Change is Coming for Aesop’s Perfumes. Should We Be Scared?
Aesop is giving its perfumes a refresh, with new names and bottles, as well as a soon-to-debut scent called Unforeseen Aer.
We all know French conglomerate L’Oreal acquired Aesop in 2023 for a whopping US$2.5 billion (S$3.2 billion). As with any acquisition, longtime fans tend to worry that the brand they love will become unrecognisable.
Now, three years on, we’re finally starting to see what Aesop’s new era might look like.
And for now, the change is most obvious in its perfumes. Twenty years after Aesop launched its first personal fragrance, Marrakech, the collection now spans 12 scents, and as a whole, the collection is now named Fragrant Fables.
Before you panic, the brand say the perfumes themselves have not been reformulated. Instead, Aesop is giving its existing fragrances fable-like titles, with each one accompanied by a short story printed on its box. Tacit, for example, becomes Tacit Truths, a fragrance whose accompanying fable explores trust as a source of connection. Eternal Karst (formerly known as Karst), meanwhile, gets a story about resilience in times of change.
The bottles have changed, too, although the familiar amber glass is still very much there. The new versions are taller, with a domed base and textured cap inspired by basalt, a rock found widely around Melbourne, where Aesop was founded. There is also a practical upgrade: the atomiser can be removed more easily, making the bottle more readily recyclable.
The updated bottles will roll out in stages. Seven existing fragrances — Entirely Aurner, Evoking Eidesis, Eternal Karst, Boundless Eremia, Rozu Arises, Tacit Truths and Silently, Hwyl — are already available in Singapore.
The remaining ones — Marrakech Intense, Journey to Ouranon, Above Us, Steorra and Seeking Virere — will arrive over the coming months and into 2027.
Unforeseen Aer eau de parfum, Aesop’s latest fragrance.
And then there is the genuinely new addition: Unforeseen Aer eau de parfum, which launches in Singapore on October 1.
The brand describes it as a nonconformist take on a classic fougere (French for “fern-like”, this is a genre known for having woody, herbaceous qualities), built around geranium, lavandin and rosemary, with an unexpected twist in nutmeg, which is said to add some warmth and texture to this concoction.
Naturally, Unforeseen Aer ($285 for 50ml, $410 for 100ml) comes with its own fable, too. This one follows a gentle wind that worries about the disruption it might cause, before learning to embrace the chaos its gusts create. Its central question is: how might change enrich us?
Which is a rather on-the-nose question for Aesop (and its fandom) to be asking right now.