LGN Louis Gabriel Nouchi x Æther Æther 2021

Well, fine by me: It does smell somewhat like a freshly opened book, perhaps a bit like printer's ink, and eventually a sweet, subtle yet distinctive tobacco note comes in, which for once does not annoy me (as tobacco notes usually do). With the freshly opened book, the ink, and the printer's ink, one could also be quite happy with Steidl's Paper Passion (perfumer Geza Schön). So why is there a need for the LGN x Æther?

It smells, it simply smells delicious, even mouthwatering, downright seductive, just very, very good. And you really can't say that about Paper Passion.

Let's take the following situation: I’m sitting in a café, reading a book, smoking a cigarette, and now comes an important addition to the previous perfume comment: Opposite me sits an attractive but so far unapproachable/mysterious female figure. We flirt with our eyes. There’s something exciting in the air. The scent surrounding me is undeniably present, it has its own presence, but it’s not overwhelming, it doesn’t distract from me, it underscores me, it underlines me with a bright brown highlighter (the woman sitting opposite me, also flirting with her eyes, is reading an interesting-looking book too)...

This scent awakens in me a longing for such situations. When did I have those? It’s been quite a while, back in my university days, I’m in the café or in the cafeteria, or in the university library. All of that, as I said, long ago. But this is the scent that brings all that back to me. It doesn’t come off as overly ambitious/forced/tacky like some other library scents (CBIhateperfume, Margiela). Because maybe it doesn’t even want to be a library scent. One can’t say for sure. It certainly feels like one to me. And to be honest: For me, this is clearly the best of all that I know from this genre.

I really like the Æther label. Synthetics as olfactory art form. However, this scent feels less synthetic to me than the others I know from the label. But that fits, I feel very comfortable with this aura of polished wood, tobacco crumbs (not lit), and printed paper. Oh, if only it would last a little longer or be more detectable to my nose (because other noses, as I hear, seem to enjoy this scent longer than my own...)!