Tree Swing by Ellenom Photography

“Angels are not visible but they are always next to us.”  Hilde Soliani, on her Gli Invisibili collection.

Hilde Soliani is an Italian perfumer from Parma. Her dynamic personality reads like a well-felt recipe. She mixes humor, warmth, and intelligence, with a strong handful of prowess, and she is exactly how I had imagined her. Her fragrances reflect her unique personality and they have a whimsy and a joie de vivre about them. This is not to say that she doesn't take making fragrances seriously. Smell any of her fragrances and it becomes clear that this nose has a distinct vision for her evolution as a perfumer. Her Gli Invisibili Collection is brave and refined, purposely transparent and modern. Soliani paints passionate, yet tender fragrant strokes in this particular collection inspired by Saints. The visual on the Gli Invisibili flacons depicts a female saint on a cross with an angel kneeling by her side. The angel is pouring (I imagine) fragrant water into two perfume bottles. Soliani told me for this collection she is “producing liquid emotion from the sky.” Sometimes Soliani’s words can take on a kind of magical realism, and it’s as if she is asking us to willingly engage in a suspension of disbelief, which is the temporary willingness of an audience to believe events and characters that at times seem unbelievable in order to be taken on a journey in theater, or if I may push the idea, when smelling fragrance. Suspended disbelief can also be the answer to a medium’s limitation. Hilde generously shares her life, stories, and fantasies through the olfactive world she creates in her fine niche fragrances.

 

Jean Honore' Fragonard, The Progress of Love: Love the Jester (1790-91)

Bambolina is one of seven Eau de Parfum from her Gli Invisibili collection. Bambolina translates as "little doll.”  Soliani’s inspiration for this fragrance took place under a cherry tree while drops of rain fell through the leaves of the tree gently onto her face. Bambolina is also her memory of picking cherries as a child. Bambolina opens with a juicy cherry note that is almondy and creamy. Tart lemon and apricot join to add character, and blend with the freshness and calming tannin qualities coming from the bergamot note. Fantasy notes of Cherry Blossoms and Waterfruits create a subtle aquatic feel, and a musk base wraps around the fruits and floral adding a necessary roundness to the fragrance. The dry down continues to be warm and slightly sweet on the skin; it’s quite beautiful and worthwhile.

The Fragonard Room at The Frick Collection NYC

Wearing Bambolina brought random thoughts of weathered wooden swings hanging under large fruit trees in summer, and fleshy Rococo putti. The fragrance propelled me even further to the Fragonard Room at the Frick Collection where massive Jean Honoré Fragonard paintings hang on the walls, and fill the eye with an intricate uplifting pastel palette. Inside the drawing room one can easily imagine Henry Clay Frick contemplating these paintings where that he once lived. I can only imagine how Bambolina would have enhanced his experience.

Jean Honore' Fragonard, The Progress of Love: Love Triumphant (1790-91)

Bambolina shares the same exuberance and optimism of the Age of Enlightenment. In Fragonard's incredible, The Progress of Love: Love Triumphant, the putti, who are a secular cherub, take center stage, and here you can easily see how clever and purposeful they are, reminiscent of Hilde and her fragrances.

– Valerie Vitale of Soliflore Notes, Contributor

Editor's note: For more on Valerie's encounter with Hilde Soliani check out her post on her blog Soliflore Notes at this link.