Laboratorio Olfattivo: Italian Artistic Perfumery from Rome

Laboratorio Olfattivo is an Italian artistic perfume house founded in 2009 by Daniela Caon and Roberto Drago. The project is defined by a radically creative approach: every fragrance grows from the perfumer's own inspiration, free from commercial constraints, using high-quality raw materials and an eau de parfum concentration adopted across the entire collection.

History and philosophy

Laboratorio Olfattivo was born in 2009 from the shared passion of Daniela Caon and Roberto Drago for artistic perfumery. Both with direct experience in the commercial fragrance industry, the two founders chose to build something fundamentally different: a laboratory in the truest sense of the word, where a fragrance is never created in response to a market brief, but to a narrative one. Roberto Drago serves as creative director, bringing a founding idea to each project that the perfumers are then free to develop without restriction.

The guiding principle is that every fragrance should express an emotion, a memory, an image — olfactory composition as an authored art form. This vision shapes a working method that honours the perfumer's signature, treating it with the same respect afforded to any artist's name on a work. The clean, minimal packaging underlines the same hierarchy: the fragrance is the focal point, everything else is secondary.

The style

Laboratorio Olfattivo has no dominant olfactory family and no recurring palette of materials: eclecticism is a deliberate choice. The fragrances range from fresh and green to oriental and vanilla-led, from floral interpretations to woody and vetiver-driven ones. Eau de parfum concentration is consistent across the main line, ensuring both sillage and longevity. The house collaborates with a broad roster of Italian and international perfumers, including Pierre Guillaume, Cécile Zarokian, Rosine Courage, Lucien Ferrero, Dominique Ropion, and Jean-Claude Ellena, each invited to express themselves with full artistic freedom.

• Classica Line — The core of the house: a varied collection spanning different olfactory families and registers, united by the quality of the raw materials and a consistent narrative sensibility.
• Masters' Collection — Collaborations with internationally acclaimed perfumers, including Jean-Claude Ellena, Lucien Ferrero, and Dominique Ropion, each creating with complete artistic autonomy.
• Viaggio in Italia by Jean-Claude Ellena — A series of luminous, Mediterranean-spirited eaux de cologne celebrating Italian citrus fruits, composed by the renowned French nose.
• Laboratorio in Nero — A darker, more intense direction, immediately recognisable by its elegant black flacon.
• Laboratorio in Fiore — A celebration of the floral world in all its expressions, from light freshness to rich depth.

The most celebrated fragrances

The Laboratorio Olfattivo collection spans more than forty references. Among the fragrances that have earned the greatest recognition within the niche perfumery community:

• Nirmal — An eau de parfum by Rosine Courage built around white, powdery accords; delicate and enveloping, with a floral construction of exceptional clarity.
• Esvedra — A creation by Pierre Guillaume inspired by the Mediterranean island of Es Vedrà: a reinterpretation of vetiver that plays between dry and musky, constructed on contrasts.
• Décou-Vert — A fresh, floral fragrance and a favourite entry point for those discovering the house for the first time; a green opening that evolves towards warm, soft accords.
• Vanagloria — Part of the Masters' Collection, signed by Dominique Ropion in 2021: an oriental vanilla with saffron, incense, and tonka, built around a CO₂-extracted Bourbon vanilla.
• Noblige — A fresh, citrus-led eau de parfum and one of the longest-standing references in the house's catalogue.