Ortica Ortica

Sweet and green in the same bottle.

The question came for years. A sweet one? A green one? When? Green was not really the draw, with one exception: nettle, for the damp, breathing sensation it carries. Intimidating. At home it is also the path behind the maker's own house, and ravioli filling, and a constant. Picked by hand and turned into a clear, glowing tincture.

An old memory resurfaced. Ensar Oud's Lokoloko, deep and oily and vegetal, met the stony, earthy edge of wild nettle and fell into place. Cherry is subtle and fleeting yet deeply sensual, the thread bridging galbanum and fig leaf with the rose-like turn of geranium. Vanilla enriches and softens. Sweetness and crunch around a forest floor, fruity and faintly medicinal. Then it was left to rest.

All natural, so the colour can shift and a sediment can form. Use a little: it may stain light or delicate fabrics.

Zanini is two friends, Giacomo and Filippo, who worked side by side in an office for years before starting something else in 2023. The idea arrived in a car on the road from Prato to Basel, when Filippo mentioned in passing a decade spent making smellscapes: fragrances built out of the sensations of places both real and invented. Bureaucracy, small budgets and renovations followed, and the project took shape.

Everything is 100% natural, with no synthetic material anywhere. Most of the harvesting and processing is done by hand, by traditional methods, and they respect nature's timing, the right moment to pick and then months for extraction and maturation. Production is limited to under a thousand units a year, every bottle handmade and numbered, released as exclusive limited-edition projects, each with its own story.