There’s a new mystery on the perfume scene, a fragrance called Aeon 001. It’s an eau de parfum that is described as an “experimental” vetiver and it was made by a famous perfumer whose name will be kept secret until the limited number of bottles have all been sold. I’m not a huge vetiver lover but I’m a sucker for a mystery, particularly one that is said to involve resins, spices, and white flowers, so I ordered a sample.
“Ethereal” by Spinella Art. (Direct website link embedded within.)
Many parts of Aeon 001 made me nod appreciatively and smile. It merged several perfume genres and families, glimmered with complexity, and was far from the hardcore vetiver soliflore that I had expected. At one point, it was primarily a modern animalic chypre in the vein of Bogue‘s stellar Maai, albeit a tame, baby cousin to that scent. At another stage, it was a vetiver leather oriental. At all times, though, and from the very first sniff, I thought that Aeon 001 bore the inimitable style of Bertrand Duchaufour at his best, from the use of one of his favorite notes to his trademark style of creating perfumes with paradoxical bold airiness or impactful, dense lightness.
Aeon 001 via aeonperfume.com
Aeon is a new perfume house out of Lichtenstein. According to its website, its goal is
to collaborate with perfumers, artists and adventurous minds around the globe to deliver with every scent an entirely new universe of chemically driven emotions The perfumer behind each fragrance will be revealed when the following fragrance/project will start. Each fragrance will be available in only 333 pieces, carefully crafted and bottled to meet 333 sublime souls.
If Aeon is silent about the perfumer’s name for now, it does offer a handful of details about the scent. It’s an “experimental” vetiver that challenges perceptions of the note by “blending it with white flowers, smoke and spices together with a translucent layer of glowing resins.” The result is supposedly a “perfume without compromises, a world where light merges into darkness and gravity floats over time.” I confess I rolled my eyes so hard at that last part, they almost fell out.
Aeon 001 via Luckyscent.
On the other hand, I find myself intrigued by the look of the bottle which I think looks great in the top photo and not so great in the more realistic one to the right. Apparently, it was designed to hold its juice as a floating inner core or, to use Aeon’s verbiage, “a liquid gem suspended in the air ready to awake all the senses. Air is replacing thickness and lightness is fighting with darkness to sublimate in pleasure.” Hmph. If you ask me, official company descriptions should not read like they were written by someone who admires the turgid “writing” style (and I use that term loosely) of 50 Shades of Grey. I’m surprised the perfume and its bottle don’t also cure cancer, create world peace, and open portals into new dimensions of space and time.
Source: creativity103.com
The bloviating text notwithstanding, Aeon 001 is a good perfume that grabbed my attention from its opening notes. Against a backdrop of green, bergamot flashes like a glowing bolt of bright yellow, smelling like a tart, tangy, barely sweetened, dense lemon curd. It’s followed by a cascade of red that evokes mulled wine made from an expensive burgundy mixed with spices, tart cassis (black currant) concentrate, and cranberries.
To me, cassis has slowly become one of Bertrand Duchaufour’s trademarks, and it’s quite complex here. I loved how it initially smells of both fresh, tart cranberries and that glowing bergamot lemon curd as well. But he must have used a particularly large quantity of black currant bud absolute because the fruit also emanates wave upon wave of animalic muskiness. When I applied a moderate amount of the fragrance, the cassis has a sort of ripeness that resembles feline, civet-y urinousness. With a lesser amount, the equivalent of 1.5 to 2 small sprays from a bottle, it was tamer, softer, and merely a mild animalic muskiness that was smudged at the edges with a piquant leafiness.
Source: 10wallpaper.com
The super-saturated, almost neon or 3D intensity of the bergamot and cranberry-ish cassis is so forceful that it almost obscures the vetiver in the opening minutes. Almost, but not quite. The main note weaves in and out of everything, typing them all together, in addition to being a shimmery wall in the background. What surprises me is how bright it feels. I had expected the vetiver to be something dark, rooty, earthy, or smoky like the one in Sycomore, but it opens as a bright emerald-green that feels practically mossy. In fact, there is an overwhelming sense of verdant lushness — plushness, even — rather than either the brooding vetiver of Sycomore or the grey mineralised sort of Terre d’Hermes.
What I’m happiest about is that none of it smells minty, at least not at this point. My skin chemistry has the unfortunate tendency to turn vetiver into mint in 8 out of 10 things, and also to amplify that blasted aroma above almost everything else. It’s a big reason why I have issues with vetiver, even when the mint version also manifests a bourbon booziness like in Oriza‘s Vetiver Royal Bourbon. Here, there is no mint for the first two hours but the vetiver does have a subtle boozy nuance, although it’s far outweighed by the sense of mulled wine splashing crimson over an emerald backdrop as flashes of electrically bright yellow bergamot/lemon and blood-red cassis/cranberry burst across the sky.
Photo: my own.
These glowing, super-concentrated, almost photo-realistic bursts of scent and colour are something that I’ve noticed frequently in Duchaufour creations. Think about the almost neon, 3D neroli in his Pichola for Neela Vermeire, the radiant yellows of his Ostara daffodils, the mouth-puckering tartness of the green mango in NVC’s Bombay Bling, and the crimson cassis in his Enchanted Forest for the Vagabond Prince. It’s become a signature just as much as his brilliant mastery of contrasts in both scent and weight.
Duchaufour fragrances always manifest what one of my readers, Tim, once called something like “hefty weightlessness,” and it’s noticeable here, too. Aeon 001 is incredibly strong in both the saturated richness of its individual notes and in the strength of the bouquet as a whole. That strength also extends to the sillage, at least in the first few hours, as Aeon 001 shoots out its rays of yellow, green, and crimson all around me, enveloping me in a cloud that extends about 7 inches from my body. And yet, and yet… it’s a soft cloud in weight; the aromas float about like downy feathers, almost as light as a powder puff. This paradox of dense lightness is not only typical of Duchaufour but of Aeon 001 itself for most of its life on my skin. It’s a strong, saturated, seemingly dense radiance that lasts forever, but it feels like a feather-soft cocoon that wraps itself around you gently.
Source: 10wallpaper.com
Two of the things that I admire about the perfumer’s approach to Aeon 001 are his sleight of hand with materials and how he flirts with seemingly inopposite ideas. He’s created a fruit and citrus orchard version of vetiver for the first hour, but it is also a mossy vetiver that is actually something else entirely. It’s really a tuberose-vetiver that he’s manipulated through a sleight of hand. To those of you who are phobic about tuberose, don’t recoil and run away just yet. This is a tuberose that is redolent of plush, fresh oakmoss and vintage chypres just like the one in Bogue‘s wonderful Maai. Plus, for Aeon 001’s first 30 minutes, there is nary a whiff of floralcy on my skin. That’s partially because few things could stand up to that wonderful barrage of lemon/bergamot and cassis, and partially because the tuberose has been manipulated to bring out its green, mossy side. The result is to drown out the floralcy (for now at least) under a chypre-like structure.
I think it’s all part of a larger plan because the tuberose is only one of the ways in which Aeon 001 crosses fragrance genres across the course of its development. As I said at the start, this is actually not a true vetiver soliflore as one might initially expect from the company’s description. Instead, Aeon 001 is a fruity vetiver, an old-school chypre, an animalic musky vetiver-leather, and an ambered oriental, all wrapped up into one.
Photo: Kristy Mitchell Photography at her website. (Direct link embedded within.)
The first hour is all about the citrus fruits set against the backdrop of a vetiver that’s been manipulated (through the tuberose) to appear as verdant lushness, but Aeon 001 changes direction at the start of the second hour. The bergamot-lemon pipes down several notches, and starts to make its way to the sidelines. The cassis loses its cranberry facade, quietens its urinous side, but amps up its muskiness. It curls up against the vetiver, rubbing its musky body against the greenness like a cat. Meanwhile, the tuberose rears her head up from underneath the vetiver and says hello. She waves an arm, softly wafting a green-white floralcy, but most of her body remains a mass of Maai-style mossiness that is fully fused with the vetiver atop her.
At the same time, signs of new life awaken and stir deep in the ground below them: resins. Running like thick veins of darkened ores, they waft a quiet smokiness as well as a sticky, tarry leatheriness. Unlike some fragrances that use abrasive wood-smoke synthetics or aggressively phenolic, creosote-like tar to create the impression of “leather,” the aroma here is merely a by-product of sticky, spiced resins. Styrax and balsams (Tolu or Peru) are supplemented by labdanum which starts to emerge at this time as a plush warmth descends upon the notes.
“Eir 46” by Kattvinge on Deviant Art. (Direct website link embedded within.)
Roughly 75 minutes into its development, Aeon 001 walks away from the orchard and steps fully into Maai territory. To be precise, it becomes the vetiver baby cousin to Maai, but it’s gentle in its animalics in comparison, wafting a mere muskiness rather than anything resembling the feral howl of Maai’s opening stage. There is nothing heavily urinous here, nothing smelling like hyraceum mixed with civet, and absolutely zero hint of anything barnyard or fecal in nature. On my skin, it’s merely a quietly animalic fuzziness enveloped by larger waves of soft, dark muskiness. Think of Maai in its middle stage rather than its opening, then think of a toned-down baby version of that animalic muskiness, now add in fruity cassis and vetiver to accompany the (tuberose) mossiness, quiet smokiness, sticky resins, and soft warmth, and you’d get Aeon 001 at the stage it is now.
It is also at this point that Aeon 001’s tuberose finally shows more of her floral face instead of smelling purely of chypre-like greenness. Let me reassure you that the flower here bears no resemblance to the demonized tuberose-tuberose-tuberose of fragrances like Fracas. It also does not resemble the camphorated, mentholated version of such deconstructed tuberoses as Serge Lutens’ Tubereuse Criminelle. This is a different sort of tuberose entirely, one that wafts a soft, non-indolic, white-green freshness that only barely hints at the flower behind it, a flower that is a mere bud rather than a ripe, lush, indolic, heady tuberose in full bloom. Moreover, if one were to break down the aroma into its parts, I’d calculate that 75% of the note still smells purely of mossy greenness, while 20% now consists of an abstract, impressionistic “tuberose,” and 5% is a sort of sappy milkiness, rather like the liquid that seeps out of a cut in the plants stalk. So I hope that helps some of you.
The “baby Maai,” fruity vetiver-chypre bouquet is Aeon 001’s second stage that begins about 75 minutes into its development and lasts roughly until the third stage kicks in around the 2.5 hour mark. At that point, the fragrance transitions to more of a chypre-leather hybrid. Over time, the smokiness and ambered warmth have grown more prominent as the resins seeped up from the base. They emerge fully now, stroking the vetiver with fat sticky fingers of golden darkness, smearing the tuberose’s mossiness, muffling even further its demure floralcy, and taking turns waltzing with the fruit and musk accords. Their movements send out sparks of spiciness, smokiness, and a darkened warmth. Aeon 001 is now primarily a green-black, resinously leathery vetiver that is thinly lacquered with a crimson smear of tart cassis, licked at the edges by a rather gossamer and impressionistic “tuberose” floralcy, then placed atop of a bed of mossy greenness before being enveloped by a heavy blanket of ambered muskiness.
“Be Together By Kredart” by Serg Wiaderny on Fine Art America. (Direct website link embedded within.)
This third stage is an interesting one that reminds me of several other fragrances. It feels like a cross between Maai’s baby cousin and Anatole Lebreton‘s multi-faceted L’Eau Scandaleuse which, in and of itself, referenced several other fragrances, most notably Germaine Cellier‘s vintage Bandit. L’Eau Scandaleuse combined fruity florals and classic chypres with Bandit-style galbanum leathery-vetiver and tuberose leather, although its core essence was really about Bandit and smoky green-black vetiver. There’s a lot of that going on here, but there are differences, too: Aeon 001 is warmer; it doesn’t have the cold steely edge of galbanum (shudder); its smokiness is more moderate and also not as sharp; the vetiver is smoother, more rounded, and a hair better quality; the fruitiness is completely different; and, finally, there is the whole Maai factor. Like L’Eau Scandaleuse, Aeon 001 also morphs into a resinous, leathery vetiver with some tuberose floralcy, but the Aeon is much smoother, more approachable, and milder than the Lebreton fragrance. I struggled with the latter’s sharpness and Bandit-like butch toughness, but I never did so with the Aeon.
In Aeon 001, the chypre elements are almost co-equal with the fruity leather-vetiver elements in the third stage, but the balance is slowly shifting as the fragrance begins, inch by inch, to move away from the chypre territory into the resinously leathery vetiver one. That change comes to a head in the 4th stage that takes place about 5 hours into Aeon 001’s development when the vetiver blooms and briefly becomes the star of the show. It’s backed by the fruity, musky, animalic, smoky, and deeply resinous elements, but they are layered in varying proportions into the main note. The cassis is so fused within the vetiver that it’s quite subtle at times. When you look at the vetiver itself, separate from its companions, it’s different, too. From a bright, fresh, emerald-green plushness, it’s changed into something that is dark, almost earthy, and a bit woody. It’s probably because the mossy greenness is weakening and turning more diffuse, in large part because the tuberose that triggered its rich depth is now a ghost in the background. Unfortunately for me, the personal quirk of my skin chemistry has finally brought out the vetiver’s minty side as well (and in heaps), but that’s obviously not something that most people experience.
“Flames of Love By Kredart” by Serg Wiaderny on Fine Art America. (Direct website link embedded within.)
My favorite part of Aeon 001 takes place at the top of the 8th hour in what you might classify as either its 5th stage, the main stage, or the first half of its long, long drydown. Regardless of how you carve up the periods, this is the perfume’s most appealing part to me not so much because it’s gentler (and the tamest version of the vetiver yet), but because I think the bouquet as a whole is damn sexy. In essence, the balance of notes has now tipped towards musky, ambered leather far more than the vetiver. It’s such wonderfully soft, sophisticated, snuggly leather, too, imbued with the sort of sexy muskiness and “heated skin” warmth that marked the beautiful drydown phase in Papillon‘s Salome.
Aeon’s vetiver is still there and it’s still dark, but the resins that created this sense of “leather” no longer smolder with such blackened intensity. Now, the smokiness is more of an undercurrent. As the dark elements weaken, it impacts and changes the vetiver, rendering it softer, lighter, almost grassy at times. It continues to bear a lingering hint of mossiness and earthiness, but this is a supple, almost suede-like vetiver as compared to what it once was, and it’s extremely sheer or diffuse in body.
As a whole, Aeon 001 is now primarily centered on a richly burnished, oiled leather that is warm, refined, and quietly spiced. It’s thinly lacquered with a smear of red fruitiness; layered with strands of lightly smoked, grassy, earthy and mossy vetiver; and smudged at the edges with the lightest tuberose floralcy. The whole thing is then enveloped within a warm, dark-gold cocoon of soft resins and muskiness. The latter smells more like heated skin some hours after you’ve indulged in carnal pleasures rather than anything truly, properly, or heavily animalic. It adds sexiness, warmth, and snuggly coziness to what is otherwise a very elegant, polished, and sophisticated scent. And, best of all, the whole thing goes on for hours.
“Everything Burns” by Andy Gray on Flickr. (Direct website link embedded within.)
Aeon 001 lasts for a very long time on my skin, and this final or main stage spans the 8th hour almost until the fragrance’s end. The bouquet merely turns softer, sheerer, and hazier over time. It goes from being a lightly spiced, delicately sweetened fruity leather with greenness, muskiness, and ambered resinous warmth to being a golden blur of muskiness, resins, and warmth with only a faint undercurrent of something vaguely leathery. In its final hours, all that’s left is a soft, musky, skin-like quality.
Aeon 001 had superb longevity, average projection, and initially strong sillage that bore a paradoxical powerful softness. Using several generous smears equal to 2 good sprays from an actual bottle, the fragrance opened with about 4 inches of projection but about 7-8 inches of sillage that felt stronger than the rough numbers. After 2 hours, the projection dropped to about 2.5 inches while the sillage was about 5 inches, though the scent wafted about noticeably whenever I moved my arms. Aeon 001 became a skin scent after 8.75 hours, but it was still easy to detect up close without major effort until the 15th hour. At that point, Aeon 001 became the merest coating on the skin. Still, it clung on tenaciously, and I could smell the scent on small patches of skin until almost the 22nd hour. When I applied a smaller quantity of scent to my other arm, somewhere between 1 to 1.5 small sprays, Aeon 001 still lasted a good 16 hours.
Aeon 001 was released quite recently so I haven’t found much discussion on the scent to provide you with comparative analysis or opinions. For the moment, neither Aeon the brand nor Aeon the perfume have entry pages on Fragrantica and Basenotes. However, there is a Basenotes discussion thread that includes three different takes on the scent starting about 20 posts downs. Early reaction is mixed with two of the three comments being negative about the scent and its price.
“Fire Storm” by Marina Petro. Source: marinapetro.blogspot.com
For “The Beck,” Aeon 001 was a huge disappointment because it smelt almost entirely of labdanum amber instead of vetiver on his skin. He thought the scent wasn’t as good as the look of its bottle, and that the fragrance was over-priced for what it was. His review is long, but I think his experience is an important one for you to know. He writes, in large part, as follows:
To my nose this is all about labdanum. It’s only slightly smokey which is a plus. The florals tame it down just right for a very nice blend. I ordered two samples and will enjoy them for what they’re worth, but owning a bottle or even a decant doesn’t interest me.
The bottle is outstanding, and […] I think if the scent was constructed to match the bottle, we would have a near masterpiece. Maybe that should have been the brief – MAKE THIS SCENT SMELL AS GOOD AS THIS BOTTLE LOOKS!
That’s what happening here. You see that fantastic bottle and you want it to smell great. You try and convince yourself it’s great, but in the end it’s just another nice amber scent with a price tag that doesn’t match the contents. I think most of you know I don’t hesitate to spend $600.00 on a scent I feel is something I can’t live without, so in the end it’s not about the cost that turns me off – it’s the high cost for just ordinary juice that bothers me.
I only get vetiver in the top notes, not in the heart or base notes. If there is vetiver there, it’s barely perceivable. After 20 minutes in I get tons of amber and the amber persists until the end.
THIS IS AN AMBER SCENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! – to my nose anyway… [Emphasis from him and in the original.]
In contrast, “Dorje” didn’t find Aeon 001 to be an amber scent and really seems to like it, despite finding the fragrance to be quite synthetic in nature, though “not in a bad way.” In his opinion, there were similarities to Eau Sauvage, Bruno Fazzolari‘s Lampblack, and some of Antoine Lie’s Etat Libre creations. His analysis goes beyond several posts and is too long for me to quote in full, but I’ll share one part so you see the differences in perspective and then you can read his full analysis later for yourself. Please note that the emphasis below is from him, not me:
Photo: My own.
this is definitely NOT an amber scent on my skin. It’s there for sure, labdanum along with some lemony frankincense. I think there’s also bergamot and lemon, but it’s hard to say as frankincense can also smell like this and the citrus lasts a long time. Probably both, with the citrus fading relatively quickly and the lemony aspect of frankincense lingering on.
On me, this is an ever-changing fragrance that seems different from moment to moment. I would call it a Vetiver fragrance, vetiver is the core, the heart of the fragrance with everything else complimentary to it, so in that way it is very vetiver-centric although the different facets continually shift one’s focus from one aspect of the vetiver’s character to another. One might pick up a green grassy citrus, or smoky white florals, at times I noticed the salty/earthy aspects of vetiver. The amber note is ever-present so I can see how thebeck could see it as an amber, but for me, it’s in the background and acting as a base while the vetiver, citrus, smoke and white florals are the heart. There is also a musk in here, fairly subtle and only slightly animalic. Not a white laundry musk but not too dirty either.
On feel or vibe, this has a lightness to it that is reminiscent of Eau Sauvage, with an overdose of hedione creating that indolic, watery feel. But the amber gives it more body and the oakmoss is replaced by vetiver. I’d also consider this similar in feel to some of Etat Libre d’Orange and Bruno Fazzolari fragrances. In fact, the vetiver here, and the entire fragrance is also reminiscent of Lampblack. This is a lot like a summery version of Lampblack, instead of Lampblack’s darkness you get summery, bright frankincense/citrus and white floral notes. [snip]
A third commentator, “Alfredo 86” seems to have disliked Aeon 001 quite a bit. He replied to “The Beck” to agree that it was primarily an overpriced “synthetic-smelling amber vetiver.” He wrote:
… I didn’t even enjoy it as much as you did. I tried it yesterday at the Scent Bar. The opening is deceivingly impressive but at the end it turns out to be a synthetic-smelling amber-vetiver with an unpleasant indoor swimming pool accord (albeit with some nice turns and changes that distinguish it from a generic supermarket scent, granted). I wouldn’t wear this if it cost 3 times less, and like thebeck here, I would pay $600 for a fragrance if I thought it was worth it, but this one isn’t. There are other niche fragrances that cost less and blow this one out of the water (think all of the Papillon, many of the Lutens, Bogue‘s Maai…). [Emphasis to other brand names added by me.]
I agree with them in different ways and for different reasons. I absolutely and most definitely agree that Aeon 001 is not a pure, hardcore vetiver fragrance. That is what the company’s copy and description would lead you to believe, but it’s not true. I also agree that the amber plays a big role in the fragrance towards its later stages. As for the price and synthetics, I’ll get to that in a moment.
In my opinion, your expectations and hopes for Aeon 001 will be the key to determining how you feel about the fragrance. If you’re a diehard vetiver lover and that’s what you wanted when you sampled or bought the fragrance, you’re going to be as disappointed as the two Basenoters were. On the other hand, if you’re like me and you’re not gung-ho about having a vetiver, vetiver, vetiver fragrance, and you far prefer amber, animalic chypres, or chypre-oriental-leathery hybrids, then you’re going to be both relieved and happy. I enjoyed Aeon 001 because it was not vetiver soliflore to the max, and because the supposed core note was always infused by other elements. If you’re the same or if you liked any of the fragrances mentioned by me here or by “Dorje” on Basenotes, then I think you may enjoy Aeon 001 quite a bit.
Other factors will also play a role in determining how you feel about the fragrance. Skin chemistry is going to make a major difference as to just how much vetiver there is on your skin, as well as to how much it might be overshadowed by the chypre or oriental elements. Plus, I agree with “Dorje” that Aeon 001 is rather a “kaleidoscopic” scent in which a variety of things swirl around, so the degree to which the vetiver breaks out of their midst to shine will depend not only depend on your skin chemistry, but also on how much of the fragrance you apply.
As for the issue of price, I don’t know if Aeon 001 is “worth it” because I think it’s going to be quite subjective. The fragrance costs $240 or €225 for a 65 ml bottle. Personally, I didn’t find the fragrance to be quite as synthetic as some of the Basenoters. Yes, the animalic musks are synthetic, but they are the same sort that were used in Maai and Salome and both fragrances smell great to me. The vetiver’s synthetic nature wasn’t overt on my skin as it was on others. So, the real issue, in my opinion, is the price as compared to other similar fragrances. Aeon 001 costs more than Maai or Salome, not to mention Anatole Lebreton’s L’Eau Scandaleuse which is only $110 or €90. Is the Aeon 001 worth it? Well, we have to make a full circle back to the issue of expectations, what appears on your skin, and what you really love in terms of notes. If you’re looking for a vetiver baby cousin to Maai or a very longlasting vetiver hybrid, then maybe. It’s going to come down to very personal, individual valuations.
For me, as someone with ambivalent feelings about vetiver, the cost/benefit analysis is clear. The vetiver may be accompanied by other notes, sometimes even buried under them, but there is still more of it than I enjoy in fragrances for my own personal use. As a result, $240 is too much and I’d never buy a bottle. But I thoroughly enjoyed wearing my sample, and may even use up the rest of it.
In short, I strongly recommend trying Aeon 001 if you have even a moderate love for vetiver and if you also fall within one (or more) of the following categories:
- you either loved Bogue’s Maai or would have liked a milder, baby version of it;
- you liked L’Eau Scandaleuse and its tuberose Bandit-leather aspects, but want something smoother and less intense;
- you love animalic chypres, ambered oriental-chypre hybrids, floral leathers, or vetiver orientals.
However, if you’re hoping for a hardcore, solo vetiver, then you may want to consider things carefully. Don’t let the limited availability lure you into blindly buying a bottle.
My ultimate advice to both groups: recalibrate what you expect from Aeon 001, and you might end up enjoying it.
i’ve had aeon for a few weeks now and every wearing gives something new up – dense, complex and really nice to wear. for a vetiver lover like me, its spectrum and shapeshifting is compelling but others who are a bit vet-averse have found it nicely ‘hidden’ – to me that’s real nosey talent …
it was a blind buy based on a friend’s feedback, and a successful one at that 🙂
I’m glad the blind-buy worked out. It can be a risky thing at that price point. Thanks for stopping by to share your experience and thoughts.
Definite must try for me. I love vetiver. But most importantly I can hit check marks on the final three bullet points with a resounding yes! As well as the other comparisons. I Was planning a small sample run at Lucky Scent bc I finally read about Sensual Orchid and was intrigued. I am 85% probably moving this summer to warmer climes and have my nose perked for warmer weather scents. So I’ll try 001, and will take floriental suggestions as well.
Also. I did pick up on Zola’s ongoing challenges. I’m sorry to hear that. Please serve him a watermelon slice as a hello from me.
It’s definitely something that you should try given the fragrances you enjoy. In terms of your Luckyscent order, I hope to cover some of the other new fragrances that they recently received, like the Kemi or Jeroboam line, but it may take me a little while to go through everything and to write about them. I have some Floris and Nobile 1942 samples as well. So you may or may not want to wait, depending on the shipping fee to Canada and how badly you want to try the Aeon.
As for my Teutonic Overlord, he is currently on a diet, but he shall get some extra carrots and celery on your behalf. 😉
I haven’t yet found a vetiver that I could enjoy because of the awful minty tendency, but this one sounds as if it might like me. You have gotten me to try so many things that I wouldn’t have tried otherwise (she says as she sprays self with Gothic I.) It makes me think over your “questions” post, and reflect that two years ago I would have named patchouli as a hate note. Silly me.
I too am a convert to patchouli via Gothic-I !!!! Although today is an Ambre Precieux day.
Gothic 1 helped me become friends with patchouli, too, FeralJasmine. I’m learning to appreciate it and understand its importance in so many fragrances. I love how it can sometimes give a dusty, slightly camphorous feel to some perfumes.
All of you future “Patch Heads” in the making… I’m thoroughly gleeful about that. 😀 😀
Ha! Imdon’t even recall which patch I ended up trying because of you but I.m now a patch head 🙂
Mint? On you, too??! My people!! lol. 😉 😀 Seriously, you are one of the few people I’ve encountered whose skin does the same thing to vetiver, and it makes me feel so much better. I don’t mind it in small doses, but the “mint” usually balloons in such a way that it can even block out some of the more major notes. And it’s incredibly frustrating. Plus, so few people experience that situation that I frequently get strange looks when I say that vetiver turns into mint on me. So, yeah, again, it’s so good to know I’m not alone.
With regard to Aeon 001, the vetiver did turn minty here too but not to the degree of so many other fragrances. I think a major reason why is because the note is always accompanied by or infused with other elements, so they muffle the mint undertone. You might like Aeon 001 because of its vintage feel, but it’s going to depend a lot on what happens with your skin chemistry. As for the patchouli, you made me smile. I’m slowly corrupting you, month by month…. 😛
Hours in, I got a tiny thread of mint in royal vetiver bourbon. More pronounced dependent on temp and quantity applied, but that hint like mint actually added to the scent when it stayed low key. Not when I applied more generously. Still it took hours to show up in both versions and it’s the only vetiver that has done that to me so far…I wonder if it is the type of vetiver, or…
On me, I think pure Haitian vetiver is less likely to turn into quite so much mint, but it’s merely a question of lesser degree and quantity. They all seem to turn quite minty on my skin sooner or later. As for the Oriza, I have the vague recollection that the type of vetiver in it is not Haitian but from Ile de la Reunion or something. Personally, my guess is that vetiver contains some natural molecular compound that is also in mint and that my skin chemistry amplifies that shared molecule.
Thanks for posting. The marketing on this one was really quite astounding, wasn’t it? I had a sample in my cart at luckyscent for a day and a half, before abandoning it. Once the initial curiosity wore off, I was more annoyed by the lack of information than excited by the mystery, especially at the price point. I like to know what’s in my perfume and given my pickiness, a blind purchase with no note or synthetic info is unlikely to work for me! The few comments I found online mentioned quite a lot of synthetics. I didn’t end up sampling the Anatole Lebreton’s for that reason.
I’m still curious, and a little comforted by the fact you think it’s a Duchaufor creation (that gives me a profile), but the comparisons to other scents makes me think it would likely be a gamble for me as to whether I’d like or hate it. I really like vetiver, and loved vintage Eau Sauvage. I had issues with Maai, as you know, and one of my biggest perfume sadnesses this year was that Salome – which was beautiful on the strip – smells of nothing but dirty ashtray on my skin. The transformation is fast, and hard, to the exclusion of almost all other notes. I’ve never had that particular reaction with a perfume before. Regrettably, this is one I have to enjoy on others. As both comparisons are made here, that gives me further pause, though if I were to get the elements that worked for me echoed in Aeon, rather than the ones that did not, it could be great. Hence my note anxiety!
Regardless, given the price and the limited availability, it’s probably better not to fall for it! Looking forward to your reviews in the pipeline. Luckyscent seem to have added a lot to their lineup recently, and I’m grateful in advance for your detailed and honest responses 🙂
Putting aside the grandiose nature of the language, I think mystery marketing like this one tends to go one of two ways. People are intrigued, or people are put off. If the notes had been completely hidden à la Puredistance Black, I would have been put off because, like you, I prefer to know what is actually in the fragrance if I’m going to shell out money for a sample. I don’t like hidden note lists at all. Here, they cleverly skipped that issue by opting for a Lutens’ style of oblique generalisations, although they technically do list some notes which is more than what Serge Lutens typically does for his fragrances. I realise that’s not enough for some people, though. And lord know, a lot of people don’t like how Serge Lutens does it either. LOL.
In terms of the actual scent itself, I honestly can’t figure out what you’d think of it. There are so many variables at play. That said, if you scroll through the latest comments, you’ll see Dorje from Basenotes was kind enough to elaborate on his experiences and, even better for someone like you, he’s shared a note list taken from his bottle of Aeon 001. I think that will give you a better sense of what is in the fragrance and how you’d feel about it as a whole.
I would describe that bottle presentation as “a little bit o’ liquid in a big ole bottle.” I’ll be interested to learn who is the perfumer behind this one.
Me too. If it’s not Duchaufour, I’m stumped. One of the names that’s been suggested is Antoine Lie but this doesn’t feel like one of his fragrances to my nose. I can’t think of anyone whose creative/olfactory style this resembles, but I hope we find out who it is soon.
I’m glad you did a review of Aeon because I’ve been debating whether to sample or pass, but it sounds quite nice therefore I’ll try it.
This could be a fiscally damaging weekend since it is snowing heavily which may induce me to stay under my blankets searching for comfort scents via a sampling blizzard. 😀
The blizzard seems to be intense in a number of parts of the Northeast. Stay in, stay dry, and stay safe, Don!
I stayed all three, Kafka! I can’t wait for warm weather and sunshine. It’s 3°…
Nice review! I can see the relationship to Duchaufour’s style now that you mention it. Not an easy review as it’s so constantly changing and it’s even seemed different from one wearing to another. It took a couple wears just to get a handle on it! It seemed a lot more like Eau Sauvage on the packing slip (big leak!) than it ever did on my skin, which seems strange… But check it out side-by-side with Lampblack and see what you think… to me the vetiver note seems to be the same, and implemented in the same way. Aeon 001 is more complex than Lampblack, but to me they are remarkably similar in many ways. I also have the bottle and lots of ingredients are listed on the label, the florals include geraniol, lavander, ylang and jasmine sambac. Resins include benzoin, frankincense and myrrh. Citrus notes include citronellol, limonene, mandarin orange, bergamot and grapefruit. Musk is musk keytone. There is also iso-e super, which thankfully was used in undetectable amounts.That’s just what’s listed… It does come off as synthetic to me, but I think a lot of that is the unusual juxtaposition of notes, also a signature of Fazzolari’s style. I guess we will find out soon enough! It will be interesting to see how long it takes to sell out. One of my bottles broke in shipping so there are actually 332 bottles now. 🙂
Nice to see you, Dorje, and welcome to the blog. 🙂 It’s been a while since I tried Lampblack but, from what I recall, that fragrance manifested itself quite differently on my skin than the Aeon did. To me, Lampblack was clearly, sharply, and overtly synthetic in a way that the Aeon wasn’t. It was also a significantly smokier scent than the Aeon right from the very start, in addition to being aromatic and fresh, and it had quite a very different smelling sort of citrus accord as well. So, I can definitely see the similarities between Lampblack and Eau Sauvage based on what appeared on my skin, but not between either of those fragrances and the Aeon. My experience tended to skew much more into Maai territory. The vetiver wasn’t really smoky, black, or dark until hours into its development, and I tried the fragrance a few times.
That said, I agree with you that it is quite a “kaleidoscopic” scent. Your use of that word made me smile a bit because it’s one I always use myself to describe this sort of fragrance which gives off a range of glimmers and notes, often varying from one wearing to another. For me, though, the kaleidoscope wasn’t in terms of how the vetiver manifested itself on my skin, but in the strength, prominence and/or nuances of the accompanying elements. I’m not sure if I’m making sense or explaining it properly but it’s been a long day, so my apologies.
When you included the note list, it seems like it was for the Lampblack, right? I’m assuming so, since I didn’t detect any lavender or grapefruit in Aeon 001.
I read on Basenotes about your first bottle breaking/leaking. Luckyscent only got 50 bottles in total from what I read, so I’m glad you got a replacement quickly. I know a few people who bought bottles from there, either blindly or immediately after ordering a sample, so I’ll be interested to know how many are left now.
Yes, I am glad they had another.. sort of. I’m still not 100% sure on keeping it… for the type of fragrance it is, I think it’s one of the best. But it’s not something I’d normally wear. We will see as I use up my sample…
I can see the similarity with Maai, but 001 isn’t as animalic… 001 kinda just hints at it, as you said. I also have a similar experience with the kaleidoscope effect, for me the vetiver is the core of the fragrance with the other notes coming in and out. The opening is very smokey and spicy for me, obscuring the vetiver until it settles down, which it does fairly quickly. After that it’s vetiver with the other notes whirling around it, constantly shifting and moving.
The note list was for Aeon 001, right off the label. I started a thread on BN and posted a photo of the label:
http://www.basenotes.net/threads/417980-2016-Fragrance-Labeling-Requirements
I was wondering if labeling requirements changed, but as one poster pointed out, it could be voluntary inclusion on the label and not required. Some of the listed ingredients surprised me for sure! I also did not recognize lavender until I read the label, it’s so well blended it’s hard to pick out, but I think there may be a good bit of lavender as it’s right near the top of the list.
If you do have a sample of Lampblack give it a shot… I think you’ll be surprised. 🙂 In a side-by-side comparison, it left no doubt to me that 001 is Fazzolari’s work. But I’m quite often wrong and I’m no perfumer! We will see…
What sorts of fragrances do you normally wear? What are some of your favourite genres or notes? I can tell from your various Basenotes comments that we share the same views about ISO E Supercrappy, but what makes Aeon 001 something that you’re a little ambivalent about? (Beyond the synthetics, I mean. I’m talking more about the bouquet as a whole.) You seemed much more enthused initially, but is doubt or ambivalence setting in now for some reason?
I wanted to thank you not only for clarifying the issue of the note list, but for the link to Aeon 001’s list on the label. This is the sort of blog that focuses extensively on the particulars of what’s in a fragrance, and a number of my readers really care about the specific notes, know a lot about raw materials, or experiment with blends of their own. Your list will be immensely helpful to several of them. One person found herself hesitating over Aeon 001 and changed her mind about sampling it because of the note list being cryptic or obscured. Your list is bound to make a difference. So thank you.
As for Lampblack, I’ll do a side-by-side when a free moment opens up in my testing/reviewing schedule, I promise. It may take a while, though, because I have a number of new things to get through, the four new Orlovs, some of the new Kemi line at Luckyscent, and some other new releases, but I will do it and I’ll keep your words in mind. 🙂 I hope you’ll feel free to stop by the blog again, Dorje, because it’s been fun.
Thanks! I know you’re skeptical that it’s anything like Lampblack and you may not find a resemblance to 001, but I’d be interested to see what you think.
There’s a couple things that make me question keeping the bottle… There is a dissonance that causes a bit of tension, which isn’t a bad thing… but I wouldn’t call it a soothing fragrance, it’s more of a wild ride. Also, there are times when the white florals feel a bit more prominent and the citrus becomes a bit powdery… it’s not what I feel comfortable wearing in public. I do find myself wanting to experience it again, so that’s a plus. It really is well done.
My favorites are Puredistance M and Black, MFK’s Absolue Pour le Soir and masculin pluriel. I also have some Arabian style attars and a few bottle of pure oud oil, mostly from Agar Aura but also a few from Sultan Pasha. I like Borneo ouds, rose, ambergris, musk and tobacco notes especially. Also incense and amber fragrances, I have a few of them in different styles.
I tried a couple of Kemis, my first impressions are not good, especially Tempest. Don’t put Tempest on your skin, you’ll regret it if you don’t like iso-e super.
I put Tempest on my skin in an initial test a few days ago and, yes, I regretted it. All 3 of the ones I have are excessively synthetic which I had not anticipated at all. After the hell that was the Jeroboams right at the same time as the Kemis and the Orlovs, I’m feeling rather… bludgeoned by synthetics these days. I’m currently wafting a huge amount of Cedramber right now (from something that is supposed to be a “luxury” creation) and its harshness is driving me nuts.
In a happier vein, Sultan Pasha is great, isn’t he? And M is an exceptional fragrance. One of my favorite leathers, top 2! And APLS is a great scent. Have you tried his Ciel de Gum? It’s my 2nd favourite from MFK. All the rest of them have too much clean white musk for me, a note I loathe as much as ISO E Super and Javanol. Ciel de Gum is also one of his richest scents after APLS, and you can sample it at STC if you’re in the States. Also, if you like honeyed, musky, animalic orientals, I’d suggest giving Peety a sniff if you haven’t already.
With regard to the Aeon, have you experimented with quantity adjustments? Imo, that can frequently impact which notes are highlighted or amplified. Lesser amounts of scent can suppress some of the secondary notes, in my experience. Maybe that will help? If not, then I’d wait until the weather changes. Heat can change the note balance or equation too. I love wearing Coromandel in summer because it makes the patchouli really bloom. Oh, I just had a thought, have you tried layering Lampblack with the Aeon? (And, yes, I’m trying to come up with ways to salvage your initial enthusiasm. lol 😉 )
Lol, hang in there… maybe try some Rising Phoenix creations to give yourself a break. I have Phoenix Fougere and More Beauty than Beast in 1 mL samples and they are exceptionally well done all-natural fragrances. He uses an oak-aged patchouli that is wonderful in the fougere and has another fragrance that features it, I need to sample that one too. I also get tired of synthetics and am more sensitive to some of them than might be normal, so it’s nice for me to have a selection of all-natural fragrances. Puredistance is one house that does a great job keeping their synthetics in check, one of the (many) reasons I love M and Black.
As for MFK, Ciel de Gum sounds great, as does the Baccarat Rouge re-issue. I’d like to sample both of them. Peety, no… I just can’t get over the invitation to pee in it! It may be good but I’m never going to try a fragrance from that house. 🙂
I’m still enthusiastic about Aeon 001, just unsure if it’s for me. I really like some clothing and fragrances that don’t really fit me and my style, and have to recognize this and pass despite my appreciation for it. Like that jacket or pair of shoes that you thought you love but you never really find the right occasion to wear and it just sits in your closet… I’ll have a better idea after some more time with it.
I don’t pee in my Peety!!! 😉 😛 Kidding aside, I understand how off-putting that may be and how it can extend to the brand as a whole. I have my own issues with the house, quite separate from any urine in my perfume. (Heh, it never fails to crack me up.)
I’ll look into Rising Phoenix right away, so thank you for the tip. As a die-hard Patch Head, that patchouli description made me sit up. In return, my suggestion to you since you said you liked tobacco and ambers: Rania J. Ambre Loup. It was my favourite fragrance that I tried in 2015 and #1 on my year-end list of personal favourites (as opposed to 2015 new releases). I’m addicted. Completely and utterly addicted. It has some sort of drug-like effect on me, I think, but also on others. I got a large number of readers to try it, a lot of them ended up loving it, and a few have said it was their favourite fragrance of last year, too. So, please, check it out if you can. You can get a sample from Twisted Lily, and STC has now started carrying it too. Plus, it’s not an expensive fragrance as compared to many things out there. $150 for a 50 ml bottle of fragrance that has serious longevity and the richness of a Slumberhouse extrait. Check it out.
Edited to add: $32 for a 1 ml sample of any Rising Phoenix scent????! Bloody hell! I understand why the materials and extrait concentration render it expensive, but I’m a cheapskate about some things like the price of sample (and, also, shipping rates generally speaking), so $32 for a single vial…!! Roja Dove Extraits don’t cost that much for 1 ml!! I’ll be honest, I can’t see me actually going for it even though the patchouli in Preda sounds great, as does the Fougere. But $64 for 2 ml… ouch.
Yes, the prices are high but it’s completely undiluted and 100% natural. So more like 4-5 mL of a normal alcohol-based extrait. I understand if it’s too much but if you love patchouli, it might be worth it… Unfortunately, almost all of the all-natural perfumes I like are expensive, Agar Aura’s products usually cost even more. But undiluted oils last me a long time, so I can sort of justify it. I keep a very small collection too, and will sell off things I don’t really love or aren’t using, which keeps costs down a bit.
I do have a sample of Ambre Loup, a while ago I got a bunch of amber fragrance samples. I’ve only tried it very briefly, I’ll have to give it a full wearing soon!
This has changed a lot since I got it, it’s MUCH better now. The base has come out and it’s far more balanced. I’m glad I hung onto it.
Good to see you, Dorje. I hope you’ve been well and had a good 2017 thus far.
Thank you for sharing your changing experiences with the Aeon. Beyond the base, in what specific ways do you think it’s changed? Are there certain notes you notice more now or is it merely an overall balance and feel/vibe issue? Do you think the fragrance has been heavily reformulated or merely lightly tweaked? (I hope it’s not the former as I just suggested Aeon to someone today. Lol.) And are you judging on the basis of samples or something else? 🙂
Hi, I hope you’ve been well too! 🙂
I guess I could have been more specific, lol… I have a full bottle I got when it first came out about a year and a half ago. I put it aside for a while as I was a bit lukewarm on it, a few months ago I decided to try it again and I was surprised at how different it is now vs when I first got it.
When it was new the smoky vetiver dominated and the beautiful ambery base only became noticeable later. Now, the whole composition is far more balanced, the smokiness has mellowed and much more of the base is evident from the get go. It smells a lot more like the list of ingredients suggests now, notes that were buried have surfaced and ones that dominated have mellowed… I suppose there are a lot of natural ingredients and Aeon 001 has changed in the same way I’ve noticed all natural fragrances change over time. Almost every time it’s an improvement and this is no exception. If it smelled like this when I first got it there would have been no question about keeping it!
Thank you for taking the time to clarify, elaborate, and describe with specificity. I appreciate it enormously, and so may others who might stumble across this review in the months or years from now. Really, thank you.
In terms of the changes or growth over time, all I have to say is: Wow, it sounds utterly fantastic!! Even better than it was before, especially for someone with my amber-loving tastes. Your description makes me wonder what things would have been like if the bottles had received extra long maceration, and just how soon after bottling they were sold originally? Regardless, it sounds like an extra glorious, smooth, and lush scent at this point. Enjoy your treasure. 🙂
In my opinion this perfume has the signature scent of Antonio Gardoni
It certainly has a lot in common with Maai, so you might be right.
Guy here. I received bottle #89 about a week ago and on me, it totally feels like Antonio Gardoni. I own a bottle of Maai and I found myself compulsively sniffing myself and feeling the same as I do with Maai. I own a few Bertrand Douchaufour fragrances too, such as By Kilian Extreme Oud and Amouage Jubilation XXV, Penhaligons Sartorial and they too make me compulsively sniff myself but all of them give me a different feeling. It’s a subconscious thing. That said, the design aesthetic of the bottle and packaging feels like Antonio as well. Not the same as Bogue Profumo packaging, but his architect side seems to be there. Also, didn’t I read somewhere that he was dabbling in some glass blowing?
Glad to hear you loved it, Guy. And, yes, it may well be Gardoni. That makes more sense to me than the Fazzolari and Antoine Lie names that some others have mentioned. Did Aeon 001 go beyond merely feeling like Antonio Gardoni in spirit and vibe, and actually smell like a baby Maai on you as it did on me?
Yes. Maai was “Oh Maai God” and Aeon is Mini-Maai, or Mee-Oh-Maai
I love your “Mee-Oh-Maai”! That made me laugh out loud.
How come that it’s from Liechtenstein? The website has German address listed.
No idea. I assume Liechtenstein was a corporate tax decision, but have no idea whose behind the company or why everyone calls the brand a Liechtenstein one.
Hello!
As I’ve just compared “Kinski” and “Aeon001” I would very much place my bets on Geza Schoen.
Geza Schoen was also amongst my initial thought re the mysterious ‘nez’. With Duchaufour also balanced on the other hand. Although something missing for me to be either, so still scratchin me noggin on that one. Gardoni is indeed a good suggestion though, so the reveal will certainly be interesting … I think their wanting to only release a notes list when revealing the perfumer, then ‘hinting’ just a central note, will leave many with totally dashed expectations. Wanting to only reveal these details on sell out, is probs just a calculated incentive in the hopes ‘mysteriousness’ will get curiosity to push said bottle sellout. (Hell, with that price point they can certainly do with any gimmick.) 🙂
What’s totally surprised me is that notes list Dorje just revealed for us (so much for their ‘mystery’, huh!?) which bears little resemblance to what I was smelling. My nose was much more aligned to what u were describing above. (My only disagreement was on the ‘tuberose’, which to my nose was indeed more ylang-like instead.) However, I’m totally surprised to find no ‘Ribes Nigrum’ amongst that declared list, as like u I too sniffed a cassissy vibe. Hell, from that list Id’ve expected the scent to smell totally different from what it does. Something far more like maybe Roja’s ‘Reckless Pour Homme’, or like ‘Encre Noire’, even TF’s ‘Italian Cypress’. (Hell, even CK’s ‘Man’ for that matter!) But certainly not what we have here. (Mind u, they only need declare what they should/must, so probs not a complete list, so … .)
But, at least we can be pleased that it stealthily avoided your IsoE alarm, huh !? 🙂
I have it on good authority that Antonio Gardoni is the nose behind Aeon001. I have one empirical source and one is circumstantial evidence. I’ll hold off on the empirical until the Aeon website reveals Antonio. However, Bogue’s Facebook page contains a thank you to Luca Turin for his recent review. The second to last paragraph mentions Aeon001 as one of Antonios works.
https://perfumesilove.com/2016/09/03/antonio-gardoni/
Yes, it seems Gardoni is the nose. 🙂 Have a great Sunday, Guy.
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