Aer
Angela Ciampagna (2015)

Very different from my expectations after reading the ingredients list and the hype on the Sniff etc. It puts me in mind slightly of Eau Hadrien and Bois de Hadrien from Goutal and I also got a hint of a very familiar flavour, though I can't think what. Any suggestions? Pistachio ice cream maybe, or some type of liqueur.
I suppose there is a certain airy freshness, (I was briefly reminded of floralozone) but in general I find this fragrance a vague and nondescript affair. And the juniperberries? Not a trace anywhere, or anything remotely like them, I'm afraid.

A brief hesperidic and menthol opening, with a dry vetiver dry down. Clean and pleasant, but in no way edgy. In fact, it's a near identical experience to wearing Silvan again, as I did the other day before reviewing. Nice quality, but little else to say.

The opening combines bunch of citrus fruit with a touch of mint, the mint herb that is, not a peppermint. A very nice combination, not a splashing opening blast but more a gently crisp start of this olfactory journey.

Very soon after the beginning the vetiver arises. Is is a green herbal vetiver, not dark and more on the brighter side. It has a grassy component, although this never is in the foreground - this is no Bowling Green. The vetiver as some earthiness to it, but is is less earthy that Molinar's Vetyver, and at times it tilts towards a chypre impression - I am reminded of Revillon's French Line.

The drydown moves through patches that express a mildly boozy juniper, and at times I detect whiffs of a Blenheim-Bouquet-style impression. When entering the base note stage, on the one hand a certain additional tartness develops due to a patchouli arising, but overall the base sees it returning to the vetiver as not only the dominant component in the base, but also the leitmotif throughout the longitudinal development from beginning to end.

On my skin the performance is formidable: moderate sillage, very good projection and an outstanding ten hours of longevity.

A lovely summery daytime scent for use throughout cooler hours that demonstrates an excellent quality of the largely natural ingredients. So whilst most of the compoenents are not exactly of revolutionary creativity as such, they are executed carefully and thoughtfully with a few twists whilst being superbly blended, with a complete lack of superficial or vacuous showiness. Very good. 3.5/5.

The opening smells a bit like an herbalist's mortar, with various twigs and herbs ground up to treat some bronchial ill. When it begins to settle, Aer reveals its best moments, moving quickly through a tediously indy-seeming dry and salty phase to reach an equilibrium that rewards. This is a beachfront vetiver, with a good sprinkle of fennel, still dry as a bone, but now with hints of citric succulence coming through and the wild card of mint which brings freshness and the flash of something green that this composition was gagging for. The overall effect is surprisingly traditional, creating the impression of something the clean-cut could be spritzed with at the end of their session at a men's salon.
Sadly this is not the end of the journey, for the base is mainly that salty and thin vetiver with a bit of fennel on its breath. Nice enough but unremarkable.

Aer opens with a splash of slightly sour grapefruit with faint hints of underlying spearmint. As the composition moves to its early heart the very natural smelling green spearmint takes the fore with the grapefruit joining slightly grassy vetiver in support. Moving further through its heart, the mint remains, melding into now lemony, grassy vetiver, gaining strength into co-star status as turpentine-like resinous elemi joins into the fold as the last part of the now starring trio. During the late dry-down the lemony, grassy vetiver takes over as sole star eschewing the spearmint, as the turpentine-like elemi and bitter grapefruit remain in significant support through the finish. Projection is average, but longevity outstanding at over 20 hours on skin.

Aer is a very pleasant surprise. When first sprayed on skin the sour top notes didn't grab me, but once the extremely natural smelling green spearmint takes hold shortly afterwards, things improve big time, quickly. Adding additional strength to the composition is the vetiver that changes character slightly as time passes. It starts off grassy, but then adds a slightly sharp lemony facet that really smells amazing. On the apparently negative side of the equation is the resinous turpentine-like elemi that took a while to warm to, but the longer one wears the composition the easier it becomes to appreciate how the perfumer got the elemi to meld perfectly with the vetiver and mint, creating a really unique and interesting overall heart accord. Finally, the late dry-down does not disappoint as the lemony vetiver takes over, using the elemi and sour grapefruit as underlying support, working extremely well. All-in-all Aer is not really my kind of composition, but there is no denying its skillful execution and wonderfully innovative overall results. The bottom line is Aer is an innovative composition that brings mint, vetiver and elemi together with exceptional execution and results, earning it an "excellent" 4 stars out of 5 and a strong recommendation.

An herbalized, semi-retro take on a modern vetiver. This one's juniper-powered with a great mint leaf opening, so it has that herbal-fresh berry-esque thing going on. Usually juniper spells disaster for me, but it's handled with care here and it sits well with the vetiver to produce an aerated fresh scent that smells neither harsh nor overly angular. In that regard, I think Aer is a confident take on a mainstream fresh masculine but with more of a wildcrafted feel to it. The name seems appropriate as it conjures in my mind an (admittedly) idyllic image of what I envision the Italian country side smells like. It also smells crafty, but with none of the negative baggage that can come with that term; it's more like a formula that's been handed down through a family for decades or something. The only real gripe I have with it is that after an hour or so, most of the great opening notes are gone, and you're left with a pleasant but standard-issue Iso E and vetiver base. Having said that, I still find Aer to be one of the better offerings from the line – one that's very easy to get along with. I'd recommend this more for fans of herbal aromatics than anything.