The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Five Italian companies. Five crafts. One fragrance born from Liguria's landscape and Marie Duchêne's vision in 2010. This wasn't a typical brief, Duchêne worked with Nobile 1942, Bormiolo Costantino, glassmakers, and fabric artisans to create something that would translate across senses. The brief itself was unconventional: build a fragrance that honors collaboration, not just composition. Natural bergamot, myrrh, and amber became the materials of that conversation, each company contributing its own expertise to a limited edition that was never meant to be permanent.
Bergamot, myrrh, amber. Three notes. That's not a pyramid, it's a handshake. The challenge Duchêne faced wasn't layering, it was equilibrium. Bergamot wants to lead. Myrrh wants to linger in the shadows. Amber wants to envelop everything. The work is in making none of them dominate, letting each take its turn. The bergamot opens bright, almost sharp, then yields to amber's warmth before myrrh sinks in and holds. This is what makes the balsamic character interesting, it's warm and aromatic simultaneously, neither sweet nor austere.
The evolution
The bergamot opens crisp, almost tart. Like citrus peel on warm skin. No softening, no preamble, it arrives and asserts itself for the first 20 minutes. Then the amber slides in beneath it, not replacing the bergamot but sharing the stage. Warm. Honeyed. The myrrh follows, darkening the edges, pulling the composition toward something more resinous. By hour two, the three notes have found their rhythm. The heart of amber and myrrh holds steady for hours, this is where the fragrance lives. Come hour four or five, the bergamot has fully receded. What remains is rich amber, myrrh's quiet resin, and the sense that this was never trying to be loud.
Cultural impact
A 2010 limited collaboration between five Ligurian companies, Profumo Imperiale represents an unusual intersection of Italian craftsmanship: perfumery, glassmaking, and textile artistry united under one brief. What makes it notable isn't novelty, it's the ambition of the collaboration itself.
