It is funny to think how far niche perfume has come over the last few years. Just after the millennial change you could count the number of perfume blogs on two hands and the shops dedicated to small brands were also few and far between. Nowadays those brands have infiltrated the department stores and you need an abacus to count all of the perfume blogs. It is always an open question whether any expansion like what we’ve seen over the last ten years is a positive thing and that is a subject for another day. Today I want to talk about one of those early perfume outposts, Aedes de Venustas.

Karl Bradl and Robert Gerstner opened Aedes de Venustas on Christopher Street in the West Village in 1995. I made my first tentative trip through its doors in 2001. It was like walking into a special parlor dedicated to perfume. It was also a mind expanding experience as I was looking at bottles and labels I didn’t recognize. I was excited but like a kid in a candy store with candy he didn’t recognize I wasn’t sure where to start. That was when Mr. Bradl came to my rescue and he kindly and patiently showed me the perfume that I would probably like. Ask any perfumista about their first trip to Aedes de Venustas and this experience is the rule not the exception. For many years Aedes would be my first stop on a shopping trip to NYC.

In 2009 L’Artisan Parfumeur released an Aedes de Venustas fragrance created by Bertrand Duchaufour. That fragrance was a rich incense forward EDP which came at a time when M. Duchaufour was making some of the best incense forward fragrances in the world. Now in 2012 we have another new perfume with the name Aedes de Venustas on the flacon and while L’Artisan is no longer involved; M. Duchaufour is again the perfumer.

After 2011’s cavalcade of releases; 2012 seems to be a more normal pace of fragrance release from M. Duchaufour. In Aedes de Venustas he takes something old and something new to make something special. In 2003 M. Duchaufour created a fragrance for Comme des Garcons called Series 5 Sherbet: Rhubarb. I have always loved this fragrance because it smells like freshly cut rhubarb green, tart and vegetal. It was, and is, one of the most unique fragrances in my collection. I wondered whether this note could be used as the focal point in a fragrance. In the new Aedes de Venustas EDP M. Duchaufour shows me not only can rhubarb be a focal point it can be a star.

In the first few seconds of wearing Aedes de Venustas I always think unripe grapefruit but then that accord resolves itself into two main notes, rhubarb and tomato leaf. Like the rhubarb M. Duchaufour used tomato leaf in last year’s Eau D’Italie Jardin du Poete to magnificent effect. In Aedes de Venustas he uses it with even more impact. You would think a pairing of rhubarb and tomato leaf would be too vegetal but instead I found it to be anything but that. The two notes somehow enhance the subtle sweetness that is buried deep beneath their early impressions. If you’ve ever worked in a vegetable garden and know that sweet smell of vegetation and earth that is what makes up the underpinning of this creation. The evolution of this fragrance from the rhubarb and tomato leaf opening is very simple. A bit of honeysuckle and currant help to steer you towards discovering the sweet under the vegetal. Vetiver in the base returns you to the green garden-like facets at the end. Always present is the rhubarb and tomato leaf from beginning to end.

Aedes de Venustas has above average longevity and average sillage.

Aedes de Venustas is probably going to be a bit of a difficult fragrance for some. M. Duchaufour has an ability to find the beauty in most of the notes he uses but sometimes that discovery requires a bit of patience on the wearer’s part. I don’t have that reticence because M. Duchaufour is one of our most original perfumers and I jump in without a qualm. If you have loved previous creations like CdG Series 5 Sherbet: Rhubarb and Eau D’Italie Jardin du Poete I think Aedes de Venustas will be something you will like a lot. Like the store it is named after Aedes de Venustas EDP is a one of a kind original.

Disclosure: This review was based on a decant purchased from Surrender To Chance.

–Mark Behnke, Managing Editor