Heritage
A house, in its own words
In Astra emerged from a shared childhood fascination with the night sky. Sofia Bardelli spent her teens mixing essential oils in a kitchen lab, while her sister Fabiola catalogued myths about constellations. In 2020 the pair turned their private experiments into a formal maison, registering the brand in Milan and launching three debut scents—Antares, Betelgeuse and Mismar—each named after a bright star or nebula. The first collection arrived in boutique corners across Italy in the autumn of 2020, drawing attention from collectors who praised the house’s precise balance of modern minimalism and celestial narrative. By 2021 the brand secured distribution in select European concept stores, and its limited‑edition releases began to appear in curated fragrance boxes. 2022 marked the arrival of Tistar, a fragrance that explored the cooler tones of a distant dwarf star. The launch coincided with In Astra’s first appearance at an international perfume fair, where the sisters presented their vision to a wider audience and earned a nomination for a newcomer award. In 4 24 the house expanded its palette with Wega, a scent inspired by the luminous star in the Cygnus constellation. The same year the brand opened a small atelier in the historic district of Bologna, allowing visitors to witness the blending process and to meet the creators behind each bottle. The most recent addition, Vanant, debuted in 2025 and pushed the line toward a richer amber‑driven structure while retaining the signature stellar clarity. Throughout its brief history In Astra has maintained a steady cadence of releases, each accompanied by a limited‑run artwork series that reflects the astronomical source of its name. In Astra’s philosophy treats the night sky as a library of scents waiting to be read. Sofia translates the chemistry of a star’s light into notes, while Fabiola frames each composition with a story that links astronomy, emotion and contemporary design. The house rejects overt theatricality; instead it seeks a quiet intensity that lets the wearer feel a personal connection to a distant point of light. The sisters believe that fragrance should act as a subtle reminder of the universe’s vastness, yet remain grounded in the tactile experience of skin. They avoid trends that chase novelty for its own sake, preferring instead to explore how a single accord can evolve over hours, mirroring the slow drift of celestial bodies. This disciplined approach gives In Astra a distinct voice that feels both scientific and poetic, without ever sounding pretentious.