Quick answers
History
Aedes de Venustas Signature is the first fragrance from the Aedes de Venustas brand, released in 2012. Bertrand Duchaufour composed it in close collaboration with the house founders Robert Gerstner and Karl Bradl, whose Greenwich Village perfume boutique gave the scent its name and its brief. Duchaufour describes their world as one of luxury and quality, opulent and baroque yet refined, and set out to bottle exactly that atmosphere.
The references he cited were the interiors of the original store: burgundy and aubergine jewel tones, shimmering and iridescent finishes like the colors of peacock feathers, and textures of velvet, angel-skin silk, taffeta and brocade. From these he constructed a scent meant to read as both modern and decadent. Duchaufour sources many of his raw materials himself, traveling to work with farmers on sustainable and fair-trade practices; for Signature, the vetiver was sourced by him in Madagascar.
For the brand relaunch, the perfume was transferred into a new vessel: a fluted glass bottle with peacock-blue accents, a matte black insignia-stamped cap and a weighty, sleek design that marks the next chapter of the house. The juice itself is unchanged, a deliberate signal that Signature remains the olfactory emblem of Aedes de Venustas.
The olfactory experience
The palette of Aedes de Venustas Signature unfolds with no fixed progression: a green, tart rhubarb that grows on skin, a vetiver and a hazelnut that anchor it, a chypre incense that recedes into abstraction. It is a game of supports rather than a top, heart and base sequence.
Around rhubarb and incense sit tomato leaf, red currant, honeysuckle, vetiver and hazelnut. The tomato leaf and red currant sharpen the green, tart opening; honeysuckle softens it with a nectarous floral facet; vetiver and hazelnut anchor the heart, and incense carries the resinous drydown. The result is round, voluptuous and a little uncanny, a chypre read through a contemporary, almost sculptural lens.
The AEDES DE VENUSTAS world is a world of luxury, of quality, simultaneously opulent and baroque yet decadent in a way that is refined.Bertrand Duchaufour
Scent profile
Signature reads as a floral chypre with a resinous incense base, which places it in dialogue with the great green chypres while refusing their classical structure. The closest reference points in spirit are the cerebral, materials-driven compositions Duchaufour signed for L'Artisan Parfumeur and Penhaligon's, where the architecture matters as much as the notes themselves.
The distinctive trait is the moving balance between the bright rhubarb and the dark incense-chypre accord, which keeps the scent from settling into either a fruity-floral or a somber resinous register. It stays in motion, which is why it works as the house emblem rather than as a single, fixed mood.
Key characteristics
When and where to wear
Signature opens on a tart rhubarb before an incense-laced chypre takes hold, the 2012 debut of the New York house by Bertrand Duchaufour. Its green freshness makes it wearable across much of the year, yet the resinous incense base speaks most clearly as the day winds down into cooler air.
How to wear it
Seasonal fit
| Season | Fit | Critical notes |
|---|---|---|
| Spring | ★★★★ | Rhubarb and the green facets show at their best. |
| Summer | ★★★☆ | Wearable; the incense base gains warmth. |
| Autumn | ★★★★ | The ideal season for the resinous chypre accord. |
| Winter | ★★★☆ | The incense carries well, the freshness stays perceptible. |
Context fit
| Context | Fit | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| Office | ★★★★ | Dry and intellectual, it holds up in a creative workplace. |
| Evening | ★★★★ | The incense-vetiver base asserts itself at night. |
| Dinner | ★★★☆ | A dressed chypre, ease off in a small room. |
| Everyday | ★★★☆ | Wearable for those who like singular signatures. |
| Sport | ★★☆☆ | Too structured for exercise. |
Similar perfumes
The incense thread that Duchaufour opened with Signature runs through much of the Aedes catalogue, and connects to the wider contemporary incense register in niche.
| Perfume | House · year | Why close |
|---|---|---|
| Copal Azur | Aedes de Venustas · 2014 | Same nose, the incense thread pushed toward a salty, resinous register. |
| Iris Nazarena | Aedes de Venustas · 2013 | House sibling that carries the same incense signature into an iris composition. |
| Wazamba | Parfum d'Empire · 2009 | A contemporary woody-incense reference for wearers drawn to the resinous core. |
Frequently asked questions
See also
Sources
- Official Aedes de Venustas press kit (June 2026) · Document available on editorial request
- Bois de Jasmin: Aedes de Venustas Signature review, March 2012 (accessed June 27, 2026)
- Now Smell This: Aedes de Venustas coverage (accessed June 27, 2026)