Exclusive: Perfumer Celine Barel on Entering a New Era of Aesop Fragrance

The latest creation to join the Aesop fragrance family also marks a new era for the label. In this exclusive, we sit down with perfumer Celine Barel in Seoul to discuss the new Aurner Eau De Parfum launch.

Aēsop’s Aurner Eau de Parfum is a floral fragrance rooted in the poetic tensions between tenderness and strength, playing on unexpected contrasts in its raw materials. The scent is centred around the herbaceous magnolia leaf, opening with the tea-like accord of pink pepper, floral petitgrain and metallic chamomile. Then, it unfurls to a heart of geranium, subtle orange flower, and green cardamom before settling into a woody-earthy base of sandalwood, cedar heart, cypriol heart, vetiver and patchouli. In short, it’s not your average floral—it’s a defiant bloom.

Just a short month ago, we headed on a whirlwind trip to Seoul with Aēsop to celebrate the launch of the new Aurner Eau de Parfum. Held at Kir Studio, the multi-room installation took us through a journey, immersing guests in the sights, sounds and smells of Aurner—a top-to-toe sensorial experience that was very much in line with the fragrance’s philosophy.

READ: Beauty Diaries: How A Trip To Seoul Changed The Way I Experience Aesop Fragrances

At the start of the journey, we got our first whiff of the scent before stepping through to a room adorned with cascades of silver-foiled magnolias. Then, through a set of translucent pink panel curtains, we found the Aurner “lab techs” leafing through the perfume’s ingredients meticulously—a quintessentially Aēsop installation. In the third and final room, an exclusive masterclass with perfumer Celine Barel awaited us.

During the masterclass, Barel walked us through the Aurner fragrance from start to finish, touching on the inspirations behind the scent, its intricate contradictions and its complex makeup. Ahead, find our full exclusive with the perfumer:

How does it feel to have finally completed this Aurner project after four long years?

“It feels like I am giving up my baby! Of course, I’m excited and I’m celebrating, but it is a little hard to let go. As a perfumer, I want to be there for the full rollout from start to finish, from when the fragrance enters the stores to when the fragrance meets its audience so that I can make sure that the full context is being shared, but that is obviously not possible. 

“It’s also a bit of a mixed feeling because it has taken up so much of my life these past four years—it was clearly the focus and the highlight for me. But hopefully, there are new adventures waiting for me, so I will focus on that part.” 

How did you begin your partnership with Aesop? 

“My partnership with Aēsop began nearly 20 years ago when I met Aēsop’s founder Dennis Paphitis. It was a very casual meeting, not at all work-related. We chatted and we discovered our common love for philosophy and literature and a certain way of travelling off the beaten path. We were also two Mediterraneans living in exile—one in the US, and the other in Australia—so we had, I think, a Mediterranean taste for the simplicity and fragility of nature. And I think that’s key to understanding the Aēsop aesthetic. 

“At the time, I was someone who loved the art from the past, ancient art, and didn’t necessarily have an appreciation for the modern or contemporary period. Dennis showed me his own vision and it broadened my artistic horizons, helping me appreciate a new aesthetic. He had this way of working—he’s very easy to understand, but he also has a very, very strong vision, so other people who aren’t used to him can find it extremely difficult. But we had this chemistry that just clicked, and it’s how we started our collaboration. 

“He has had a huge impact on who I am now, not only as a perfumer but also as a person. We really connected through the art of living and thinking based on Greek antiquity, and our approach to life through food, design, architecture—even virtue and morality.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Aesop (@aesop)

When it comes to creating a perfume, what is your favourite part of the creative process?

“My favourite part of the creative process is always when I receive the brief—especially when it’s a very rich and interesting one. I think in the case of Aēsop’s brief, they typically tap into synesthesia—the stimulation of your five senses to maximise your feelings and emotions. I try to capture that in the fragrance to maximise the final consumer’s emotional response. 

“I think it’s very important when you’re telling an olfactive story to be able to move the final consumer, and this is possible with Aēsop as we are working in a very restrained team so the original idea can remain extremely strong. It can remain edgy and unconventional because Aēsop is not a brand that is out to pander. It is clear that the brand is not for everybody and I love that aspect.” 

You’ve worked with a lot of other luxury fragrance labels in your career—how does the experience of creating for Aesop compare to working for a more mass label? 

“Working for a mass label when you are also working for a luxury label is also a thrilling experience. I mean, what makes the experience interesting for a perfumer is not the final price point in the store. What makes the work special for a perfumer is the creative process. There are two ways of doing fragrances—for the first, you need to go for unconventional and out-of-the-box ideas and you are aiming to create a work of art. For the second, you’re looking to create a best-seller, which is a completely different (and difficult) exercise as you are looking to please the masses. 

“I love that Aēsop is niche but I also like a good challenge as a perfumer, and for me, that is trying to find a universal accord that’s gonna be widely loved by the masses across the world, whether it’s by Americans, Asians, or Europeans. So, as a perfumer, it can be very exciting to work for a mass label.

“Also with mass labels, the competition is cutthroat. My goodness, it’s like performing at the Olympics! So, in that way, it’s very challenging and interesting. It’s not at all the same kind of job because you’re not tapping into the same set of skills. The human factor is not necessarily as important for a mass label—for a niche brand, you’re gonna be working more visionary to visionary; creative to creative. With a mass label brand, you work far more with marketing, because you’re following all the trends, all the market movements, and they help you to better understand your target audience.”

What is the most nerve-wracking part of the creative process? 

“There are very numerous nerve-wracking moments in the process. The first one, maybe, is when you present your first round of ideas for the first time, where you don’t know how it’s gonna be received by the team, so it’s a moment where one is very vulnerable as a perfumer. 

“Once you start choosing a specific direction, you are on a roll for a few weeks before you become blocked in your creative process. Suddenly, you spend way too much time on the minute fragments—you’re unable to see things clearly anymore, so you need to pause. With Aēsop, I’ve got the luxury of being able to pause for maybe a few days or a few weeks in order to better come back to the idea. It’s at those moments where I draw from my general culture and the Aēsop universe that I know very well to help me move forward with the fragrance. 

“For example, with Aurner, there was one point where we were almost there, but I felt like there was something missing. To me, there needed to be a little strangeness, an unconventional factor to give the fragrance that beautiful quality, but I couldn’t find the right ingredient. There is a quote by André Gide that says ‘The work of art is the exaggeration of an idea’. For me, this helped push me to the end of the creative process—for a fragrance to be truly Aēsop, it has to have a good slice of sharpness, something almost raw in it. Fortunately, one night, I was using the Aēsop Blue Chamomile Facial Hydrating Masque and it dawned on me to try chamomile in the fragrance, and that is what helped me find the missing facet of the scent!” 

How do you see the rise in sustainability and the popularity of niche fragrances affecting Aesop in the future?

“What I love about Aēsop is that it is a sustainable B-Corp already, but it isn’t loud about it. It’s already practising what others are only beginning to do, but it has never used sustainability as a marketing tactic and I love that aspect. It’s a brand which is giving much more than what it pretends to give, and I think this needs to be underlined. I think the way all the products are designed reflects the brand’s quest for elevation—something that is becoming quite rare in the luxury industry.

“Aurner itself already incorporates sustainability in the formula. For example, we’re using magnolia leaf which is a byproduct from the magnolia flower essential oil. We also incorporated a specific extraction of vetiver that is derived from the wastewater of the hydro distillation process. We recuperate this wastewater that contains a lot of interesting molecules, we concentrate them, and we get a new quality of vetiver that is much brighter, cleaner, greener, and lusher—it’s somehow leafy and less rooty, with an earthy, smoky, and peanut-like note to it.”

What are some fragrance trends that you see for 2025 or beyond? 

“So far, for 2025, gourmand is going to continue to have a massive moment. Specifically, I believe we’re going to see more and more buttery, milky and coconut fragrances. On the other hand, you will see also niche fragrance houses going for the exact opposite—something that is really back to nature, to this botanical aesthetic, where there is no room for sweet or fruity or sticky. Just like Aēsop is doing with Aurner, actually!”

For more beauty reads, click here.