Giovanni Festa was born in Naples in 1964 and founded the cosmetics company Galeno Officine Cosmetiche there in 1990. In 2010 he composed a collection of four fragrances for a Canadian designer. In 2017 he started Aulentissima, his own perfume house, and opened its first atelier in Naples in 2019. He is its creative director and its nose.
His perfumes start from places and remembered moments. Aulentissima Capodimonte goes back to the woods on the Naples hill of that name, with honeysuckle and cut grass over vetiver, cypress, fir and oakmoss. Aulentissima Sull'Onda sets salt, mimosa and watermelon against papyrus and amber. Osang, which he made for Mendittorosa, reached the finals of the 2018 Art and Olfaction Awards. Aulentissima now has three ateliers across Campania and Venice, the Venetian one in the San Marco district since 2025.
For the Romanian artist Adi ale Van he has composed seven extraits, among them Deceneu, Odaie, Glie, Perseide and The Book of Wisdom. Adi ale Van Coliva takes its name from the wheat offering carried to Orthodox churches for a saint's day, a name day or the dead, and layers liquorice, cocoa and baked bread over labdanum, butter and vanilla. Adi ale Van Diamonitirion is named after the permit needed to enter Mount Athos, and pairs opoponax, olibanum and myrrh with candles and old books over amber.
