Dr.Vranjes: Olfactory symphonies from more than 2,200 exquisite notes
Dr. Paolo Vranjes’ approach to making fragrances has been a seminal figure in the milieu of Florentine perfumery for the past 40 years.
Dr.Paolo Vranjes is a maestro of scenting, creating home fragrances with all the nuance and complexity of an orchestral concerto. Walking into his home, a picturesque villa in the Tuscan hills overlooking Florence, one isn’t struck by the architecture or decor so much as an overall sense of gracefulness. That’s the beauty of his creations—fragrances that seamlessly enhance a room’s ambience and buoy one’s mood without being obvious or overpowering.
Vranjes trained as a pharmaceutical chemist and has spent the past 35 years marrying science and the senses to create the kinds of fragrances that alchemize a house into an exceedingly charming home. His distinctive Florentine-glass-and-bamboo-reed diffusers have been a fixture of discerning Italians’ bookshelves and side tables for the past three decades and, now, Dr. Vranjes’ cult fragrances are finally making their stateside debut.
Sitting in the doctor’s office, which had a fittingly clinical sterility, he began with the basics. Displaying his collection of more than 2,200 essences, the building blocks of every fragrance he creates, Vranjes explained: “I call it an organ, because fragrance is made just like music. Music is made from seven notes and all their different variations.
Imagine how many fragrances can be created from more than 2,000 essences.” Thanks to his background in chemistry, Vranjes has been able to distill natural elements like rose and sandalwood to tinctures with a uniquely high concentration of fragrance. Beyond that, all of Vranjes’ products boast between 10 and 23 percent pure eau de parfum—a ratio that is significantly higher than most other home fragrances on the market.
His distinctive Florentine-glass-and-bamboo-reed diffusers have been a fixture of discerning Italians’ bookshelves and side tables for the past three decades and, now, Dr. Vranjes’ cult fragrances are finally making their stateside debut.
The most important thing in a home fragrance is finding something that makes you feel well, whatever that means to you as an individual.
While I’ve certainly had an appreciation for the effects of a well-scented home, I had never invested that much thought in it: a few candles here and there, the occasional linen spray, generally things I’d received as gifts without any loyalty to a particular fragrance or brand. When I mentioned the name Dr. Vranjes to friends, several recounted stories of discovering the brand while traveling through Italy—how they’d fallen in love with the scent of their hotel’s lobby or followed their noses into one of Vranjes’ jewel-box boutiques—and brought a few bottles home.
Rosso Nobile celebrates the harmonious notes of the fruit and wood typical of Tuscan red wines.
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“There are no bad notes, objectively; the art is in finding a balance between them. The final goal is harmony.”
Paolo likes to use musical metaphors to describe his fragrances