Like the discovery of a hidden treasure chest hiding a precious secret, Aquaflor surges inside a Renaissance historical building in the heart of Florence. An exclusive journey is consecrated within these walls, where made to measure perfume finds its oasis and reveals itself in a thousand square metres of lab, shop and obscure basements.

 

Known for being the cradle of culture and internationality, Florence and its longstanding traditions are in fact the keystone thanks to which the art of perfumery caught on an aesthetic connotation. Florentine perfumery exists from earlier than the Renaissance for its curative functions, finding success amongst nobles in French and European courts with Catherine de’ Medici.

Inside the artisanal boutique, a perfumer-explorer blends rare and natural raw materials, essences, and fragrances into a totally personal and personalized symphonic alchemy. It is Master Sileno Cheloni, undergoing the ‘Perfumer’s Ritual’ with his collection gathered from the most remote corners of the world: from French perfumery, to Arab and North African perfumery to a more Oriental one.

 

 

 

The experience that awaits for you beyond Aquaflor’s doors in Sileno’s company, is a sort of fascinating mystical and multisensory pilgrimage within yourself. A suggestive and almost esoteric quest, between aesthetics, spirituality and intriguing mystery.

 

 

Through the enchanting union of fragrances and essences, a magical fusion of places, memories, emotions and perceptions occurs, delicately revealing your personality. As if it were a means of connection to the divine given by the lightness of its immateriality.

 

 

In the Essence Parlour (Salotto delle Essenze), more than 1500 refined raw scents are safeguarded in bottles and containers exposed on elegant shelves, solid wooden counters and glass windows.

 

 

Cherished ingredients are brought back to the memory as the result of an olfactory excursus, such as the incense of Oman, the Taif rose, the Mysore sandalwood, the Iris Florentina extract. The packaging is also special, customized with name initials. 

 

 

 

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WHY
why and how did you end up in your career path?
While I was onto another path. I was following Sufi spiritual research and had met a Master that I later went to visit in Cyprus. In that moment I enter a sort of Ashram, or Temple, and I’m overwhelmed by the world of smells. I understand that in Sufism there’s an ecstatic journey, in search of ecstasy, where perfume plays an important role. I’m captured by this perfume-world. And you know, when you are ready to open your vision wider, you sit at the window for a while to see what happens.
I’m brought back to the passion of my youth, at the age of 17/18, when I used to go to France and buy perfume bottles. But then, like many other passions it faded, it didn’t seem to bear a real job opportunity. I continued in art and design, until that day, where I’m brought back to this world.
During that travel to Cyprus I get to know a perfumery master, and I begin to move my heart in that direction. I returned home with the essences I bought there, and started to create my first perfume, I’d been told how to make it.
At the end of this first experimentation, I felt the perception of the immateriality of lightness; I used to paint and do activities where physics generated the transformation of matter. An immateriality that strikes me, that has its own creativity and a way of expressing it. I thought: “I want this to be my work”. I didn’t have a clue how to go about it. Then passion opens doors: lots of research, meetings that become working situations, business partners, synergies. It’s a bit like the concept of a snowball; when an avalanche goes downhill it becomes bigger and bigger.

WHO
how would you describe yourself in a few words?
Like my colour: placid blue. My religion is either black or white, in products and my clothes, but placid blue is the colour of a gloomy sky. A little bit like how I feel. Not gloomy for the colour of the sky, but because it seems pensive, just the way I am, always in my thoughts. Sometimes I find myself lonely in healthy solitude, isolated. I’m pretty much inside myself, introverted, even though my work has to do with people and I have to express myself. But in my private life I’d say placid blue.  

WHAT
what is your source of inspiration?
It’s always attention. Attention towards others. I’m passionate about people’s lives, I like to know what a person does, thinks, sees… that’s true enrichment. When I make a made to measure perfume, it’s like an encounter with a person, where skill and know-how help interpret others. In that moment I have to disappear and understand what the person wants and how they want it, comprehend the olfactive memories they associate essences to. I learn a lot by that; I create and search for harmonies that remain tied to me; it’s the experience of others pouring into you. You have to destroy your ego and put it aside to understand the other person: that’s an inspiration because you learn things that will serve you and your creativity.

WHERE
where do you go to when you need a break?
During my work break I usually go to Rinascente (department store). I work on extreme niche products, closed in itself and with direct sale. It’s an extreme selection of essences, perfumes and customers. Going to a department store relaxes me and makes me understand many things; what the majority of people like and why. It sparks reflections in me.
In my private life I go at sea.

WHEN
when and what will your next steps be?
One of my characteristics is to move ahead and never stop. I can’t, it’s not in my nature. Trying to move forward for what tomorrow will bring. I’m already hypothesizing the end of my employment, where I’ll be when things will change.
We live in a historical moment where everything is impermanent, so we have to find – as Battiato says – our permanent center of gravity. Think up of something taking out who you are now or what you have today. It’s a way of deserving what you have but also not to remain with nothing. Think about who I am outside of all this. My boutique, my world, my lab is all here. But there’s a world out there that I depend on workwise; the essences, the raw materials, where they’re found, where they’re made, so the next step I’m thinking about is to go in that direction and bring all of this to people’s knowledge.
Up until now I’ve brought people here for an interior experience, now I’d like to propose an external experience to these same people. There’s great curiosity in people to know more. For example, the Taif rose grows in Saudi Arabia, but nobody knows where it is, what it looks like, who the people living there are, how to get there, who you’ll meet on the way there. I want people to experience this part of the process.

**WILDCARD
if you were to create a fragrance of your personality, what smells would you necessarily include?
I have an incredible love for the smell of roses. I’m in love with rose essential oil and always travel with the pure essential oil. It’s a way to find myself again and my memories are recalled by the purity of this essential oil.
I’d like to keep searching for the best version of this essential oil. For Dante it was the smell of paradise. Many religious traditions associate it to sanctity, a spiritual means of reaching a specific state of being. In the Western world it’s a bit misinterpreted because it’s identified as a female scent. The real rose has nothing to do with the smell of rose perfumes.
I wouldn’t want any accord… luckily I still haven’t found this perfume yet. I’ve created many personalized perfumes, which have become part of the Aquaflor collection, but the fact that I haven’t found my “forever” yet brings me to constantly keep searching. Accepting the changes of life and welcoming them inspires you for something new.. so, going back to your question on inspiration, life, be it good or bad, is what inspires.