Fragrance house

Mona di Orio

Mona di Orio was founded in 2004 by perfumer Mona di Orio and designer Jeroen Oude Sogtoen, whose partnership divided the house’s creative work between fragrance creation and visual and design direction. Before establishing the maison, Mona di Orio trained in classical perfumery with Edmond Roudnitska for six years and worked closely with him for 15 years. The house introduced Lux, Carnation, and Nuit Noire in its founding year, and in 2010 launched Les Nombres D’Or, a collection exploring classical accords through close attention to ingredients and proportion. Its olfactory language is built around contrasts of light and dark—an approach described as olfactory chiaroscuro—with inspiration drawn from light, nature, art, and classical perfumery. After Mona di Orio died during surgery in 2011 at age 42, Oude Sogtoen continued to lead the brand, relaunching the Signature Collection and developing subsequent creative work. Oudh Osmanthus is identified as the house’s consistently best-selling fragrance. In November 2024, the brand was reported to be ending permanently.