Aeternum Royal Crown 2023
2
Sensational blend & materials, lackluster performance
One of the few premium niche releases of 2023, Aeternum is Royal Crown's only release for this year, following up on 2022's Nocturna and Nizam. This is not a brand that receives much attention, driven by low PR, poor accessibility, high prices, and to some, tacky bottles. To me, all of these, sans the prices, are a positive as it makes for collection-based standout potential.
Matching the experience to the scent pyramid is quite difficult here. Aeternum opens with a stunning melon note & a prominent aquatic tonality. The melon note specifically is one that I would relate to Nishane's Ani X which similarly uses melon in the top, albeit here it is more notable and of higher quality. The melon note fades within ~10 minutes into the core of this scent which is driven by a musky ambergris (not amber!) styled accord. As it dries, you may also begin to notice a mild hinge of smokiness, this likely coming from the mysore sandalwood.
The overall feel of this scent is very much akin to eating fruit (or even smelling rocks) by a tropical beach. Or in more simple terms, it is an aquatic ambergris scent with some fruitiness. I struggle to find a lot of the notes, no matter how much I spray or smell the scent & that is something that happens often with Royal Crown - a couple primary accords combine with the high blend quality while much of the pyramid ends up invisible to the nose. Such is the case here with the juniper, metallic notes, orris, osmanthus, and several others. The honey also doesn't pop and the scent has no comparison to something like "Join The Club - 40 Knots | XerJoff".
In terms of Royal Crown's catalogue, the two that I feel have similarities to this are Nocturna and Sea Island. Nocturna, similarly to Aeternum, has that tropical fruity component which I notice present with this scent. Sea Island is a creamy aquatic, so I'd say some of the aquatic feel present in Aeternum may appear familiar to those that have experience with Sea Island.
As with most of Royal Crown's fresher catalogue, this is one of those scents where performance is absolutely abysmal. On my skin, it is nearly entirely gone by hour 4. The sillage here appears to be entirely intimate, but I wonder if it has potential for more in the hot summer heat. As such, it may leave you in the same scenario I was in with Imperator before ultimately opting to purchase a bottle. You get elite blend quality, elite raw materials, elite bottle, but horrendous performance and very high pricing. In the end, only you can decide whether that trade-off is a worthy one.
Matching the experience to the scent pyramid is quite difficult here. Aeternum opens with a stunning melon note & a prominent aquatic tonality. The melon note specifically is one that I would relate to Nishane's Ani X which similarly uses melon in the top, albeit here it is more notable and of higher quality. The melon note fades within ~10 minutes into the core of this scent which is driven by a musky ambergris (not amber!) styled accord. As it dries, you may also begin to notice a mild hinge of smokiness, this likely coming from the mysore sandalwood.
The overall feel of this scent is very much akin to eating fruit (or even smelling rocks) by a tropical beach. Or in more simple terms, it is an aquatic ambergris scent with some fruitiness. I struggle to find a lot of the notes, no matter how much I spray or smell the scent & that is something that happens often with Royal Crown - a couple primary accords combine with the high blend quality while much of the pyramid ends up invisible to the nose. Such is the case here with the juniper, metallic notes, orris, osmanthus, and several others. The honey also doesn't pop and the scent has no comparison to something like "Join The Club - 40 Knots | XerJoff".
In terms of Royal Crown's catalogue, the two that I feel have similarities to this are Nocturna and Sea Island. Nocturna, similarly to Aeternum, has that tropical fruity component which I notice present with this scent. Sea Island is a creamy aquatic, so I'd say some of the aquatic feel present in Aeternum may appear familiar to those that have experience with Sea Island.
As with most of Royal Crown's fresher catalogue, this is one of those scents where performance is absolutely abysmal. On my skin, it is nearly entirely gone by hour 4. The sillage here appears to be entirely intimate, but I wonder if it has potential for more in the hot summer heat. As such, it may leave you in the same scenario I was in with Imperator before ultimately opting to purchase a bottle. You get elite blend quality, elite raw materials, elite bottle, but horrendous performance and very high pricing. In the end, only you can decide whether that trade-off is a worthy one.
NicheOnly
