WHAT I SMELL: Cierge de Lune opens with a muted and spicy warmed vanilla that’s soft, gentle and quite comforting. It’s also incredibly unassuming and it feels like a whisper enticing you to come along as it travels down a quiet old world passage. After a few minutes, the perfume almost becomes hidden as it retreats from my skin. But Cierge de Lune is a vanilla based perfume so I have no doubt that it will once again appear. And as soon as I write that, a peppery note starts to emerge along with the softest of vanilla. At the same time, the pepper begins to flatten out the more rounded vanilla and the perfume begins to dry. The dryness brings out the smell of what to me smells like pencil shavings, but which are tinged with just the slightest bit of sweetness. After quite some time, a beautifully subdued and lightly creamy ylang ylang appears and the perfume begins to grow as if stretching itself out to seduce you with its intoxicating tentacles of spellbinding mystery. There’s a beauty in this perfume that feels as if it has a deadly and alluring poison. In the end, Cierge de Lune is a quiet, haunting and mysterious vanilla perfume topped with just a light whiff of burnt incense.
From the Aedes de Venustas website:
Cierge de Lune: Cool and limpid as moonlit desert air. Velvety and sensuous as the midnight sky… Inspired by the scent of the mysterious night blooming cereus, also known as the Queen of the Night, AEDES DE VENUSTAS’ sixth offering unveils the dark side of vanilla.
- Top Notes: Crystalline accord
- Middle Notess: Vanilla absolute from Madagascar, pink pepper, black pepper, ylang ylang
- Base Notes: Suede accord, incense, amber, musk
WHAT IT SMELLS LIKE TO ME: An old world European city street covered in a mysterious cloud of haunting smoke and fog.
THREE WORDS THAT DESCRIBE CIERGE DE LUNE: sublime, enticing, mysterious
WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT CIERGE DE LUNE: Chemist in the Bottle, The Non-Blonde, Colognoisseur
BOTTOM LINE: Cierge de Lune is vanilla done right. It’s incredibly subdued and perfectly refined and rather than shouting it speaks in whispers. Cierge de Lune is easily my favorite thus far from the Aedes de Venutas line of perfumes.
- Bone Rating: 4 out of possible 5 bones
- Scent: Oriental Floral
- Nose: Fabrice Pellegrin
- Classification: Unisex
- Expense: $245 for 3.4 oz. Eau de Parfum
The Scented Hound 
May 23, 2016 at 1:19 pm
I’ve only recently come around to vanilla in a major way, so I’m really looking forward to trying this one! My favorite of the Aedes line thus far is Iris Nazarena, but honestly I think they’re all superbly done. I hope one day they will include their whole line in the travel spray size. A girl can dream, no? 🙂 Thanks for the lovely and enticing review.
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May 23, 2016 at 2:44 pm
Holly, I’m not a huge vanilla fan myself because so many times it’s too strong and overpowering. Here, it’s done so beautifully and muted. As for the travel sprays, I wish more companies would offer their products in smaller sizes too! Think how big our collection would be then 🙂
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May 23, 2016 at 3:40 pm
Glad you liked it Houndie.
To me it’s definitely a perfume more suitable for autumn and winter. I like to categorize it as “quiet seducer” because it’s a quiet perfume with a lot of sensuality and even some delicate erotism to it if you ask me
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May 23, 2016 at 8:21 pm
Lucas – there is something very sensual, hushed and hidden in this perfume. I love that terminology “quiet seducer!”
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May 23, 2016 at 3:42 pm
Wow, this sounds really wonderful. I like that it is subdued – I really don’t get along with ‘in-your-face’ scents for the most part, and overly sweet gourmandish things can make me nauseous. This sounds just perfect. Also – I blind bought a slightly used bottle of Dis Moi but my first go wasn’t good. I didn’t really get any milk and it was SO incredibly sweet my teeth hurt and I was nauseous like I’d just come eating cotton candy, funnel cakes and ice cream at the county fair. I’ll attempt to give it another go… maybe.
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May 23, 2016 at 8:23 pm
Actually, I could really see you liking this a lot, it’s so subdued, but lovely. So sorry about Dis Moi…now we know why we haven’t heard much about it! Maybe spray less on next time??
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May 23, 2016 at 8:40 pm
Alas, it was only 1 spray. I could try 1 spray to the back of the knees? I will definitely try to give it one more go, and spray a few sprays out onto some tissue. I’m not sure when the last time the previous owner sprayed it… Perhaps there was just extra sweetness stuck in the sprayer… lol. But – I will have to get a sample of Cierge de Lune!
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May 23, 2016 at 11:29 pm
Gentle vanilla and ylang? I’m there! Although I must say that the combination of pepper and vanilla (as in Diptyque’s Eau Duelle) can be problematic. You make this sound gorgeous though! I’m all about intoxicating flowers in the desert.
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May 24, 2016 at 6:18 am
I have never tried Eau Duelle so I can’t make a comparison, but I’m not a huge fan of vanilla or incense scents…pepper can be OK, but again, not my preference. So if I like it here, they’ve done a great job of subduing all of the potentially strong aspects of each note. I hope you get a chance to try it.
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May 24, 2016 at 10:10 am
Aedes is trendy enough to appear in Tokyo department stores, so hopefully it will. Then again, they hate vanilla….
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May 24, 2016 at 12:33 pm
I have yet to try this but it definitely sounds like it will be right up my alley!
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May 25, 2016 at 4:57 am
Well then, I think you’ll just have to make a trip into town and go to their new store! Geez, I wish I it was all that accessible to me!
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June 9, 2016 at 2:57 am
I’m waiting for hajusuuri to try it and like it – then I’ll participate in her split 😉
I find it funny how much your bones rating influences me every time – even though I know that, when it comes to wearing, our tastes are different enough for me not to get excited… but still.
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June 9, 2016 at 5:31 am
Would that be called….”the power of the bone?”. I found that Haju and I have different perfume tastes, so it would make sense as her scent twin that you and I may not agree on perfumes…it’s probably just because my skin is so sweet! 🙂
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July 2, 2016 at 1:36 pm
I’ve tried Cierge de Lune recently and completely agree with your rating. I’m not sure yet if I like it enough to get more than a decant (if H. does a split, I mean) but it was a very pleasant surprise when I first smelled it at Barney’s.
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