art, made of respect, loyalty, wisdom, but also of impetus, courage, vision, tenacity, freedom and infinite love. With trembling hand, you dip into the crystal-clear water where a giant golden starfish wraps around the cork of a precious bottle, a bottle that contains one of the most valuable and rare essences in the Tiziana Terenzi Collection. Holding this collection bottles is not just a pleasure for the nose, but it is a sensory experience that envelops the entire human feeling and speaks gently to our deepest self.
L: What are your goals for the next 5 years?
Tiziana: I have many dreams that I would like to realize, not only in the world of perfumes but it is premature to talk about them because I have not defined them yet. I like to plan every hour and follow the signs and opportunities that life offers me. I'm a confident and optimistic person, I put a lot of effort into what I do but I'm also convinced that whatever has to happen will happen and I trust it.
Paolo: The brand is growing worldwide, and we are very grateful for the warm welcome we received in the most beautiful and prestigious locations around the world. The future of Tiziana Terenzi is firmly rooted in the roots of its past because the artistic and artisan aspect of the creations, the stylistic consistency with the original project and the obsessive care in the selection of natural raw materials will never be questioned; we will actually keep trying to improve.
