Marc-Antoine Corticchiato is owner, sole perfumer, and a doctor of chemistry all in one — and he reads history through the nose. His house Parfum d’Empire, founded in 2003, is devoted to the great empires and the figures who shaped them: Tsarist Russia in Ambre Russe, the Ottoman Empire in Cuir Ottoman, his native Corsica in Corsica Furiosa. Raised between Corsica and the orange groves of Morocco, he composes lavish, characterful scents from fine raw materials — against everything tame and standardized. Empires in a bottle.