Who is Romano Ricci?
French perfumer Romano Ricci of Juliette Has A Gun is the great grandson of the legendary fashion designer Nina Ricci, the designer and grandson to Robert Ricci (L’Air du Temps), which is the equivalent to rock royalty in the fragrance world (Juliette has a Gun sounds more like a rock band than a perfume company doesn’t it?). He was born in Paris but spent most of his childhood in Fontainebleau near the perfume factory of Parfums Ricci. He knew it was his destiny to become a perfumer since he was a young boy and always believed he would follow in the steps of his grandfather who has been his hero since he was a child.
After Parfums Nina Ricci was sold in 2000, Romano spent six years training with an obscure company named France Fragrances without anyone recognizing his last name. Each of his early perfumes correspond to a facet of Juliette, his modern day imagining of Shakespeare’s heroine from Romeo and Juliet, but his Juliet uses perfume as a weapon of seduction. It all started in 2006, with Miss Charming, which is a romantic, innocent and flirtatious floral and Lady Vengeance, a dark, thorny rose seducer, (both collaborations with master perfumer Francis Kurkdjian).The first perfume he composed on his own showed her sophisticated side with Citizen Queen (2007) and Mad Madame, a more mature vision of Juliette, embodied in a green chypre with a metallic trail.
Among the line’s bestselling perfumes are Juliette Has a Gun Not A Perfume, made out of a single ingredient (Cetalox aka Ambroxan). This ingredient is 100% synthetic, allergen free, smells like light woods and is popular with both women and men fragrance lovers. In 2008, he launched Midnight Oud based on oud which is ubiquitous today but was not so common at the time. In 2011, Romano Ricci won ‘Special Prize of the Board’, which is awarded to an individual who has shown special ingenuity, creativity and dedication within the perfume industry.
Romano Ricci expanded the line each year that followed. From 2016’s Into the Void the unisex licorice scent with a warm woody drydown and the lusciously tart and fruity MMMM, Juliette Has a Gun has explored the episodes, ages and stages of the heroine’s love of life and search for freedom through fragrance and often strays outside into other plots. Over the past 17 years, he has confidently traveled different perfume pathways, expertly crafting a variety of fragrances from the citrus and woody effortlessness of Anyway, to the musky gender bender Gentlewoman.
He composed a fantastic fragrance that is a favorite with influencers, Juliette Has A Gun Sunny Side Up. His idea was to create a sandalwood perfume for men and women that would create happy and positive feelings when wearing it. Juliette Has A Gun Moscow Mule was inspired by the cocktail of the same name which Romano Ricci associates with copper (the drink is traditionally served in copper mugs). Romano Ricci wanted to create a fragrance that suggested a scent message “Let’s Party.” Ginger is a key ingredient, the twist of lime in Juliette Has A Gun Moscow Mule adds citrus punch and freshness to the composition, with a woody finish at the base. Juliette Has a Gun launched Vanilla Vibes which as the first time Romano Ricci worked with vanilla as the star ingredient and since he’s not a fan of sweet notes, he chose to balance what could be cloying with sea salt. Not plain old vanilla here, there is a mineral quality that adds something very different to Juliette Has A Gun Vanilla Vibes that distinguishes it from all his other fragrances.
While Juliette Has a Gun may have started out as a fragrance collection for women, it now includes a wide range of colognes and perfumes for men and women- from fruity, floral, roses, oud, fresh and woody scents and is one of the most well-known niche collections in the world.
We have finished taking you through all the best perfumes by Romano Ricci and his brand Juliette Has a Gun. Now it is time to head over to Perfume.com to choose your favorite.
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