Torti is Authentic Scent, Made With Love.

Perfumery is an art form, it is a style of alchemy if you like. Its makers are modern magicians, take, for example, Massimiliano Torti, who was born with an innate passion and intuitive talent for scent. Hailing from Florence in 1975, his early passion exposed him to the leading scents of the ’80s and ’90s. Yet he chose to step away from the past into a revolutionary process in perfume creation. Walking away from conventional training, he focused on singular essences, capturing the intrinsic purity of raw materials at the core of his journey. Ingredients are at the heart of his elixirs. In an exclusive interview, Nina Simona Briazu, CEO and Creative Director, explores their worlds of scent and the cornerstone integrity behind what they create. Find out more about Massimiliano Torti Perfumery here in Torti is Authentic Scent, Made With Love.

Initially in his scent journey, Torti collaborated with experts in tea, chocolate, and essential oils before opening a laboratory in the heart of Umbria, Italy, in order to create his unique fragrances.

Nina is a passionate educator of niche fragrance. The first thing she expresses is the joy of talking to someone who understands raw perfume materials. Authentic, pure ingredients stand at the cornerstone of this fragranced house.

For her, the true purpose of these elixirs is rooted in giving everyone the possibility of endless expression and understanding of what scent means: Real perfumery rather than contrived colourants and synthetic additives. All of which, these days, are littered through commercial juices.

She says, “We have invested for 30 years, just in raw materials and ingredients rather than in marketing and influencers. The passion starts with the raw ingredients”.

“For example, take something like Vanilla, we don’t use a synthetic one, we use the real thing, you know what you cook with. Also, Torti has been partnering from the beginning only with suppliers and collaborators who uphold specific ethical and moral standards when it comes to raw materials. ”

“Then, of course, with perfume, well, with certain perfumes, you have to add synthetics. And even then, there are synthetics and synthetics.
So, it’s dependent on how much you want to invest and how much integrity you have as a creator. Torti has always kept his integrity, and I have so much respect and appreciation, and that’s why I fell in love”.

“Our purpose is to break the rules in perfumery. I would love to start a perfume revolution. Everyone should stop using synthetic Vanillin, or they should stop making people think that they’re smelling Jasmine, when really they’re not smelling Jasmine. You know, for just the 100 ML of pure Jasmine, you need so, so many flowers. I understand that people don’t have the knowledge, but we want them to know. We need to educate them”

Nina goes on to explain that we should think about who made the scent we choose to wear. What’s its purpose? What’s its meaning? The bigger the brand, the more likely the ingredients are not pure. To be able to satisfy the sheer amount of ‘juice’ produced, year in year out, of a repeat fragrance, means it would be impossible for the big brands to use that much in the way of high-end natural materials.

“Nature cannot supply this much for us, and nature is also wild, so to promise the same quality, year in year out, for a perfume that has been selling for many years is impossible to do, with a lot of naturals included. And so many commercial scents are reproduced in the laboratory“.

“We have limited production for everything. When Torti creates a perfume, it is like a storyteller. It takes a long time, and once we get to the essence, of course, we’re going to reproduce the same essence. Yet some elixirs he created in 2007 were only released in 2018 or in 2019. So he takes many years to perfect each ‘juice’ “.

“He’s a good animal tamer, but in this case, he’s a tamer of oil, an essential oil tamer. This is what he’s putting together. And that’s why he takes a long time. But once he’s got the formula, we know the true perfume lovers will understand it”.

Massimiliano Torti, Nina Simona Briazu

Talking of creating perfumes: “When it comes to creating new scents, I find that Torti is an incredible poet. I jokingly call him the Pueblo Escobar of essential oils because when we create the perfume, we both need to understand the chemical parts behind it all

Another important part of his story as a ‘maker and breaker’ of rules is making scents not from the top down, not top notes as the essence of a fragrance, but the base as the core. Sadly, perfume is usually presented to customers: the notes that open the scent, the heart and then the base, and they buy into the top notes. Yet, the Base is the true perfume that will eventually be the lasting smell. His perfume structure is created in a characteristic and undulating way.

Really, she says, we need to start to think about perfumes from the Bottom up. People are buying perfumes that are top note heavy, and think that is what a perfume will smell like. Most fragrance makers in the mainstream rely on selling their scents via a string of opening notes, whereas the true art form and what Torti does is rely on the base note.

“If you still rely on the top note, you will not be able to emphasise all the storytelling that you want to come up“

Nina Simona Briazu

“Think of it like having a fine wine tasting. If I have a fine wine tasting, it means I have time for myself, which is a luxury, but also the time to let the true essence mature. The very essence of the perfume is the base, and you need to start thinking about that when you buy a perfume and stop buying perfumes from the top notes”.

“Also, we all can have a unique identity when we embrace the art of layering. It’s something at the house we really believe in, too. But spraying perfume on your skin, well, that’s another no no…”

“Spraying perfume on your skin. No.No. No. First of all, we have to teach perfumers and consumers. Please don’t spray perfume on your skin. One rule #1. You will damage your skin. You will damage your reproductive system. You will damage your hormonal system. Why? Because this perfume goes into your lymphatic system, goes straight into your reproductive system, and goes straight into your hormonal system(for women). We spray perfume on our skin because this is what we’ve been shown or told”.

“Let’s pretend I already put scented cream on your neck and your thinnest parts of your body. Right. Then let’s pretend we take the perfumed oil and we put different oils too. And then the perfume. What about if we create an ‘olfactory dress’? It’s time it think differently because after all, smell comes from down to up”.

“Put perfume on the parts of our body that we move, legs and arms, behind our knees are good, so the perfume can escape and do its thing. We don’t move our necks a lot, so it’s also not a great place. The pulse points are warm, which is great to start with, but then the perfume will evolve far too quickly”.

Image Samantha Inman @rememberingtobreathe.

“And spray from the bottom upwards, another way to get the most from your fragrance is to spray it this way. It’s science as smell moves upwards, not downwards”. And of course, don’t rub it, you are just rubbing it away”.

“To treat your skin with respect, without spraying your skin but using creams and body oils that have the same quality, the same raw materials. Then layer. These are all ways that you can achieve a unique identity that you want via your perfume”.

“That is why we have 500 different smells. We need these tools to allow our community not to smell the same and keep evolving their sense of smell, their understanding of their uniqueness via scent. We, of course, want our community not to smell like anyone else, allowing each the possibility of endless scented expressions”.

The brand’s collection is made up of the Bianca Collection, the notes of morning light awaken your senses, while the essence of endless skies instils a sense of boundless freedom.  The Amber collection, a bold and bright colour, an intense feeling, or an image in your mind that is so clear you can almost touch it, and the Raw Collection, a sensory journey into the depths of nature’s raw beauty. Each ingredient connects you to the elemental forces, infusing your presence with magnetic charm and vitality. The Skin collection is made up of perfumed body creams and oils.

The store in London has the opportunity to book a personal olfactory journey. Each scent reveals a new layer of your identity, offering a deeper connection to your true essence.

Visit Torti at 57 Brewer Street, Soho, London W1F 9UL. Find out all you need to know online at torti.co.uk

If you enjoyed reading Torti is Authentic Scent, Made With Love, then why not read Paolo Raversi And The Intimate Gaze here