Orto Parisi

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History of the house

Orto Parisi was founded in 2014 by Italian perfumer Alessandro Gualtieri, already the founder of Nasomatto seven years earlier. The name refers to the vegetable garden of his grandfather, Vincenzo Parisi, in Puglia (Italy). Orto means garden in Italian. The house was conceived from the start as a more corporal, more animalic extension of the project he had begun with Nasomatto.

The biographical anchor is central to the brand discourse. Alessandro Gualtieri frequently recalls childhood summers spent at his maternal grandfather's home, among olive trees and the raw scents of sweat, soil, fallen leaves and overripe fruit. Orto Parisi claims this olfactory memory as the very matrix of the brand: bodies as gardens, body odors as mirrors of the soul.

The house launched in 2014 with a series of five parfums released simultaneously: Bergamask, Boccanera, Brutus, Stercus and Viride. Every flacon shares the same glass silhouette, and the house publishes no official pyramid, following the same principle as Nasomatto. Manufacturing and packaging are handled in Italy. All perfumes are sold as parfum, in 50 ml flacons.

The catalog has since expanded in waves. Seminalis (2016) explored a lactonic and leathered floral register. Terroni (2017) translated the volcanic imagery of southern Italy. Megamare (2019) proposed an iodine, mineral marine. Cuoium (2021) revisited leather absolu. Risvelium (2025) extended the line into a resinous woody territory. Every release is awaited by an international community of niche author perfumery enthusiasts.

Orto Parisi operates as an independent perfume house, shares the Amsterdam atelier with Nasomatto and remains held by its founder. Distribution flows through a curated network of specialist niche retailers.

Notable perfumes

The Orto Parisi catalog gathers ten compositions, all signed by Alessandro Gualtieri as sole perfumer since 2014. All ten are listed below in chronological order.

Olfactory signature

Orto Parisi writes a perfumery of raw materials, anchored in an animalic, earthy and corporal vocabulary. Compositions claim an organic, sometimes uncomfortable dimension: sweat, warm skin, raw leather, damp soil, sea salt, heavy resins. The house publishes no official notes, just like Nasomatto, and prefers to name an intent or an olfactory memory over a top-heart-base list.

Every Orto Parisi release is sold as parfum, in 50 ml glass flacons. The high concentration translates into a tenacious sillage and a contained yet persistent projection, closer in behavior to traditional Middle Eastern attar practice than to mainstream Western eau de parfum.

The central editorial gesture is the continuity with Nasomatto combined with a clear distinction. Where Nasomatto stays inside a brutalist conceptual register, Orto Parisi pushes the corporal and animalic dimension further. Stercus (2014) is the textbook case, with its leather-oud-musk accord that fully owns the Latin etymology of the name. Megamare (2019) shifted toward an ambery aquatic of unusual power and quickly became a reference point of the marine niche register.

"Orto Parisi states that our body is experienced like a garden, and its smells are a true mirror of our soul."Orto Parisi, Manifesto

Key characteristics

Frequently asked questions

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