Grooming -- 8 days ago
As far back as 2001 Aesop has been dabbling in the fragrance game. 24 years ago it responded to customers’ needs for fragrances that weren’t like the highly commercial offerings from big fashion brands on shelves, and started to explore the concept of more unique and unusual scents. By 2005, the first fragrance was released: the original Marrakech Eau de Toilette, which contained oils of sandalwood, rose, jasmine and neroli in high concentrations, making for a singular scent. An expression of Aesop, it embodied the brand's ethos, and paved the way for a myriad of fragrances with charm and uniqueness in equal measure.
Since Aesop has released culty, conversational fragrances such as the Tacit Eau de Parfum, made using Yuzu, Vetiver and Basil, Hwyl Eau de Parfum, a woody blend of Cypress, Frankincense and Vetiver, and Rōzu Eau de Parfum— the brand’s first floral fragrance. This month it unveils its latest addition to its roster of scents: Steorra Eau de Parfum.
Above Us, Steorra Eau de Parfum, which comes with a story, began with an abstract set of inspirations that the Aesop in-house team shared with long-term fragrance collaborator Céline Barel: a poem by Mayuzumi Madoka titled ‘Shooting Star’, a photograph of the night sky, and imagery detailing the various hues of amber. And in response, she created a fragrance that embodies those three things. In short, this is what a shooting star smells like (to a well-versed perfumier with the nose for these things). FYI, Steorra is Old English for ‘stars’.
“I wanted to create a “Celestial Amber”— an idea that came from looking at the ceiling of the Aesop Collins Street store in Melbourne, which is coated in salvaged and crushed Aesop bottles mixed with render,” Barel explains. “This instantly gave me the impression of a beautiful star-dusted sky. Above Us, Steorra is not just a star, it is a shooting star.”
The almost fiery scent mingles cardamom with a ‘fabulist accord’ that conjures the imagined scent of amber. Barrel added in frankincense, labdanum and vanilla bean to give the fragrance a faint aromatic touch, while sparkling bergamot and peppery elemi (a resin from a tree found in the Philippines) are used with the intention of creating the sizzling burn of a meteor’s tail.
One of the most adventurous scents Aesop has developed, Above Us, Steorra Eau de Parfum is available to buy now at aesop.com.
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