Profumum Roma – Dolce Artica x Gents
Italian perfumery meets Nordic nature
Gents' long relationship with the Italian fragrance house Profumum Roma has now resulted in an exclusive scent collaboration: the perfume Dolce Artica, a tribute to rugged Scandinavian nature and the magical pull of the Nordic starry sky. It is a fresh, berry-led composition with sweet touches – an Italian interpretation of the Nordic scent landscape.
Summary
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Dolce Artica is the result of Gents' long-standing, personal relationship with the Italian family business Profumum Roma – a perfume created exclusively for Gents.
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Profumum Roma's story stretches from the family's roots in knife sharpening in Sant’Elena to the founding of the perfume house in Rome in 1996, known for concentrated, expressive compositions.
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Dolce Artica unites Nordic nature with Italian perfumery through fresh citrus and blueberry notes, wild berries and a restrained sweetness from tonka bean, vanilla and sandalwood.
Gents' collaboration with the venerable family business Profumum Roma began in 2019 and has grown over the years into a close, personal relationship, marked by typically Italian warmth and a mutual trust in which fragrance has always been the shared language that brought us together.
That the relationship has now produced a perfume exclusive to Gents feels like a natural next step – born of years of meetings, creative conversations and a shared passion for expressive niche fragrances. For us, the result is a fine synthesis of the mystique of Nordic nature and Italian craftsmanship, where elegance, purity and a focus on raw materials of the highest quality have left a clear mark.
Profumum Roma – from Sant’Elena to Rome
If you appreciate natural, creative fragrance experiences, Profumum Roma, with its very own pure formula, will be a familiar name in the world of perfume. But the family business began in a very different niche: knife sharpening and products for barbers.
The story begins in Sant’Elena in Molise, where the art of sharpening knives and tools was a craft passed down through generations. The knife grinder Celestino Durante and his wife Luisa were among those who left the little village after the war to seek a new future in Rome. At first Celestino ran a travelling business from his bicycle, and he soon came into contact with the barbers and craftsmen of Rome. In time the bicycle became a shop, and the smell of iron and abrasives soon gave way to the aroma of home-made eau de cologne and shaving products.
The real turning point came in 1996, when the next generation – the siblings Giuseppe, Luciano, Maria and Felice Durante – carried the family story forward. The perfume world had changed, and they wanted to create fragrances on their own terms, free of the conventions they felt had become far too limiting. Out of that thought Profumum Roma was born, along with the distinctive style and pure formula that still define the house – concentrated compositions with a strong identity, made to evoke memories, images and feelings rather than follow prevailing trends.
Dolce Artica
Profumum Roma's success rests largely on its ability to create sweet, vanilla-based compositions with a DNA all their own, but the house also makes nature-inspired fragrances so pure and imaginative that they almost transport you to another place – from the salty sea breeze and the greenery of a forest clearing to an autumn forest of mushrooms and rotting leaves.
With Dolce Artica, we at Gents wanted to continue down that path, but here as a tribute to the Scandinavian wilderness. The feeling of gazing up at the cold, starry night sky while your lungs fill with the aroma of rugged nature and the fruit of wild berry bushes. It was a concept that put the Italian perfumers to the test, but we believe they have succeeded.
At the same time, you will find here what we like to associate with the Italian way of life: elegance, exclusivity and a sophisticated expression. That makes Dolce Artica, despite its wild references to nature, feel just as natural at the office as in more dressed-up settings.
The perfume opens with fresh, bright notes of citrus and blueberry which, with their subtle freshness, depart from the house's other creations – it is light, bright and crisp. Then a world of sweet, fruity berry notes opens up, from wild raspberry and wild strawberry, accompanied by soft creaminess and sweetness from sandalwood, tonka bean and vanilla. So yes – the sweetness is here, but understated and minimalist, in Scandinavian form.
For us, Dolce Artica is more than just another perfume in the range. It is the result of a long friendship, a shared passion and a rather improbable idea: to let Italian perfumery smell of Nordic nature.