Fanfair

FRAGRANT TEMPLE

November 2008 John Ortved
Fanfair
FRAGRANT TEMPLE
November 2008 John Ortved

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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