Aedes de Venustas 16a Orchard via Aedes de Venustas
Do you remember what it feels like when your life is about to change? What about how it smells? Aedes de Venustas poses these questions as it introduces 16a Orchard, the perfume owners Karl Bradl and Robert Gerstner commissioned to commemorate the much-loved downtown perfumery’s move from its gilded West Village environs to a new location on the Lower East Side.
Karl Bradl and Robert Gerstner Owners of Aedes Perfumery and Creative Directors of Aedes de Venustas Perfumes photo by Hernando
But the timing of Aedes de Venustas 16a Orchard meant it became about much more than celebrating Aedes de Venustas’ new digs and neighborhood on trendy Orchard St. Suddenly, 16a Orchard marked not only the upheaval and transformation of a perfume shop but of an entire generation. As Gerstner observes, “Every single soul went through a massive change in their lives.”
Firmenich Senior Perfumer Frank Voekl photo via Firmenich©
Firmenich senior perfumer Frank Voekl was called on to create 16a Orchard. Rather than center the fragrance around a central note or evocation of place, Voekl took a more oblique approach and composed a mood piece: “I aimed to create a sense of emotional wellbeing through a simplistic fragrance structure. The use of ingredients extracted from natural roots like ginger and iris tie us back to our earth, making us feel grounded and centered,” he relates.
via Aedes de Venustas
The experience of Aedes de Venustas 16a Orchard is a bit like getting lost in a modern art gallery where all the exhibits are watercolour. The notes shimmer individually then merge, separating and joining in a continuous loop that makes me think of Calder’s elegantly kinetic pieces. Voekl’s perfectly pitched composition is bright and scintillant one moment, dreamy and hazy the next. Its feel is neither urban nor nature but both. And neither. The lightness of Voekl’s work is a key element in 16a Orchard’s spare loveliness. The first stages remind me of pavement chalk drawings washed by the rain; neon colours rinsed into pastels. There is an Impressionist quality to these early moments; small strokes of iris, lemon rind and ginger are clearly delineated but meld quickly so that neither dominates. The iris acts as a silky sash joining the vibrant young ginger aroma with the acerbic lemon, quieting them from solo to harmony. The effect of these three notes weaving together is like walking through rain spray while the sun is out: silvery-bright but soft-focus.
via Aedes de Venustas
Dusty, sultry cardamom comes out next, adding a dusky, veiled note that segues the fragrance into something darker and opaque. Soon, I smell a truly gorgeous, subtle suede note — drier and less powdery than other its many other iterations in perfumery. The perfume’s heart is all about flowers: young, green jasmine, the soapy trill of lily-of-the-valley, and the floral-apple drip of quince, all tempered with a transparency and delicacy that gives Aedes de Venustas 16a Orchard its atmospheric, quietly emotional quality. Wearing it is like half-remembered kiss on the wrist.
16a Orchard is soothing in an indirect way; there are no comfort scents of kitchen or nursery in its construction, but rather a quiet, simple beauty. It is fragrance that breathes rather than sighs, that smiles from eyes a little worn with sadness. Aedes de Venustas 16a Orchard wears close to the skin and having it on all day, I was barely aware of it at times. But at other moments, it washed over me like a gentle, welcome memory.
Think of how you feel when you suddenly laugh after crying. That is Aedes de Venustas 16a Orchard.
Notes: Ginger, iris, bergamot, lemon, cardamom, quince, jasmine, muguet, musk, suede, ambrox, tonka bean.
Disclaimer: Bottle of 16a Orchard given to me by the incredibly generous Aedes de Venustas. My opinions, as always, are my own.
Lauryn Beer, Senior Editor
Aedes de Venustas gift card
Thanks to the generosity of Aedes de Venustas, we have a $75 gift card which can be used in store or digitally for one registered reader in the U.S. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what strikes you about 16a Orchard based on Lauryn’s review and whether you have a favourite Aedes de Venustas perfume. Draw closes 12/9/2021.
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Please read Perfume Signatures: Frank Voelkl of Firmenich “The Voelkl Ratio” by Mark Behnke, Guest Contributor (Editor of Colognoisseur and Michelyn Camen, Editor-in-Chief of ÇaFleureBon
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