Ever since Frederic Malle began putting the perfumer’s name on the bottle a cult of personality has sprung up around the best. The admiration can be stifling for a perfumer looking for a chance to try something different. The new brand Aeon is trying to allow that to happen and their first release Aeon 001 is the way all Aeon releases will be handled.
The Liechtenstein based brand is releasing each new perfume as a limited edition of 333 bottles. The concept is to not name the perfumer until all 333 are sold. Their credo, from the website, 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”. That statement is a little grandiose to describe Aeon 001’s vetiver-based fragrance. On the other hand, I like not knowing the perfumer. That made my days wearing Aeon 001 a bit of treasure hunt as I considered who could be the perfumer. Is it a mainstream perfumer getting to walk on the niche side of the street? Is it an independent perfumer taking a different tack from what they are known for? The mystery added to my enjoyment.
Which perfumer will be found inside the puzzle box?
Aeon 001 is a vetiver fragrance. I’m not sure what it is about vetiver which allows it to be the core of so many perfumers’ out of the box designs. As one who has enjoyed these kind of fragrances Aeon 001 continues the tradition.
Aeon 001 opens on a very smoky vetiver brightened ever so slightly by bergamot. The smoke is the more prominent of the three notes. It reminds me of a peat fire. The perfumer them makes an interesting choice to take a few white flowers and blow away the smoke with indoles as tuberose, jasmine, and gardenia transform the vetiver from smoke bomb into the greener woodier nature. The indoles are given an opportunity to growl and the vetiver supports the animalic sneer. I am still unsure if there are two sources of vetiver or one well-chosen chameleon which shifts according to what else is there. What is there is a beautifully urbane version of vetiver cutting through the smoke only to find the white florals ready to pounce. This all ends on a resinous base of labdanum giving the final phases of Aeon 001 a chypre-like base as the vetiver again changes to interact with the resin.
Aeon 001 has 24-hour longevity and above average sillage.
Do I have some ideas about the perfumer? I certainly do. My guess is it is one of two independent perfumers known for their experimental one-offs. I will be very surprised, and pleased, if this turns out to be a mainstream perfumer’s experiment. Aeon 001 is a very well done vetiver fragrance which covers a bit of new ground.
Disclosure: This review was based on a sample I purchased.
–Mark Behnke
Hello!
I've just dug out my sample of "Kinski" by Geza Schoen, as two days ago I received one of "Aeon001"
To me "Aeon001" smells like Kinski Extrême, and therefore my bets are on Geza Schoen. Even more so as this Aeon smell lasts forever and gets stronger and stronger during the dry down, reminding me very much of Montabaco Extrême's intensity.