The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Tarantella was the first perfume Tommi Sooni ever released, and it's named for something specific: the Sicilian folk dance, that fast, circling, almost manic tradition performed at celebrations where the floor shakes and the tempo climbs without mercy. The composition captures that restless energy through its opening, where galbanum and neroli cut in sharp and bright, hedione lifting the citrus into something that practically moves across skin. There's a herbal sting at first contact, the green note acting almost like a conductor's cue, and underneath it the florals are already warming toward honey without ever tipping sweet. Tarantella wears like a celebration caught mid-spin, structured enough to hold its shape but animated in a way that most green-leaning florals never manage.
The composition borrows from a French chypre blueprint, but the proportions are what make it Australian thinking rather than Parisian inheritance. Aldehydes give the top that vintage lift, galbanum keeps the green aggressive rather than decorative, and the oakmoss in the base is treated less as nostalgia and more as architecture. Frangipani and honey bring the warmth that the dance implies, while clove and bay laurel add the kind of heat you feel in your chest, not on your tongue.
The evolution
The opening is a quick-tempo announcement. Galbanum and neroli arrive together with aldehydes snapping behind them, and for the first stretch the scent feels like it might be too sharp, too cold. It isn't. Mandarin rounds out the citrus while the galbanum's resinous stem-note refuses to soften, and the green character holds its ground longer than you'd expect from something this bright. The heart begins gradually, and it's a different conversation. Jasmine and rose lift first, frangipani warming underneath, and the honey arrives not as sweetness but as light, as if someone opened a curtain. Orris adds the powdery suede texture that vintage florals depend on, and clove keeps the whole thing from drifting into tearoom territory. The transition into the base is gradual but unmistakable.
Cultural impact
Tarantella circulates mostly among collectors who already know the reference points: the classic French chypres it borrows from, and the green-leather compositions of vintage houses. The scent rewards that kind of literacy, layering galbanum and neroli over a jasmine-rose heart that nods directly to mid-century florals, then grounding everything in oakmoss and leather. Mandarin brightens the top, frangipani softens the heart, and orris adds the powdery suede texture that connects this composition to decades of perfumery that came before.
