Botanicae

Botanicae, which presents itself as Botanicae Expressions, is a Spanish artisan perfume house based in Beniaján, in the Region of Murcia. It is operated by Creaciones de Perfumería Atelier, S.L.U. [5] and builds its identity around the idea of an "olfactory travel diary" — each fragrance is meant to encode a specific place and moment, summed up in the brand's tagline, "A destination in every bottle." The house designs its scents without gender distinction and frames its pricing as a deliberate alternative to ultra-luxury perfumery.

The brand's founding date is recorded inconsistently on its own website. Botanicae's about-us page states that its founders entered the fragrance industry in 2012, and some references treat that year as the brand's start [2]. The same page, however, describes the company being "born" only after the founders "returned to the Mediterranean" at the end of 2018, which places the launch of Botanicae Expressions in 2019 [2]; editorial coverage similarly dates the brand to 2019. The 2012 date is best understood as the start of the founders' careers in fragrance rather than the founding of the brand itself.

According to the company, Botanicae was started by travellers and entrepreneurs who spent years working in the fragrance trade across the Middle East and beyond — citing experience with brands in the Emirates, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Lebanon, India and Pakistan, as well as East Africa and South Asia — before returning to Spain to set up their own house [2]. The founders are not named publicly; the brand describes them only in general terms and keeps individual identities out of its materials.

That travel history feeds directly into the product concept. The company says each fragrance is "based on a specific moment and place," and the catalogue is organised around named destinations and memories, drawing on cities such as Havana, San Sebastián (Donostia), Peniche, Beirut and Essaouira, and the Shomal region of northern Iran.

Botanicae positions itself as artisan, sustainability-minded perfumery sold at what it calls honest prices — a stance it presents as making "artistic perfumery" accessible without "ultra-luxury" barriers. The company says it believes in "diversity and unique personalities," designs its fragrances for "people" rather than for a gender, and views "brands as engines of change." Standard fragrances are priced roughly in the 50–85 euro range, with a premium Elixir line around 140 euros.

The brand also makes a set of ethics claims: it describes its formulas as vegan-suitable, with no animal-derived ingredients, and cruelty-free, with no animal testing, and says it uses recyclable and dual-use packaging. Production is based in Murcia. The company has acknowledged EU support for its digital and e-commerce expansion, including the Eurodyssey programme and the European Regional Development Fund.

The range spans eau de parfum, a more concentrated eau de toilette intense, and the top-tier Elixir line, alongside home fragrances and discovery sets. Named scents include Matin a Mogador, built around a Moroccan medina theme, and Flower Café, a coffee-tinged fragrance tied to Beirut [9]. The Swan, an Elixir released in 2025, is presented as a tribute to the ballerina Anna Pavlova, pairing green mandarin and immortelle with cedarwood, amber, white musk and vanilla. Other fragrances cited in coverage include Meraki, Ebano and Noa Noa, the last released in 2023 [13].

Much of the line is attributed to the Bulgarian perfumer Miroslav Petkov, who relocated to Spain; he is documented as the nose behind both Saudade and The Swan [10]. In 2021, during the pandemic, the company created a collection themed not only around places but around shared values such as family, friendship and gatherings in nature [12].

Botanicae has been covered by the fragrance publication Fragrantica, including editorial features in 2022 and 2023 on its place-as-perfume concept and its pandemic-era collection [15]. Reception has been mixed: aggregated Fragrantica ratings average around 7.2 out of 10 across several hundred user reviews, while editorial commentary has noted that, despite well-liked scents such as Meraki, the house is not regarded as a projection-heavy line and that some reviewers find its fragrances close to the skin and short on distinctiveness [8].

In 2025, Fragrantica published a critical column headed "PITTI FRAGRANZE 2025: Botanicae Saudade — Clumsy Cultural Appropriation," which framed the naming and concept of the Saudade fragrance, presented at the Pitti Fragranze trade fair in Florence, as a problematic instance of cultural appropriation [14]. The piece was an editorial critique rather than a formal complaint or regulatory action.

Botanicae is active. It launched new fragrances in 2025, including Saudade and The Swan, appeared at Pitti Fragranze 2025, and continues to publish on its blog, with the most recent post dated April 2026. The company sells directly through its own site and ships worldwide, and its fragrances are also carried by a number of third-party retailers internationally.