Borsari 1870
The Parma violet, kept in production since 1870.
Borsari 1870 is the Parma perfumery founded by Ludovico Borsari, who began producing fragrances in his hometown the same year he opened his shop. The house's identity rests almost entirely on a single composition: Violetta di Parma, a powdery violet soliflore based on a recipe associated with Marie Louise of Habsburg, the Napoleonic-era Duchess of Parma whose love of the flower had it planted across the city's gardens. The house still produces the original Violetta and a citrus-eau-de-cologne companion, Acqua Classica, alongside small extensions. Borsari is essentially a heritage soliflore brand — useful as a reference point for anyone studying violet accords or nineteenth-century Italian perfumery, and a reminder that Parma, not just Florence or Grasse, was a meaningful European fragrance centre. Distribution is mostly Italian and specialist.
DNA over time
Each column is an era. Each colored band shows that family’s share of accord weight across every perfume the house released in that window. Bigger band = the house leaned harder on that family.
