Enchanting. Peppery. Subtly floral. Unique. These are the thoughts that come to mind when I first spritz Aēsop’s newest fragrance, Aurner. It’s a humid summer’s evening and I’m in the Sydney CBD for the brand’s launch event, which is set inside a characteristically minimalist, boutique space that has been thoughtfully decorated to take each guest on a sensory journey.

At the heart of the room, a long, rectangular table is lined with bowls containing the individual notes that make up Aurner. We’re encouraged to let our senses guide us. “They’re ordered from left to right in terms of how you experience the fragrance,” says an Aēsop representative.

Without hesitation, we bow our heads and inhale deeply, starting at a bowl filled with fresh and delicate chamomile flowers and ending at one filled with warm, woody cedar heart shavings. Each note is distinct and pleasant, but together, they create something far greater than the sum of their parts.

Although the literal translation of Aurner, which is derived from an Old Norse verb, is “to be embellished with flowers”, for Céline Barel, the French perfumer behind the scent, it is “a nonconformist floral” — one that embraces multiple floral notes while defying the conventions of a traditional floral scent. One way that Barel achieved this balance was by building the fragrance around the aroma of magnolia leaf, an ingredient rarely used within modern perfumery. “In a way, [using magnolia leaf] was very innovative because it was not really known,” says Barel. “I love the idea of not being obvious.”

Born and raised in Grasse, the birthplace of perfumery, Barel developed both a love for fragrance and a keen sense of smell at an early age. When asked about her earliest scent-related memory, she recalls how the air in town would often be filled with the unmistakable, at times overpowering, aroma of jasmine or ylang-ylang, or whichever note du jour the local fragrance factories were distilling for their next creation.

Determined to transform her passion into a craft, Barel initially explored the marketing and brand side of the olfactory industry, securing internships at prestigious French fashion houses, including Dior and Chanel. But, realising that she was more interested in the art of creation, she pivoted to pursue formal training at ISIPCA (Institut supérieur international du parfum... ) in France. Now a senior perfumer at International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF), she has built an extensive fragrance portfolio that includes Aēsop’s beloved Tacit, a crisp, citrus-forward scent that feels worlds apart from Aurner.

When Barel was brought on board again in 2021 to collaborate, she was given an extensive and unconventional brief by Aēsop to inspire her creation — tasked with creating a fragrance softer than the rest of the brand’s offering, yet still edgy. “We had a very rich brief with songs, poems, photography — there were dried herbs, incense sticks, and pieces of material,” she continues, “They were feeding me with inspiration. It shows the generosity that the brand has for anyone encountering their product.”

But translating inspiration into scent is rarely a straightforward process. Aurner took nearly four years to perfect, evolving through hundreds of iterations before the final scent was achieved. Throughout this journey, Barel leaned heavily on Aēsop’s brief, finding herself particularly drawn to the song “Lilac Wine” by Nina Simone — not just for its lyrics but for its emotional tension.

Aēsop encouraged Barel to introduce an element of contrast, something that would create tension within the fragrance’s existing floral and woody structure. Finding the perfect note proved more difficult than expected, but inspiration struck during an unexpected moment. “I came home feeling creatively blocked after a day of working [on Aurner] and decided to put on a chamomile face mask to relax,” she recounts. “It was in that moment that I realised that chamomile was what the fragrance was missing... it’s an often forgotten flower.”

As Aurner’s leading top note, Roman chamomile acts as a prelude for what is to come, lending a uniquely botanical and slightly metallic edge to the fragrance — an edge that Barel refers to as “the strangeness factor.” She explains, “It was needed because otherwise it would have just been a nice fragrance, but we wanted to create something that would stand out and that had that edge. The chamomile was really what made the fragrance transform into something more unique and edgy.”

Given the deeply personal nature of scent, Barel acknowledges that Aurner might not be for everyone. Despite this, she trusts that, like all of Aēsop’s fragrances, it will resonate with the right individuals. “I hope that the fragrance will talk to people and move them in one way or another,” she says. “I always hope as a perfumer that each particular fragrance will find its particular audience.”

As the evening unfolds, the scent of Aurner settles deeper into my skin. The initial brightness of chamomile softens, revealing dominant magnolia leaf, the woody base of sandalwood, and cedar heart. In the days that follow, despite owning a broad collection of fragrances, I find myself reaching for Aurner again and again — it has found an audience in me.