FRAGRANT TEMPLE

Even the sophisticates who regularly shop the West Village have trouble pronouncing Aedes de Venustas, the sensuous Christopher Street boutique specializing in hard-to-find fragrances, such as Alora and Hierbes di Ibiza. But with the addition of their signature scent, Aedes de Venustas Eau de Parfum, German-born partners Robert Gerstner and Karl Bradl are going to have New Yorkers, uptown and downtown, brushing up on their Latin (for the record, it's "Eyedace day Weh-noose-tahs"—translation: temple of beauty). "It's a dark scent, very rich, leather-and-incense-based—literally the store in the bottle," says Gerstner. "It's so sensual, so rich, so attracting— sexual, but in a chic way." The scent, a collaboration with L'Artisan Parfumeur, with notes of orange oil, pink pepper, and cardamom, should add even greater aromatic allure to a beauty destination sought out by style icons Sarah Jessica Parker and Michael Kors. "It really has the feel of a 19th-century bourgeois boudoir, an oldschool perfumery," says Gerstner.

JOHN ORTVED

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