The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
The Vulcani collection exists because Paolo Terenzi keeps returning to the same question: what does the earth feel like from the inside? Not the surface, the heat beneath it, the pressure that reshapes coastline and mountain alike. Struò is his answer. Named for the force that moves through volcanic terrain, this extrait takes the raw materials Paolo has spent decades mastering, oud from Cambodia and Laos, Italian beeswax, leather, tobacco, and compresses them into something that carries the weight of that question. The 2024 release isn't subtle. It wasn't meant to be.
What makes Struò unusual is the structure. Oud typically functions as a base note, it arrives late, lingers long, and rarely leads the opening. Here, Paolo Terenzi pulls it forward. The oud arrives alongside the saffron in the first minutes, not waiting for the drydown. This creates a tension: the bright citrus and mineral warmth of the opening against the deep, animalic woodiness that hasn't yet settled into its final form. The beeswax amplifies this. Italian beeswax carries a honey-waxy depth that bridges the gap between the volatile top notes and the dense base, it makes the transition feel continuous rather than staged.
The evolution
The bergamot and mandarin open bright and citrus-forward, but they're not in charge. The saffron arrives within minutes, bringing its mineral, almost metallic warmth alongside the labdanum's resinous green. This phase reads as a single gesture, light catching dark stone, before the oud announces itself. By the second hour, the green tea and cardamom have emerged: aromatic, slightly astringent, cutting through the richness. The leather and birch arrive quietly in the third hour, giving the composition structure. What stays longest is the oud-beeswax-tobacco triad: warm, animalic, intimate. Moderate sillage means it lives close to the skin. On fabric, it lingers into the next morning.
Cultural impact
Struò arrives at a moment when niche perfumery is expanding its geographic and material vocabulary, moving beyond French tradition and Middle Eastern oud conventions into more hybrid territory. Tiziana Terenzi's house occupies an unusual position: an Italian brand using Laotian oud, Cambodian aromatic woods, and Mediterranean aromatic materials in high-concentration extraits that recall neither French elegance nor Arabian intensity. The Vulcani collection specifically taps into volcanic mythology as a framework for fragrance, treating elemental force as a creative subject rather than a marketing angle. Paolo Terenzi's role as sole perfumer creates a recognizable house signature across the catalog while allowing each fragrance distinct territory.
