“My passion for perfume began with a fragrance Claudia gave me a few years ago. She later became my business partner.”
— Mirko Buffini (founder)
He did not like the gift of perfume at first. Yet, given time on his skin, it revealed a character he had never known before. That surprise set him on a journey to find the fragrance he wanted.
MIRKO BUFFINI FIRENZE is a perfume brand from Florence, Italy. Rooted in the city’s craftsmanship, it has drawn creative themes from waka and haiku, Japanese aesthetics, and even Irish literature. At its center is Mirko Buffini, who chooses the inspiration and works with perfumers to shape it into scent.
Essential Information
Founded: 2012
First collection presented: June 2013, Black Collection
Founder: Mirko Buffini
Place of origin: Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Official websites: MIRKO BUFFINI FIRENZE / olfatto, exclusive distributor in Japan
The brand name places the founder’s name beside “Firenze”, the name of his home city, Florence. Buffini is its director and designer, while the perfumes are created in collaboration with perfumers.
The Founder and the Brand’s Beginnings
Working in Cosmetics and Receiving a Gift of Perfume
Before starting his perfume brand, Buffini was already involved in cosmetics manufacturing and ran a company called Aroma Firenze. He had business connections with scent, but the impulse to create perfumes under his own name came less from a business plan than from a single gift.
In 2010, he was moved by a perfume he received from a friend. The giver was Claudia, who later became his business partner. What attracted Buffini was the way the scent kept changing even though it was the same perfume. That experience deepened his interest in perfume itself.
“When I first sprayed it, I hated it.”
— Mirko Buffini
His first impression was unfavorable enough for him to recall it this way. But after about ten minutes, a woody scent appeared on his skin unlike anything in the perfumes he had worn before. When he put it on again the next day, it made a different impression once more. His surprise at these changes led him to explore making his own ideal perfume.
No.31, Born from Approximately 50 Trials
His first fragrance was No.31, or Trentuno. The challenge Buffini faced was how to turn the strongly individual character of patchouli (in Japanese) into an elegant perfume. He brought elements such as brandy, vanilla, and chocolate to a material with earthy and woody shadows.
Through repeated trials with a perfumer, the possibilities grew to approximately 50. After spending two years choosing the fragrance, Buffini sold it to friends. The first 100 bottles, simple glass containers placed in unmarked boxes, reportedly sold out in about a week. A search for a fragrance that had begun for himself reached other people. That response opened the way to developing perfume as a business.
His childhood friend Marco Mari also joined to help expand the business abroad. Mari’s family had long been involved in international trade. Buffini conceived the fragrances, and his collaborators helped deliver them overseas. Though the brand began with one founder’s idea, it took shape together with people whose experience differed from his own.
Presenting Twelve Fragrances in Florence in 2013
Founded in 2012, the brand introduced its first Black Collection at the Pitti Immagine Uomo fashion trade fair in Florence in June 2013. It debuted with twelve fragrances that had taken approximately two years to create.
The Japanese concept of wabi-sabi underpinned the ideas. That did not, however, mean making every fragrance conform to a single olfactory style. Some, like No.31, began with the treatment of a material; others emerged from poetry, people, or stories.
For Buffini, a fragrance’s name was not an ornament attached afterward. Exploring old texts, especially stories from the East, he sought to give each name a strong individuality. He wanted each to be distinctive enough to become a separate brand in its own right. This independent thinking behind each fragrance explains the description “a brand within a brand”.
Giving Form to Travel-Inspired Ideas with Perfumers
Buffini’s role is to bring ideas from travel and reading together into a direction for a perfume. He travels the world in search of new smells and subjects, then communicates the character he wants to express and the central scent to a perfumer. From there, they select materials, adjust their balance, and approach the fragrance in his mind.
“It takes about two to three years to create a new fragrance.”
— Mirko Buffini
Buffini said this in 2018. He arrives at a single work through discussions with trusted perfumers and assessments of countless samples. Rather than a perfumer who personally handles every aspect of a formula, he is a maker who determines the creative subject and direction and realizes them through exchanges with specialists.
His interest in Japan is also part of his creativity. Reading Bushidō and Yamamoto Tsunetomo’s Hagakure, he was drawn not only to an attitude toward combat but also to dress and ways of living. His travels in search of subjects for perfume involved encounters with the thinking of different cultures, as well as visits to places where materials originate.
From Joyce’s Literature to a Collection Expressing Italy
H.C.E., presented at Pitti Fragranze in September 2017, grew out of James Joyce’s novel Finnegans Wake. H.C.E., the initials of a character in the novel, also connect with the words “Here Comes Everybody”. The collection brings these overlapping names and words into the subjects of perfume.
Rather than continuing the Black Collection in the same vein, it opens another story. Buffini saw the new collection as an encounter with new customers and a form of evolution. Taking literary wordplay as its entrance, H.C.E. develops different expressions of scent in each work.
NOÛS COLOGNE appeared in March 2020. This time the subjects were northern, central, and southern Italy. After incorporating cultures from abroad, the brand turned its attention to its own country’s landscapes and ways of life in three fragrances.
FÛGA, Created for the Tenth Anniversary in Japan
In 2024, the tenth anniversary of its launch in Japan, the brand released FÛGA exclusively in Japan on March 20. Buffini, who calls Japan his “second home”, created it with perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour (in Japanese).
Its subjects were memories of Japan: cherry blossom petals drifting along the water, richly green gardens, autumn osmanthus, and snow-covered fields and hills. They also included temples, shrines, architecture, countryside seen from a train window, and urban scenes. These are not a list of fragrance materials, but the images entrusted to the work.
The name FÛGA brings together the Japanese word fūga, meaning refined elegance, and the musical form of the fugue. Instead of a scent bringing back memories, it expresses impressions and emotions held in memory as scent. The connection with Japan that began with an interest in waka and haiku had grown into making a fragrance from memories of places he had actually visited and come to love.
What Matters to the Brand
Creating Fragrances from Waka and Haiku
The “31” in No.31 refers to waka, with its 31 sound units in a five-seven-five-seven-seven pattern. Nature is understood not simply as an abstract subject to contemplate, but as something connected with human emotions. The fragrance brings this idea from a short poetic form into perfume.
The construction of the scent, however, is not simple. No.31 is a complex fragrance centered on patchouli, containing at least 60 olfactory elements. Brandy and chocolate elements, rose and vanilla, and the warmth of resins are layered together. Behind its short name lies a design that balances many elements.
HAIKU is inspired by Matsuo Bashō’s poem, “An old pond; a frog jumps in; the sound of water.” Rather than seeking to reproduce the smell of a pond, it takes as its subject the sensation of a momentary change within stillness.
The fragrance centers on white flowers and damask rose, combining them with berries, cedarwood, vanilla, white musk, and other elements. Buffini’s interpretation appears in his choice of the softness and expansiveness of flowers for the subject of water’s sound. The forms and scenes of poetry become a gateway to thinking about perfume.
Selecting Materials and Maturing Them for 75 Days
Buffini seeks to carry on Florence’s tradition of perfume-making through exploration of materials and attention to detail. His interest in plants cultivated in Tuscan monasteries, including iris, lavender, and rose, is part of this.
Accounts of the early Black Collection describe a method in which aromatic essences obtained from natural materials are left to rest for 75 days, stabilizing before they are blended. In 2018, Buffini also spoke of using matured natural materials as part of his creative approach. He valued not simply obtaining materials, but taking time over how they were handled.
The brand continues to emphasize selecting materials around the world, collaborating with fragrance companies, and meticulous production by hand. Preserving the practices of old workshops while incorporating outside expertise and different cultures: both support the craftsmanship of this Florence-based brand.
NOÛS COLOGNE: Expressing Italian Regions and Ways of Life
NOÛS COLOGNE expresses three Italian regions through fragrances characteristic of each. EAU SAVOIR, for example, uses Tuscan fig to convey a connection with the region where the brand was born. Its composition layers rose and fig with elements of patchouli and vetiver.
EAU, which takes life in northern Italy as its subject, turns to the culture of aperitivo, enjoying drinks and conversation before a meal. It combines bergamot and grapefruit with a scent recalling chilled gin. Here, a place is expressed through how people spend their time, not only through where plants grow.
Though all take Italy as their subject, the fragrances are not gathered into a single landscape. Entrusting each work with materials rooted in a region and life in that region is a characteristic of the collection.
Differences between Collections Expressed in Bottle Design
The No.31 bottle has a simple form, with the brand name and a large fragrance name printed on a broad face of clear glass. A cylindrical gold-colored cap and a thick glass base frame the pale golden liquid. Rather than piling on ornament, the design gives prominence to the fragrance’s own name.
NOÛS COLOGNE shifts the color to a grayish green. Buffini calls it “Leonardo Green”, a color chosen from his interest in Leonardo da Vinci and green as the color of water. It links the container’s color with “EAU”, meaning water, which appears in all three fragrance names.
The more recent L’or d’Oud Collection uses golden motifs for its weighty world centered on oud. The Indélébile Collection takes cities, memories, and desire as its subjects, while the Abyssal Collection explores immersion in the inner self and imperfect beauty. The creative range continues to widen, but it is not all wrapped in the same story. Each collection involves a fresh choice of fragrance themes and how to present them.
An Aside…
Someone once sat through a day-long lecture to learn about the color of the NOÛS COLOGNE bottle. It was Ōtake (大竹創), a member of the Japanese staff who visited Buffini’s atelier in October 2019.
The conversation ranged from wabi-sabi to Sen no Rikyū, Kuki Shūzō, and Japanese literature, then on to Leonardo da Vinci, the Renaissance, and Aristotle. Even when he asked for a break, the explanation continued with “just a little more”. Lunch was delivered, and it reportedly took almost the entire day to reach the origin of the color.
Even the color of a single bottle involves this many detours. It is a small story that reveals both the depth of Buffini’s cultural interests and a personality that cannot stop once he begins explaining them.
References
- Vogue Italia: Founder interview, “Profumi by Mirko Buffini: il lato esotico del Made in Italy” (2015) — https://www.vogue.it/beauty/notizie-bellezza/2015/03/mirko-buffini-firenze-profumi-fragranze-made-in-italy
- MIRKO BUFFINI FIRENZE: Brand — Founding year, collaboration, and production philosophy — https://mirkobuffinifirenze.com/brand/
- olfatto: The brand’s beginnings and his role as director — https://olfatto.jp/pages/mirko-buffini-firenze
- The Beauty Gazette: Interview with the founder, the gift of perfume, No.31 trials, and early sales (2017) — https://beauty-gazette.com/2017/05/27/new-fragrance-label-to-watch-mirko-buffini-firenze/
- Icon Magazine: Founder interview, “Mirko Buffini: profumi made in Italy” (2015) — https://www.iconmagazine.it/beauty/mirko-buffini-profumi-made-in-italy-2/
- ISETAN MEN’S net: Founder interview — The first fragrance and unisex scents (2018, part two) — https://www.imn.jp/post/108057199486?page=2
- MIRKO BUFFINI FIRENZE: About — The launch dates of the collections — https://www.mirkobuffini.jp/pages/5
- MIRKO BUFFINI FIRENZE: Black Collection — Wabi-sabi and the approach to color — https://mirkobuffinifirenze.com/black-collection/
- ISETAN MEN’S net: Founder interview — Development time, maturation, and H.C.E. (2018, part one) — https://www.imn.jp/post/108057199486
- HIGHSNOBIETY JAPAN: Founder interview — His interest in Japanese culture and creative methods (2018) — https://highsnobiety.jp/p/interview-with-mirko-buffini/
- MIRKO BUFFINI FIRENZE: E-Shop — The name H.C.E. and its literary inspiration — https://mirkobuffinifirenze.com/en/e-shop/
- olfatto: FÛGA launch press release (February 20, 2024) — https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000002.000136819.html
- MIRKO BUFFINI FIRENZE: No.31 — Its relationship to waka and its fragrance composition — https://mirkobuffinifirenze.com/negozio/black-collection/no-31/
- olfatto: No.31 — Fragrance composition and official product images — https://olfatto.jp/products/no-31
- MIRKO BUFFINI FIRENZE: HAIKU — Matsuo Bashō’s haiku and floral expression — https://mirkobuffinifirenze.com/negozio/black-collection/haiku/
- MIRKO BUFFINI FIRENZE: EAU SAVOIR — Tuscan fig — https://mirkobuffinifirenze.com/negozio/nous-cologne/eau-savoir/
- MIRKO BUFFINI FIRENZE: EAU — Northern Italian life and the aperitivo — https://mirkobuffinifirenze.com/negozio/nous-cologne/eau/
- MIRKO BUFFINI FIRENZE: The birth episode of NOÛS COLOGNE — The bottle color (2021) — https://www.mirkobuffini.jp/blog/detail/41
- MIRKO BUFFINI FIRENZE: L’or d’Oud Collection — The world of gold and oud — https://mirkobuffinifirenze.com/l-or-d-oud-collection/
- MIRKO BUFFINI FIRENZE: Indélébile Collection — Works on cities and memories — https://mirkobuffinifirenze.com/indelebile-collection/
- MIRKO BUFFINI FIRENZE: Abyssal Collection — Immersion in the inner self and imperfect beauty — https://mirkobuffinifirenze.com/abyssal-collection/
- Ōtake (大竹創): The birth episode of NOÛS COLOGNE2 — The lecture at the atelier (2021) — https://www.mirkobuffini.jp/blog/detail/42
