New Notes: Fragrances from Milan That Capture the Scent of Now

“If people valued perfume more, the world would be a more peaceful place.”
— Erik Minati, founder of New Notes

Basic Information
The Founder and the Origins of the Brand
What Defines the Brand
The Fragrance Lineup
An Additional Note…

Basic Information

New Notes is a niche perfume brand based in Milan, Italy. It was established in 2021 under the perfume company HIC Beauty. The company’s creative director, Erik Minati, is the face of the brand as its founder. Calling itself “The Scent of Now,” the brand positions itself as a new generation of extrait de parfum, a category of perfume with a very high concentration of fragrance, that crosses the boundaries of gender and genre. Its official website is en.newnotesparfum.com.

Some accounts date the brand’s beginnings to 2021, while others place the start of its full-scale rollout in 2022. In July 2022, the German perfume specialist Aus Liebe zum Duft featured it as a brand founded the previous year. Between 2021 and 2022, the New Notes name began coming to the attention of perfume enthusiasts.

The Founder and the Origins of the Brand

At the center of the New Notes story is Erik Minati. Originally from Turin, he studied art direction at the Istituto Europeo di Design, the European Institute of Design, and has worked as an art director. Rather than childhood scent memories or a dramatic turning point that brought him into the perfume industry, the key to understanding this brand is how he guides its creative work today. What concept should a fragrance express, and in what form should it enter the world? Minati’s thinking, grounded in art direction, is reflected in the brand’s language and the direction of its creations.

Minati currently serves as creative director of HIC Beauty, the company behind New Notes. Based in Milan, the company approaches perfume-making with an international outlook. Its work is founded on the artisanal knowledge, or savoir-faire, rooted in Milan, and the city’s entrepreneurial spirit that nurtures new businesses. Its CEO is Cindy Guillemant, also known as the founder of Moresque, a brand centered on the aesthetics of Moroccan and Arab culture. In an earlier interview, Guillemant described her career as follows.

“I earned an MBA in international business in Florida and built my career in Monte Carlo, Paris, Miami, and Milan. I have always worn perfume, but it was my grandmother who instilled in me a true love of fragrance and gave me the impetus to become deeply involved in this industry.”
— Cindy Guillemant

New Notes is a project born from HIC Beauty’s expertise in creating niche perfumes. The German perfume specialist scent amor describes its origins in these terms: “Behind New Notes there is no romantic atelier story of dusty bottles and decorative nostalgia. The brand emerged from HIC Beauty’s ecosystem, the product of a Milanese company with experience in international niche perfumery.” It is a brand conceived as a new avenue of expression by a company experienced in making and distributing perfume. Knowing that background helps explain why, despite its youth, the brand had a clear direction from the outset.

What, then, is Minati’s approach to creating fragrances? His words, as presented by the German specialist Hussong, reveal the attitude embodied in the New Notes name.

“Every creation begins with a concept that questions existing conventions. For New Notes, innovation does not simply mean ‘new’; it means ‘meaningful.’”
— Erik Minati

These remarks suggest that New Notes intended not simply to follow trends but to reconstruct the very “grammar” of perfume. Its first fragrances, released in 2021, included New Leather and Musk Complexity, which reinterpreted traditional images of leather and musk using contemporary fragrance molecules.

As the brand has grown, initiatives such as its collaboration with the long-established Parisian niche perfume specialist Jovoy have increased its presence within the industry. In 2025, Minati and François Hénin, who revived the present-day Jovoy, jointly introduced the limited-edition fragrance Cherry Prosecco. In 2026, it was further announced that NOBILIS GROUP would take on exclusive distribution in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland from May of that year. On that occasion, HIC Beauty CEO Guillemant said the following.

“This partnership marks a turning point for our brand and a decisive step on the path toward a global success story, strengthened by the support of NOBILIS GROUP and our shared vision.”
— Cindy Guillemant, CEO of HIC Beauty

In the same announcement, Minati also commented in his capacity as creative director of HIC Beauty.

“We are convinced that, with its proven expertise, the NOBILIS GROUP team is the right partner to bring this holistic approach to life consistently and sustainably.”
— Erik Minati, creative director of HIC Beauty

In March 2026, Minati himself appeared at launch events in Barcelona and Madrid to discuss the creative background of the new fragrance Magico Safrano. At the events, he led sessions in the form of a “fragrance tasting,” offering an experiential introduction in which participants savored each scent as they would at a wine tasting. There, Minati reiterated an idea fundamental to the brand: that skin is perfume’s “final ingredient.”

What Defines the Brand

The concept New Notes emphasizes most strongly is encapsulated in the phrase “The Final Ingredient: Your Skin.” This is a clear invitation from the brand not to judge a perfume on a paper mouillette, or scent blotter, but always to try it on one’s own skin. Its fragrances are built on a combination of high-quality natural raw materials and sophisticated hi-tech molecules, meaning chemically synthesized fragrance ingredients. By bringing nature and technology together, it aims for more avant-garde fragrances that move beyond conventional perfume formulas.

This thinking extends to the structure of the fragrances. The brand presents two lines: the Contemporary Blend Collection and the Hologram Collection. The latter has a design philosophy expressed through a visual analogy: “Like a hologram that imprints a three-dimensional vision on a two-dimensional image, each fragrance seeks new olfactory depths by layering luxurious raw materials.”

Attention to sustainability is another characteristic of the brand. It advocates “radical transparency,” communicating openly about its formulas. It states that its products contain no phthalates or parabens and are cruelty-free, without animal testing. It says that its packaging, from bottles to outer packaging, uses 100% recyclable materials. All its perfumes are conceived and manufactured in Italy, and the brand also emphasizes that they are “100% Made in Italy.”

Its gender-neutral stance is equally consistent. The brand’s position is that “our perfumes are for everyone, because perfume should not be assigned to a particular gender.” Both fragrances traditionally seen as masculine, such as New Leather, and sweet, flamboyant scents such as Latte di Cherry are offered without explicit gender categories.

The Fragrance Lineup

All New Notes perfumes are released as extraits de parfum, formulas with a higher concentration of fragrance than an ordinary eau de parfum, emphasizing longevity and a close affinity with the skin. The official website presents the Contemporary Blend Collection and the Hologram Collection, while Jovoy introduces the fragrances under “Contemporary Blend” and “Modern Liquid.” The way they are presented varies slightly between retailers, but the shared approach is to reconstruct a range of scent profiles with a contemporary sensibility.

Signature scents known since the brand’s early days include New Leather, a reinterpretation of sophisticated leather; Musk Complexity, which explores intricately layered musks; and Talco, which evokes the cleanliness of baby powder. Released around 2021, these fragrances represent the starting point of New Notes.

The brand subsequently began placing more emphasis on gourmand fragrances, sweet scents reminiscent of food. Caramelo Vanilla, centered on caramel and vanilla, and Latte di Cherry, combining cherry and milk, have each received ratings in the high sevens on the perfume-rating site Parfumo and are considered among the brand’s more popular fragrances. More recent additions include Latte Pistachio, pairing pistachio with milk, and Magico Safrano, an oriental, woody fragrance built around saffron.

A more adventurous line is the Erotika series, comprising Erotika Minimale and the richer Erotika Maximale. The German perfume specialist scent amor describes Maximale in particular as “never cheap, but provocative,” and it is regarded as a boldly composed fragrance that recalls animalic musk perfumes such as Serge Lutens’s Musc Koublaï Khán.

The brand also makes limited releases with existing retail partners, such as Cherry Prosecco, created in collaboration with the Parisian specialist Jovoy. This is a flamboyant, white-floral fragrance inspired by cherry and the champagne-like effervescence of prosecco.

An Additional Note…

One intriguing aspect of New Notes is that, unlike established HIC Beauty brands such as Moresque, centered on Moroccan aesthetics, or Blend Oud, specializing in agarwood, it looks less to “history” and “tradition” than to the fragrances that might emerge now. As scent amor puts it: “This brand does not want to explain how perfume was once conceived, but to show what niche fragrance can be today.”

New Notes is sometimes described as a brand that resonates with Generation Z. Names and concepts that make people want to talk about fragrance on social media are one aspect of how it is received. Choosing a fragrance that feels right for who you are now, without being constrained by gender or traditional scent categories: that freedom connects with the brand’s idea of “The Scent of Now.”

References