Aedes de Venustas | The Scented Hound

May 23, 2016
by The Scented Hound 16 Comments

New Release: Cierge de Lune by Aedes de Venutas

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

November 17, 2014
by The Scented Hound 12 Comments

New Release: Copal Azur by Aedes de Venustas

WHAT I SMELL: Copal Azur’s opening is wonderfully spicy, yet sparkling, like sunshine evaporating the moistness of the early day. A salty note is mixed with a fresh pine, but the pine is not a cool weather northwest pine, but a warmer pine that feels like it’s grounded to the windswept Caribbean shore. There’s a distinct patchouli note which is woody and light and after around 15 minutes, a creamy sweetness enters all the while an incense radiates from above. Around the 30 minute mark, the fragrance lightens to a radiant incense with the pine, patchouli and tonka breezily anchoring the shore below. Overall, there is a brightness about Copal Azur that’s extremely appealing. In addition, the perfume is full of positive energy and inner warmth. Copal Azur is a magical Mayan beauty.

From the Aedes de Venutustas website:

Mayan incense, rising from age-old temples. Lashes of sea spray and whiffs of the jungle where the jaguar lurks… Copal Azur exhales the lush, spiritual vibes of sacred Tulum.

The Muse: Copal, the Mayan incense

The vibrant hues of the Mayan Riviera filter through milky, pine-scented wreaths of burning resin. Blue, for the Caribbean Sea and the limpid depth of the cenotes, the subterranean fresh-water pools that riddle Yucatan: a cool breeze of ozonic and salty notes. Green, for the lush Mexican jungles: a flash of cardamom glinting in the moist, woody undergrowth of patchouli and myrrh. White, for the purest quality of copal and the pristine beaches of Tulum: a lick of almond-scented tonka bean smoothed into creamy notes. Amber for the Jaguar God of Terrestrial Fire – the fire that burns the sacred copal… Hypnotic, spiritual and forceful, Copal Azur might well indeed open the “Gate to Heaven”.

WHAT IT SMELLS LIKE TO ME: The magic of Tulum, Mexico.

THREE ADJECTIVES THAT DESCRIBE COPAL AZUR: positive, sun-touched, energized

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT COPAL AZUR: Chemist in the Bottle, Colognoisseur

BOTTOM LINE: I guess it’s fitting after just returning from the Yucatan on vacation to complete a review on a fragrance that was inspired by a Mayan incense. What I love about this fragrance is that as an incense perfume, the incense is subtle, like it’s lightly whipping over the cliffs of Tulum (in other words, an incense perfume for those who typically aren’t incense perfume lovers). Copal Azur is a lovely addition to the Aedes de Venutas collection of perfumes which are each unique and wonderful in very different ways. I can’t wait to see what their next release will be!

Bone Rating: 3.5 out of possible 5 bones
Scent: Oriental
Noses: Bertrand Duchaufour
Classification: Unisex
Expense: $245 for 100ml Eau de Parfum

Sample courtesy of Beauty Entreprise.

July 7, 2014
by The Scented Hound 5 Comments

New Release: Aedes de Venustas Oeillet Bengale

WHAT I SMELL: Oeillet Bengale opens with a sparkling bergamot, followed very quickly by pepper and rose. It’s spicy, herbaceous and incredibly medicinal. The turmeric is pronounced along with the clove. Oeillet Bengale is all about the spice as it seems to be geared more towards being a herb mixture meant to put on grilled vegetables than something you would wear. At the same time, it smells like Band Aids that have been treated with some kind of built in medicine. The fragrance does pulse off the skin as if the heat of your body helps to make it radiate. You would think with this herbal spice combination that the fragrance would seem heavy, but it doesn’t. After around 20 minutes, the fragrance deepens a bit and it seems to slip down further into the spice. But there’s some light at the end of the tunnel as the drydown begins to feel more floral as it evens out and becomes slightly powdered and dry and tinged with incense. In the end, Oeillet Bengale turns into this exquisite spiced floral that has me completely entranced. You wouldn’t have guessed that from what I wrote just a few sentences before right?

From the Aedes de Venustas website:

A Flower on Fire. A rose that wants to be a carnation, set ablaze by an exotic spice explosion. Red petals turned black by frankincense.

Top Notes: bergamot, white pepper

Middle Notes: rose, black pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, saffron, turmeric, clove

Base Notes: Tolu balsam, labdanum, ylang-ylang, benzoin, vanilla

WHAT IT SMELLS LIKE TO ME: Lucrezia Borgia. The spices and herbs brought from the east were used by her perfumer to create this exotic, beautiful, yet dangerous mix of mystery.

THREE ADJECTIVES THAT DESCRIBE OEILLET BENGALE: fascinating, spicy, incomparable

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT OEILLET BENGALE: Grain de Musc, CaFleureBon, Now Smell This

BOTTOM LINE: The first time I wore this all I got was a Band Aid smell and I really didn’t care for it. In subsequent wearings, I start off not caring for it, but then it weaved this spell on me and I find myself bewitched by it. Oeillet Bengale is complex, of great quality and a seducer. I just reviewed another fragrance by Rodrigo Flores-Roux, Arquiste L’Etrog Acqua…this it the exact opposite of that on every level and what an incredible addition to his line of creations.

Bone Rating: 3.5 out of possible 5 bones
Scent: Citrus Aromatic
Nose: Rodrigo Flores-Roux
Classification: Unisex
Expense: $240 for 100ml EdP