Astrophil & Stella: Contemporary Italian Artistic Perfumery

An Italian artistic perfume house founded in 2019 by Daniele Passera under the Gida Profumi umbrella, based in Rimini. The entire collection unfolds a single cosmic love story across a series of unisex Extrait de Parfum, each crafted in collaboration with internationally acclaimed noses and hand-finished in Italy.

History and philosophy

Astrophil & Stella was born in 2019 as a project of Gida Profumi Srl, a Rimini-based company with a well-established background in artistic perfumery. Founder Daniele Passera built the brand around a unified narrative inspired by Sir Philip Sidney's celebrated 1591 sonnet sequence: the love story between Astrophil, a proud and dreaming mortal, and Stella, an elusive and vivacious deity. Each fragrance is conceived as an olfactory chapter of this tale, translating into notes a specific emotion tied to the encounter between the two protagonists.

The debut collection launched in November 2020 with six compositions entrusted to internationally renowned noses. From the outset, the house committed to a single concentration — Extrait de Parfum — and a standard 50 ml format, staking a clear position at the upper end of the niche segment. The bottles, crafted by Italian master glassmakers, are crowned with a zamak cap and presented in handmade boxes lined with alcantara.

The style

The defining signature of Astrophil & Stella is its handling of rich raw materials — oud, amber, sandalwood, iris, musks — reworked in a contemporary key through the contributions of perfumers such as Cécile Zarokian, Bertrand Duchaufour, Luca Maffei, Chris Maurice, Julien Rasquinet, Arturetto Landi, and others. The result is a range of unisex fragrances spanning a broad seasonal and olfactory arc, all bound together by a consistent narrative thread.

• Every fragrance is an Extrait de Parfum concentration, offering exceptional longevity and projection.
• Each title is the work of a single perfumer, whose compositional voice comes through clearly.
• Olfactory families range from oriental gourmand to green aromatic, from ambery woody to floral, ensuring variety within an overall rich and enveloping register.
• The handcrafted packaging — Italian glass, zamak, alcantara — is an integral part of the brand's identity.
• A cosmic poetic narrative runs as a through-line across the names, descriptions, and visuals of every release.

Best-known products

The collection spans over fifteen titles. Among those that have drawn the most attention from critics and enthusiasts alike:

• Mellow Yellow — an Extrait de Parfum by Cécile Zarokian; one of the brand's debut titles and widely regarded as a cornerstone of the collection.
• Into the Oud — by Bertrand Duchaufour; a spiced, citrus-led opening that evolves towards a heart of davana and toffee, closing on oud, amber, and oakmoss.
• Paris Cheri — a gourmand oriental composition built around coffee, cocoa, vanilla, cinnamon, and cardamom on a woody, resinous base.
• Chromodoro — by Julien Rasquinet; a green aromatic inspired by the Space Age aesthetic of the 1960s, with tomato leaf, basil, angelica root, and gin at its heart.
• Mon Santal — by Margaux Le Paih Guérin; a tribute to Mysore sandalwood, with a spiced opening and a dry-down of ambroxan, vanilla, and animalic notes.