Last week we visited Bologna, Milano and Florence; three fascinating cities. We started in Bologna to meet Giovanni Padovan and Lia Lo Brutto from Antica Profumeria al Sacro Cuore a Bologna. Not only one of the most famous perfumeries in Italy, but also one of the friendliest!

Lia Lo Brutto from Antica Profumeria al Sacro Cuore

Lia told us that in all her life she only fell in love twice with a perfume, the second time with Puredistance I Perfume. We felt honoured!

Puredistance Crystal Columns and the Puredistance I Perfume Spray

Renato Buongiorno our agent for Italy

Soon Puredistance will be available in all of the major cities in Italy, but as always in a very small number of carefully selected stores and in only one store per city. Puredistance is one of the few, and perhaps the only perfume house that can guarantee true exclusivity. Where we look for a maximum of 10 stores in the whole of Italy, other 'exclusive' niche brands can be found in 50, 100 or even more perfumeries in Italy.

From the 17th-22nd of October 2010, the Tax Free World Exhibition took place in Cannes. We decided not to have a stand at the Tax Free World Exhibition, because of its mass character. Instead we have invited some relations and journalists in an elegant villa in Mougins, close to Cannes (8min from the TFWA). Here we showed the new Puredistance Master Perfume Collection including the new ANTONIA and M...

Early December Puredistance will launch a new perfume: ANTONIA. We sent samples to some perfume lovers to get their feedback. Below the first four reactions we got.

Puredistance ANTONIA Perfume: availabe early December

Donna Hathaway: 'When the first Puredistance fragrance was released, I thought it seemed as though the ad campaign for it was all hype and no substance – but that was before I smelled it. As it turned out, I fell in love with its cool aldehydic abstraction and its family resemblance to Chanel No. 5 minus the part I never liked, the overly powdery aspect that was always the deal-breaker for me. Puredistance I was like the Chanel No. 5 of my dreams and I was definitely an admirer from that moment on….

Now a second scent is being introduced by the house, and Puredistance Antonia in turn has an unmistakable kinship with the first perfume. It was composed by master perfumer Annie Buzantian ……  Like its predecessor, it is entirely modern without being odd or strange; the makers were obviously aiming high and not looking for a quick hit with a trendy perfume that would soon pass out of fashion. I can see this becoming an enduring favorite in its class, and it's classy all the way...' Read the full review

Suzanne Keller: 'Every so often I smell a perfume that is so profoundly beautiful—so attuned to my sensibilities that it seems to pulsate in rhythm with my heart—I find myself thinking about settling down and making that most personal of fragrance commitments. “This could be my one and only,” I say with serious consideration, though the thought of perfume monogamy up until this moment has not been a thought at all. The first time I entertained such a notion was with Chanel No. 22; the second time, with Amouage Jubilation 25. This time around it is with ANTONIA—the latest perfume offering from Puredistance, the small, luxury brand founded by Jan Ewoud Vos, based in Vienna, Austria, and the Netherlands.

ANTONIA was created by perfumer Annie Buzantian, who also authored the company’s signature perfume, Puredistance I, which I reviewed earlier this year…. If I were to describe ANTONIA in terms of perfumes that you might already know, I would describe it as the love child of Chanel Bel Respiro and Frederic Malle's Le Parfum de Thérèse…. If I were to describe ANTONIA in terms of a feeling, it would be that of hopeful, dreamy yearning—the kind of yearning where you see only the dazzling possibilities of chasing whatever bright and wavery thing lies ahead of you, and no thought or fear of the obstacles it might take to reach it….

The perfume ANTONIA combines a sense of newness (the green notes) with a sense of adventurous optimism (its whiff of bright tanginess that teases the senses and then leads them on with its invitingly sweet-and-creamy nuances). Together it’s a spellbinding combination, and yet it’s rendered in a soft, understated style that makes for a fragrance of graceful presence…. if you love fragrances like the original Estee Lauder Private Collection, the original ( vintage) Must de Cartier, or the mossy /fruity-chypre combination that is Amouage Jubilation 25, you will most likely love Puredistance ANTONIA—a quieter scent than those three, but similar in spirit and sophistication. The kind of scent that leaves you entertaining the notion of a signature scent, even when you know you don’t have that kind of commitment in you; it truly is that good.' Read the full review

Karin: 'Antonia is a rich, distinctive, traditional, but modern perfume classic. My first feeling was and is that it is in the grand tradition of Caron, but it is distinctly its own. It doesn't have the Caron base, but it is equally as rich, warm and smooth... ' Read the full review



Ines: 'I do want to share with you this new-found classic that was born in the 21st century…. The two creations by Annie Buzantian for Puredistance are recent but they smell elegantly classic and as if they weren't produced in these times. ANTONIA; After the initial slightly bitter feel to greeness (and brief flirting with soapiness), it just gets better and better....

I cannot stop myself smelling it, I feel like someone perfumed my favourite cashmere sweater with lush flowers so that at the same time I feel warm and enveloped in a cloud of white, velvety flowers. It is like your favourite elegantly stylish aunt hugging you and the warmth and perfume that envelops you with all the love that is in that hug. Elegance and style are forever and smelling like that can never be wrong.

Today I'm finally wearing it not just testing it on my wrist. What can I say? It feels like it's blooming on my skin. For something so soft and feminine, it has some serious tenacity and wonderful wafting capability. And I absolutely love the fact that 7 hours after applying it, I can still smell it around me…. It is never too sweet, something is hiding in there making it just perfectly poised with florals dancing around a base hiding a note that won't let them drown in their own lushness and sweetness..." Read the full review