Best Orto Parisi Perfumes in the UAE
Article Summary: Orto Parisi publishes no notes for any of its perfumes, on purpose, so every pyramid you have read for Terroni or Megamare, including the ones on our own product pages, is somebody's reading of the bottle rather than the house's list. What the house does publish is a few sentences of prose, a cap made of something unusual, and a price: every Orto Parisi is a 50 ml parfum and every one costs AED 751 at Ounass. Alessandro Gualtieri, the perfumer behind Nasomatto, founded it in Amsterdam in 2014 and named it after his grandfather Vincenzo Parisi's vegetable garden. MOJ interprets three of the ten: Terroni, the volcanic earth; Megamare, the open sea; Cuoium, the leather. Below: the house's own words for each, the stories behind the names where two or more sources agree, UAE prices, and MOJ versions from AED 37.
- Orto Parisi was founded in 2014 by Alessandro Gualtieri, is based in Amsterdam, makes its perfumes in Italy and sells every one as a 50 ml parfum; the house does not reveal its notes.
- Terroni (2017) takes its name from a slur for southern Italians and a cap of tumbled gun metal and volcanic stone; Megamare (2019) wears a silver cap with salt-water corrosion and a Haitian seashell; Cuoium (2021) comes in a removable handmade leather cover.
- Cuoium is inspired by Vincenzo Parisi, a shoemaker from Puglia, and the single pair of handmade leather shoes that survived him.
- Ounass and Bloomingdale's list every Orto Parisi at AED 751 for 50 ml; Faces carries Nasomatto but not Orto Parisi.
- MOJ's three run AED 37 to 109. Terroni and Cuoium are available in all sizes; Megamare M in 50 and 100 ml.
| Original | Year | UAE price | MOJ version | From (AED) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orto Parisi Terroni | 2017 | AED 751 / 50ml | Terroni | 37 |
| Orto Parisi Megamare | 2019 | AED 751 / 50ml | Megamare M | 59 |
| Orto Parisi Cuoium | 2021 | AED 751 / 50ml | Cuoium | 48 |
Who makes Orto Parisi, and why it tells you nothing
One man, and he would rather you did not know what is in the bottle. Alessandro Gualtieri is the Italian perfumer behind Nasomatto, the Amsterdam house that gave the Gulf Black Afgano, and in 2014 he started a second line and named it Orto Parisi, after the orto, the vegetable garden, of his grandfather Vincenzo Parisi. It is independent, run from Amsterdam, made in Italy, and every fragrance in it is sold the same way: a 50 ml bottle of parfum, which retailers call extrait, with a cap made of some material chosen for the story and a box that, in the house's words, opens up into a metropolis and reveals an infinite hole at the centre.
The house's other rule is silence about notes. Its product pages carry three or four sentences of prose and no list; Gualtieri has said in interviews that he does not reveal the ingredients, and the retail sites that print a pyramid for Terroni or Megamare are printing their own. So are we. The pyramids under each MOJ card below are what our perfumers built and what they smell, and we say so because the alternative, pretending they are Orto Parisi's, is the kind of thing this house exists to mock.
The three, with the MOJ versions
1. Terroni
The earth. Terroni launched in 2017, and the house's entire description is this: there is something fulfilling about putting your hands in the soil, the sense of belonging to earth; roots play a strong part in the growth of a character; they are burned into your being. The name is a provocation. Terrone is the word northern Italians have used for southerners, from terra, the land, and an Italian court recognised it as discriminatory in 2005; southerners have since worn it with some irony, and Gualtieri, whose family is from Puglia, put it on a bottle. The cap is tumbled gun metal set with volcanic stone, the beginning of the Earth in the house's words, and the presentation is tinted red. Retailers describe it as birch smoke, amber and guaiac under a raspberry glint, soil around Vesuvius in extrait form, and that is the reading our Terroni follows, raspberry over birch and benzoin on a long woody base. AED 751 for 50 ml at Ounass, available. All three MOJ sizes are available and it is the cheapest entry here.
- Top: Raspberry
- Heart: Birch, Amber, Benzoin
- Base: Guaiac Wood, Vetiver, Cedar, Musk, Moss, Patchouli, Tonka, Vanilla
2. Megamare M
The sea, with no lifeguard. Megamare launched in May 2019 and the house says: sights; it is an indomitable depth, the unknown, a call towards all and nothing, here, there, everywhere; the wholeness of the sea does not need an explanation. The cap is tumbled silver with a greenish corrosion from salt water and an inlaid seashell from Haiti. Reviewers describe it as one of the most forceful aquatics in perfumery, seaweed and the marine material calone pushed to a level no designer house would allow, over ambroxan and musk, and it is the one Orto Parisi that smells of open water rather than a beach resort. Our Megamare M follows that reading, bergamot and lemon over seaweed, calone and hedione on musk, ambroxan and cedar, and it is the only aquatic in our range that people describe as loud. AED 751 for 50 ml at Ounass, available. The MOJ 50 ml and 100 ml are available; the 30 ml is not at the moment.
- Top: Bergamot, Lemon
- Heart: Seaweed, Calone, Hedione
- Base: Musk, Ambroxan, Cedar
3. Cuoium
The leather, and the grandfather. Cuoium launched in October 2021 and the house calls it a visceral connection, an embodiment of love and respect towards natural materials, a manifestation of the legacy of leather, contemporary paganism. Vincenzo Parisi was a shoemaker from Puglia who left for Genoa in the early 1900s, and the fragrance is built around the single pair of handmade leather shoes that survived him; the bottle wears a removable, reusable handmade leather cover and a rusted metal cap inlaid with vegetable-tanned leather. Retailers read it as animalic and violet over leather, cade, incense and labdanum, a workshop rather than a handbag, and our Cuoium follows that reading with a long resinous base. AED 751 for 50 ml at Ounass, available. All three MOJ sizes are available.
- Top: Animal Notes, Woody Notes
- Heart: Violet
- Base: Leather, Incense, Cade Oil, Cedar, Labdanum, Patchouli, Vanilla
The rest of the line
Ten fragrances in eleven years, and we interpret three. The first five, Bergamask, Boccanera, Brutus, Stercus and Viride, arrived together at the launch in 2014; Seminalis followed around 2016; then Terroni, Megamare and Cuoium; and Risvelium, with an antique brass cap holding an eye under resin, in 2025. Of the seven we do not carry, Brutus, Viride, Stercus, Boccanera, Seminalis and Risvelium are at Ounass at the same AED 751; Bergamask is not stocked by any approved UAE retailer. Nasomatto, the sister house, is a different list, and Black Afgano, its Gulf famous one, has no MOJ version either; a product kit on our store names it in error, which we have flagged.
What Orto Parisi costs in the UAE
Flat. Ounass lists every Orto Parisi it carries at AED 751 for the 50 ml, and Bloomingdale's matches it to the dirham; Faces stocks Nasomatto and no Orto Parisi, and the house's own site prices in euros and does not sell into the UAE. There is no 30 ml and no 100 ml, so the arithmetic is simple: AED 15 per ml for a line whose creator will not tell you what is in it, and whose devotees consider that part of the charm. The marketplaces list it lower and claim no authorisation from the house.
Against that, Terroni is AED 37 for 30 ml and AED 88 for 100 ml, about a seventeenth of the original per ml; Cuoium and Megamare M are AED 48 and 59 for the smallest sizes and AED 109 for 100 ml, about a fourteenth. All three sit in our niche inspired collection, and each has a place on a wider shelf: Terroni is ranked in our guide to the best niche perfumes, Cuoium in the best leather perfumes, and Megamare in the best fresh perfumes.
How to choose between them
If you have never worn an Orto Parisi, Terroni, because it is the most approachable of the three and the cheapest of ours. If you want the one that gets you noticed at a distance, Megamare M, and spray it once. If you like leather and already own the designer ones, Cuoium is the step up in rawness. None of the three is a daytime office scent in this climate; they are evening, winter and weekend fragrances, and all three are unisex in the way the house intends, which is to say the question did not occur to it.
On size, 30 ml first on all three, because an Orto Parisi reading divides people more than almost anything else we make; Megamare M starts at 50 ml for now. Two sprays is a dose, not a suggestion, and in July one. These are rules from character, not longevity figures in hours. For how we build an interpretation of a house that publishes no notes, our explainer on what inspired perfumes are covers the method.
Frequently Asked Questions
By UAE search, Terroni, the 2017 volcanic-earth parfum with a gun metal and volcanic stone cap, is the one people look for by name, and it is the most approachable of the line. Megamare, from 2019, is the sea pushed to a level reviewers call one of the most forceful aquatics in perfumery, and Cuoium, from 2021, is the leather, built around Alessandro Gualtieri's grandfather's single pair of handmade shoes. All ten Orto Parisi fragrances are 50 ml parfums at AED 751 at Ounass. MOJ interprets those three in the UAE from AED 37.
Because the founder refuses to. Orto Parisi's product pages carry a few sentences of prose and no note list for any fragrance, and Alessandro Gualtieri, who also founded Nasomatto, has said in interviews that he does not reveal the ingredients. The pyramids printed by retailers and databases for Terroni, Megamare or Cuoium are their own readings of the bottle, not the house's, and the same is true of the pyramids on MOJ's product pages, which describe MOJ's own compositions.
AED 751 for the 50 ml parfum, flat across the line, on Ounass product pages, with Bloomingdale's matching it; Faces stocks Nasomatto but not Orto Parisi, and the house's own site prices in euros and does not sell into the UAE. There is no 30 ml or 100 ml. Bergamask is not stocked by any approved UAE retailer. MOJ's Terroni is AED 37 for 30 ml and AED 88 for 100 ml; Cuoium and Megamare M are AED 48 and 59 for the smallest available sizes and AED 109 for 100 ml.
The Italian perfumer behind Nasomatto, the Amsterdam house known in the Gulf for Black Afgano, and the founder in 2014 of Orto Parisi, a second line named after the vegetable garden of his grandfather Vincenzo Parisi, a shoemaker from Puglia. The line is independent, run from Amsterdam and made in Italy; every fragrance is a 50 ml parfum with a cap made of a material chosen for the story, gun metal and volcanic stone for Terroni, corroded silver and a Haitian shell for Megamare, rusted metal and leather for Cuoium.
Terrone is the word northern Italians have used for southerners, from terra, the land, with a classist origin; an Italian court recognised it as discriminatory in 2005, and southerners have since used it with irony. Alessandro Gualtieri, whose family comes from Puglia, put it on a 2017 parfum about roots and volcanic soil, with a cap of tumbled gun metal and volcanic stone that the house says represents the beginning of the Earth. Retailers read the scent as birch smoke, amber and guaiac under raspberry. MOJ's Terroni follows that reading from AED 37.
