Peonia Nobile

Acqua di Parma celebrated its hundred years in 2016 and added a third flower to the Le Nobili collection, after the iris of 2004 and the magnolia of 2009. The peony holds the title role there, under an eau de parfum addressed to women.

A flower perfumery has to invent

Peony cannot be distilled: like lily of the valley or mimosa, it is reconstituted from other raw materials, as Kleo, of the blogzine kleo beauté, recalls. Each house therefore gives its own version, and the Acqua di Parma one borrows from rose and lily of the valley, two classic routes to that reconstitution.

A centenary launch

The fragrance came out in the summer of 2016, as a John Lewis exclusive until August 1 in the United Kingdom before a national release, with a matching body cream. The Perfume Society, present at the London launch, ties the collection back to the Iris Nobile of Francis Kurkdjian and Françoise Caron, which appeared in 2004.

A flower of legend

The house ties the peony to Paion, physician of Olympus who is said to have treated Zeus with its root and who gave it his name. The myth serves the discourse of a collection where each flower stands for an emblem.