Ashoka Neela Vermeire Créations 2013

Bottle Design Pierre Dinand

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7.7 / 10 113 Ratings

A popular perfume by Neela Vermeire Créations for women and men, released in 2013. The scent is green-woody. It is still in production.

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Main accords

Green

Woody

Floral

Spicy

Powdery

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Fig leaf

Lotus

Water hyacinth Parsley

Parsley

Rose

Heart Notes

Fig milk

Sweet acacia absolute

Jasmine sambac

Ylang-ylang

Frankincense

Geranium

Iris

Osmanthus absolute

Base Notes

Heliotrope

Sandalwood Vanilla

Vanilla

Ambergris

Cedarwood

Myrrh

Styrax

Birch

Fir balsam absolute

Haitian vetiver Leather

Leather

Perfumer

Bertrand Duchaufour

Ratings

Scent

7.7113 Ratings

Longevity

7.673 Ratings

Sillage

6.477 Ratings

Bottle

8.078 Ratings

Value for money

6.015 Ratings

Submitted by Kirthi, last update on 01/30/2025.

Interesting Facts

This fragrance won the 2014 Art and Olfaction Award in the Independent category.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

Dior Homme Original (2011) Eau de Toilette

Reviews

3 in-depth fragrance descriptions

10/19/2013

10
Bottle 5
Sillage 10
Longevity 9
Scent

Drseid
821 Reviews

Drseid

Top Review 6

It's So Good To Be Green...

Ashoka opens with a an aromatic green fig leaf supported by hyacinth florals before transitioning quickly to its coconut milk-like fig tree driven heart accord. Joining the fig tree in the heart phase are the remnants of the fig leaf and hyacinth from the open, now joined by ylang-ylang, sweet sandalwood and coniferous green fir balsam rising from the base. During the late dry-down the composition turns highly coniferous, somewhat dark and less sweet as the green fir balsam takes over with the green aspects of the fig tree remaining in support and styrax adding an underlying leathery touch. Projection is average and longevity excellent at well over 12 hours on skin.

Ashoka on first glance is a composition where different aspects of fig are front and center, but it is so much more than that. The open immediately grabs you with its aromatic fig leaf, but it is the slightly aqueous hyacinth supporting floral that gives a perfect watery balance to the aromatics. Quickly thereafter, the fig milk heart accord supported by what appears to be real sandalwood sweetens the fragrance and adds overall depth while fir balsam from the base provides a fine green backbone. The biggest surprise was the late dry-down as the fir balsam really takes over and dominates with just a touch of dry leather for extra depth. There are a lot of hidden complexities within the composition that on each wear reveal a bit more of its secrets; even now they are still revealing themselves. The bottom line is at $260 per 60ml gorgeous bottle Ashoka is far from a "value play," but this stellar Duchaufour composition delivers the goods quality and fragrance-wise earning an outstanding 4 to 4.5 stars out of 5 rating and a very strong recommendation.

09/12/2024

8
Bottle 6
Sillage 7
Longevity 9
Scent

Irismond
9 Reviews

Translated Show original

Irismond

5

Profound transformation

In the top note, we encounter magical plants (notes) with very different fragrance qualities, which together are initially responsible for a delightfully green, olfactory chaos.
Nevertheless, they all have something in common: they are very significant in very different religious or spiritual traditions. The fig leaf in particular immediately evokes associations with Mahabodhi. The lotus burrows through the mud of ignorance and produces a radiant blossom of wisdom. In ancient Rome, parsley is said to have stood for death and new beginnings. It stands out here in a green-herbaceous way and triggers irritation. Causes the nose to wrinkle and the sniffer to pause.
No transformation without a shake.
The top note thus symbolically depicts the psychological situation of the (historical) convert Ashoka, as well as any other person who decides to realize a-shoka qualities (i.e. to be without worry and not to worry anyone).
The heart note with soothing iris, balancing osmanthus and creamy blossoms increasingly dissolves the initial irritation, the decision to radically change has been made, the path ahead is clear and can be walked with joy.
And the whole thing finally leads into the balsamic-woody base of the fragrance (with a wonderful styrax note), which I find so fascinating.
Ashoka is the idea of a profound transformation that has been skillfully translated into an olfactory process. The individual phases are not necessarily linear, but they all have their appeal. At least for people who like it complex and challenging. Whether the challenge lies more in the green-herbaceous opening or (as in my case) more in the oudy leather note, which is always present, depends on personal preference.
Overall, I would describe Ashoka more as soft-balsamic-woody-enveloping and less as green-woody. In my opinion, it is underrated here.
Anyone who is interested in complex fragrances should give it a try. Ashoka is definitely exciting.
I think it's beautiful.

04/22/2020

4
Bottle 3
Sillage 6
Longevity 8
Scent

FvSpee
249 Reviews

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FvSpee

Top Review 34

Mysterious Emperor

The comments and statements here agree that this is a good scent. Most people find it difficult and exhausting. Almost all of them attest it a very good durability and projection. A certain special position is taken by the esteemed Terra, who doesn't give any points (so we don't know what he thinks about the power and aura of the fragrance) and who divides up what pretty much everyone else finds: in the first phase the fragrance is the extremely hard to digest, experimental work of a lunatic, in the second phase very beautiful.

In my perception I am a bit cross to the majority, which is why I would like to emphasize that my olfactory system is working normally (unfortunately it is not as fine as it should be, but at the moment it is as usual, especially no corona-induced temporary anosmia) and that the source is beyond any doubt (original test by the company). Today I first applied a normal dosage and then sprayed twice more in the course of an hour, because I smelled almost nothing. Nevertheless, the scent became absolutely skinny after about 2 hours, in this form, very soft, but now it lasts about 6 hours and is still clearly perceptible. So I'm glad to have found Daneh's three year old statement with the rating "Sillage 3, durability 5", which is about the same as my values.

Ashoka is for me the first Vermeire with an eight in front. I think he's beautiful. Almost very beautiful. It could have been 8.5, if he'd been a little less limp. But I don't find him difficult or exhausting. Although I'm not a friend of experimental-abstract scent art (I even wrote that in this "I don't like it" note in my profile), I like to have it wearable. I just find it pleasing, pleasant, friendly, almost like to say "nice". I don't take the crazy witch's brew, which you might expect not only after some of the previous speakers, but also after the already very special scent pyramid. Rather a precious, fragrant balsam, as it was used in ancient times to anoint the noble ones.

For me Ashoka opens with a rather bright and very friendly green. A green green. I almost swore it was galbanum, but I didn't want any in it. I also think of herb meadows, alpine freshness, perhaps herbal candies. Fir balm and Styrax are only supposed to be in the base note, but maybe the fragrance doesn't follow the stage directions. A little later, universes of scent are added, which I would describe as "delicate pungency" or "milky spice": Against the still very green shining background, there is something like a moderately spicy curry, but with lots of coconut milk in it. In the later phase, the green becomes paler, but there remains a freshness (which rather intensifies) and spicy-earthy notes are added; I almost suspected patchouli here, but that's not supposed to be there either. I do not find Ashoka to be dominantly woody. One could speak here of a very balsamic-fresh middle brown spiciness; very pleasant, very fine, a bit provocative and special
I think Ashoka is a nice and fitting name, for which I also give eight points. I have to be a bit careful when I talk about rulers after whom fragrances are named. The time before last, when I did this, with Fatih Sultan Mehmed, I just got quite a lot of feedback in the comments. Although I actually found that I had expressed myself quite balanced about this sultan and even praised him in part. Two colleagues - fans of this sultan obviously - did not think so. I just looked again, the second, in the tone even a bit more crass, statement is not there anymore, although I didn't press the "report" button. Perhaps the author himself has withdrawn it, then I would find it very correct and reasonable. So as I said, you have to be a bit careful, but you can't do too much wrong with Ashoka anyway, because he was actually a good guy. Ok, at the beginning not quite now, because when he took over the rule of the most powerful state in India at that time, he first waged war in order to enlarge this empire even more and was not very squeamish. But he was successful, because in the end the kingdom covered practically the whole territory of today's India (except the southern tip, but including parts of today's Nepal and Pakistan).

The time in which this was played was about 250 BC, and this is particularly exciting, because that was shortly after the time of Alexander the Great, who came all the way to India. His successors still ruled over Greek kingdoms directly on the Indian border, so that there was an Asian-European cultural exchange here. Some of the stone inscriptions of Ashoka as emperor are even in Greek! When the emperor had come quite far with his conquest, he said to himself, "I don't want to end up like the fisherman in the fairy tale of the fisherman of Fru, and I stopped fighting the war. He converted to Buddhism (which was quite new at that time and still very much alive in India; the founder of the religion had only entered Nirvana about 250 years earlier; but the dates are disputed) and devoted the rest of his reign energetically to carrying out good works such as supporting the monks, improving administration and jurisdiction, building hospitals and veterinary clinics and promoting the vegetarian diet.

Well, at least that's roughly how it is according to most sources. A little bit like Terra's scent perception: In the first half crass carnage, in the second half gentle harmony. But historically, almost nothing is certain, because there were few written sources in India at that time on which one could rely today. Some also say that Ashoka would not have been so violent before he converted to Buddhism, and that this would have been added later to make the contrast clearer. Others say that even in his later years he could still be quite cruel when necessary. And in general, of course, one can be cynical and say, "Well, that's clever, the best way to achieve power is by force, and in the long run you'll have to be lenient. He just always did what was best for him In any case, Ashoka as a ruler - not so different from Mehmed - was one of the big names, and it is certainly not fair that hardly anyone here in Europe knows his name
I would definitely recommend testing this fragrance. For me personally, it leaves too many questions open in the end; I will rather deal with the ashoka of the Indian antiquity in depth again than buying a (not quite cheap) bottle of the liquid ashoka