Violet Delirium Aaron Terence Hughes 2020

Violet Delirium - the literal translation of this exclusive 2020 release by Aaron Terrance Hughes would be Violet Confusion. In medicine, a delirium is a state of mental confusion, I have read. How this can be translated into a fragrance, I’ll leave to the perfumer :) At least I would translate it this way... The scent is a special that is currently only offered as a gift with orders over 150 British pounds on the website in April. I’m not exactly sure if and when this fragrance will be available for regular purchase. For 150 pounds, you get 10ml, for 200 pounds 50ml, and for 500 pounds 50ml of Violet Delirium and 50ml of Celestia. *End of subtle advertising*

Since I have long had the desire to finally try one of his fragrances, I didn’t want to miss this offer. By now, Aaron has become one of the most competent perfume YouTubers for me, an interesting personality with a lot of chemical background knowledge and a creative mind who creates his own fragrances. So I ordered Slut and Animalix (comments on those will follow soon) and received Violet Delirium as a bonus. However, Aaron hasn’t mentioned anything about this release regarding the note breakdown in any video so far, so I simply asked on Instagram. As a first response, I got from another user that this fragrance somewhat carries the DNA of Baccarat Rouge 540, combined with Aaron's signature dark, "dirty" notes, with rose and real oud. A slightly smoky sweetness to boot. I found that quite interesting, but my first experience with BR540 had left a rather negative impression. I tested the Extrait de Parfum of BR540 once (maybe too quickly) and couldn’t smell anything strange on my hand... except for a brief hint of spiciness. That was it, and I didn’t understand the hype around it. How closely it resembles it now, I don’t want to say exactly. I don’t know BR540 well enough.

What has Aaron Terrance Hughes done with this? In fact, I can't really perceive violet. Without having looked at the fragrance pyramid on Parfumo beforehand, I immediately noticed that there are parallels to BR540, at least in terms of the spiciness I still remembered. So the comparison from that user wasn’t bad at all. You can immediately sense Aaron's signature. He loves dark sexy notes, and earthy patchouli joins the mix right away. Still, the fragrance has a floral-powdery vibe. The exciting thing is that in the first minutes on my skin, it constantly fluctuates. Sometimes it’s a powdery lighter floral daytime scent - in the next seconds, it becomes a masculine dark evening scent for cooler days. I can actually imagine it being well-suited as an evening fragrance. It’s sexy, but it’s by no means "dirty" and intrusive. A little dirty, yes, but overall I think it’s more of a gentle fragrance, whose floral-earthy interplay is very pleasant in the nose. What I also notice is that the base notes have a clear touch of Animalix from his collection. By no means as brutally animalic, but definitely perceivable in a toned-down form.

Later, a slight smokiness joins in. After a few minutes, a gentle natural rose comes in from the background, waving a few times to draw attention to itself, pushing against the dark and earthy part with something floral. Patchouli isn’t listed here, but I perceive it. This patchouli, however, becomes creamier over time and turns into a chocolatey note. I read that Aaron likes to manipulate patchouli notes so that they evoke chocolate notes together with homemade cocoa tincture. He may have tried that here as well, and it has worked. Despite this slight chocolate, Violet Delirium is not a gourmand! So please don’t misunderstand that. The base is also too woody due to the oud.

The fragrance doesn’t seem particularly complex. However, the top and heart notes last a very long time. It takes a good 5 hours before the base gradually consumes the rest. For that long, the slightly powdery and creamy aspects are perceivable. The sillage is also strong but doesn’t devour everything around it. Of the three fragrances I have from Aaron so far, this one is even the most elegant. So it’s almost a shame that it might only be produced for a limited time.

Violet Delirium feels coherent and high-quality, Aaron's style is clearly recognizable, but it tends to be more masculine rather than unisex for me. Perhaps the name doesn’t quite live up to its promise (it could have been named something with "Noir," for example), but it’s not about the name, it’s about what’s inside. And I really like that.