The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Liquirizia e Mora translates simply: licorice and blackberry. Aquolina launched it in 2015 as part of a broader portfolio built around edible, recognizable comfort. The brand's identity centers on scents that taste like they should belong on a dessert table, and Liquirizia e Mora extends that playbook into darker, earthier territory than the house usually works in. Blackberry arrives first, a dense crush of jammy fruit that reads almost wine-dark on skin, staining the opening with sweetness that leans more compote than candy. Then the licorice shows up, and the whole composition tilts. The anise note cuts through the berry sugar with something cool and herbal, a root-beer snap that pulls the sweetness into savory ground.
What makes this composition interesting is the pairing itself. Blackberry brings jammy, wine-dark fruit, while licorice pulls the whole thing into anise and root territory. Here, the licorice interrupts the sugar with something herbal and slightly bitter, a savory undertow that keeps the opening from collapsing into simple syrup. Jasmine threads through the middle to keep things soft, its white-flower indoles wrapping around the fruit and preventing the licorice from going too austere.
The evolution
The first fifteen minutes are almost entirely blackberry, ripe and full, reading more like preserves than fresh fruit. Then the licorice arrives, not as a sharp anise blast but as a slow current, winding through the sweetness and pulling it toward something darker. By the second hour, the jasmine has settled into the background, creamy and indistinct, doing less to perfume than to blur the edges between the fruit and what comes next. The base of white musk and sandalwood takes over gradually, and it's this phase that holds the longest. Hours in, the licorice lingers as a faint warmth on the skin, more suggestion than statement. The fruit is gone by then. What stays is the root, the wood, and a quiet, skin-close sweetness that feels like the fragrance has finally exhaled.
Cultural impact
Within Aquolina's lineup, Liquirizia e Mora occupies a slightly darker corner than the brand's cotton-candy signatures. Where the house usually works in pastels and caramel, this one leans into deep berry and root, a different shade on the same color wheel. The blackberry opens dense and jammy, almost syrupy in the first few minutes, before the licorice arrives to drag the sweetness downward into anise and faint bitterness. Jasmine wanders through the heart, softening the herbal edges and lending a creamy indolic warmth that keeps the composition from going austere.
