ÆTHER: The Poetry of Synthetic Ingredients, the Beauty of Molecules

“If molecules have their own distinctive scents, who can precisely imagine the smell of aldehyde C12 or Iso E Super? Sometimes sparkling like a shimmering soap bubble, sometimes transforming into dazzling beauty, the molecule, this ‘almost nothing’ in an infinite universe, is the collection’s sacred young muse.”

— Nicolas Chabot, founder of ÆTHER​

Basic Information

Founded: 2016
Founder: Nicolas Chabot
Headquarters: Paris, France
Official website: aetherparfums.com

The Founder and the Brand’s Origins

A Childhood Surrounded by Fragrance

For Nicolas Chabot, perfume was a familiar presence from birth. His great-grandmother had run a perfumery since the 1930s, and his grandparents and mother also worked there. Having witnessed launches by famous perfume houses from an early age, Nicolas decided to enter the fragrance world himself, despite his family’s objections. His career began when he joined Dior (in Japanese) at twenty-three.​

Over the next fifteen years, Nicolas worked at leading luxury groups including LVMH and Estée Lauder, focusing on brand restructuring and positioning. He also gained experience on the fragrance floor of Printemps Haussmann in Paris. Although thoroughly familiar with the logic and scale of large corporations, he increasingly felt an urge to recover a pure passion for fragrance itself.

A Fateful Encounter at a Flea Market

At a crossroads in his career, Nicolas was looking for his next move. He has said that launching a brand under his own name was inconceivable to him. Then, one day in late summer, he picked up an Art Deco perfume bottle at a Paris flea market. It still contained some Le Galion Sortilège, whose fragrance remained remarkably vivid after decades.

When he called his grandmother, she recalled fondly how highly regarded it had been. Her words encouraged him. After acquiring the bottle of Sortilège and beginning to research it online, he uncovered Le Galion’s remarkable history. Founded in 1930 by Prince Murat, a descendant of Napoleon I, and later taken over by perfumer Paul Vacher, it was a legendary house loved by Hollywood stars including Marilyn Monroe, Bette Davis, and Grace Kelly.

Nicolas revived Le Galion in 2014, carefully bringing its original formulas into the present with the help of perfumer Dominique de Urresti, Paul Vacher’s daughter. Having established a reputation as a guardian of vintage French perfumery and achieved considerable success with Le Galion, he began looking in an entirely different direction.

The Birth of ÆTHER: An Experiment at the Opposite Pole

If Le Galion represented respect for the great natural-ingredient heritage of the past, ÆTHER was conceived as a project at the opposite pole. Its starting point was the recent rise of natural perfumery. Nicolas’s reasoning was that, just as there were many brands centered on natural ingredients, there could equally be many centered on synthetics.

ÆTHER officially launched in June 2016, almost simultaneously with its first presentation at Esxence, Milan’s niche-fragrance fair. Its name, Aether, comes from an ancient Latin word meaning “pure air.” With a transparent, cosmic resonance, it suited the project’s abstract, minimalist artistic direction.

Based in Paris, Nicolas currently leads three fragrance brands with entirely different directions: Le Galion, ÆTHER, and Headspace. Speaking to Le Monde, he said that the fragility of supply chains offers an opportunity to reconsider perfume as a rare, precious, and still more desirable object.​

The Brand’s Commitments

A Philosophy of Rediscovering Synthetic Ingredients

At the heart of ÆTHER is an intellectual challenge: overturning prejudice against synthetic fragrance ingredients. The word “synthetic” tends to carry negative associations, but the brand argues that expensive, complex synthetic molecules underpin modern perfumery.​

ÆTHER’s statement puts it this way:

“At ÆTHER, there is no display of flowers, no lyrical flight around traditional natural materials. Instead, there are evocations of metallic vegetation, unknown trees, faint sounds, moments still to come… These scents of noble fantasy do not envy the trails of others, preferring a radiant halo, a magical circle, an aura of humor and mystery.”

The brand’s copy opens with the poetic words “SOMETIMES A SHIMMERING BUBBLE AND SOMETIMES DAZZLING BEAUTY,” consistently celebrating the molecule itself as its muse.​

ÆTHER does not, however, dogmatically pursue a formula of one hundred percent chemical synthesis. Its flexible use of natural materials is an important nuance. This rests on its concept, “What you like in fragrances that you didn’t even know.” Even with rose, for instance, a synthetic rose material may turn out to be the familiar scent someone has in mind. The idea carries a subtle irony and wit.

Working with Perfumers

The founding collection was created by two perfumers, Amélie Bourgeois and Anne-Sophie Behaghel. Nicolas is said to favor giving perfumers creative freedom and choosing people with unconventional visions. Later collections have involved a varied roster, including Rodrigo Flores-Roux of Givaudan, Marie Duchêne, Julien Rasquinet, Nicolas Beaulieu, and Julie Prurché.

Bottle Design: A New Generation’s Beauty, by Pierre Dinand’s Grandson

A bottle redesign announced in 2024 transformed the brand’s appearance. Its designer was Jules Dinand, grandson of Pierre Dinand, one of the twentieth century’s foremost perfume-bottle designers.

Pierre Dinand is the legendary designer behind defining twentieth-century bottles including Femme de Rochas, Dior Eau Sauvage in 1966, Paco Rabanne Calandre in 1969, and Yves Saint Laurent (in Japanese) Opium in 1977. Jules, who learned from his grandfather, described the bottle he created for ÆTHER as follows:​

“In designing the bottle for ÆTHER, I wanted to create an object that plays with light and the gaze. Contrasts of shadow and light, opacity and transparency. A ‘quiet animation’ that remains still yet comes alive as we move. I wanted the bottle to reveal a new expression from every angle.”

— Jules Dinand, designer and art director​

Stripes cut into a cylindrical bottle, with the letters ÆTHER emerging among them: the form changes its appearance as the eye moves. It can be seen as a visual expression of molecules’ multifaceted nature.​

The Fragrance Range

ÆTHER’s range consists of compositions each centered on a symbolic molecule regarded as an icon of synthetic perfumery. Although each can be worn alone, they share a design philosophy of allowing countless personal combinations through layering.

The principal range comprises the following seven fragrances, as offered at the Japanese launch in 2025.​

SUPÆR
This fragrance uses the great synthetic-perfumery icon Iso E Super (in Japanese) at the remarkably high concentration of ninety percent. The juiciness of ethyl acetate and the cooling freshness of menthanyl acetate emphasize its fruity, woody nuances. A unisex fragrance described as having a “pheromone-like effect.” Perfumer: Marie Duchêne.

XTRAEM
The outstanding aroma material Ambroxan is used at the highest possible concentration, blended with Hedione’s soft floral radiance and the elegant musk of Exaltolide. It leads into a delicate, sensual, warm drydown. Perfumer: Anne-Sophie Behaghel.​

ULTRÆ
Centered on Aldambre, an aldehyde molecule with a characteristic smell reminiscent of ironing, this composition combines the metallic rose of rose oxide with the sweet, woody musk character of Tonalide. Its heated, metallic personality stands out. Perfumer: Julie Prurché.​

ÆXTRA
A high concentration of Bagdanol, with its creamy sandalwood scent, is blended with oakmoss-like Evernyl and ethyl linalyl acetate, which suggests a fresh floral bouquet. The fragrance has also been described as a “heavenly love potion.” Perfumer: Nicolas Beaulieu.​

FLORÆ
An ode to the at least fifty varieties of modern musk. Neroli, iris, and rose combine with woody-floral Kephalis in a gentle, enveloping fragrance that seems quietly to protect its wearer. Perfumer: Nicolas Beaulieu.​

SOLAER
Centered on Methyl Laitone, a lactone (in Japanese) fragrance material, with intermingling nuances of tuberose, vanilla, and amber. “A poetic, sensual fragrance for adventurous skin and summer.” Perfumer: Julien Rasquinet.​

SUGÆR
Centered on ethyl maltol (in Japanese), the synthetic ingredient that helped lay the foundations of gourmand fragrances, a category evoking sweet desserts. It blends cocoa, vanilla absolute, and tonka bean: “a sweet strike bursting with vivid beauty.” Perfumer: Julien Rasquinet.​

The Early Collection

The initial Series 1 collection, which debuted at Esxence in 2016, contained five fragrances: Carboneum, Ether Oxyde, Rose Alcane, Citrus Ester, and Muskethanol. Methaldone, created by perfumer Rodrigo Flores-Roux, was added in 2017. Some of these early compositions were subsequently replaced as the range evolved into the current collection.

By the Way…

“ÆTHER is a contemporary pharmacopoeia for adventurous souls disillusioned with the realism of overly conventional perfume.”​

Nicolas Chabot discussed Series 1, Series 2, and the concept of layering in detail in a 2020 interview with Smell Stories. ÆTHER fragrances are designed to be complete individual compositions while also allowing several to be layered into new poems of scent, playfully inviting wearers to become perfumers themselves.​

Among fragrance critics, the house is regarded as a leading exponent of molecule-centered perfumery, alongside Escentric Molecules and Not a Perfume. Yet whereas Escentric Molecules places individual molecules such as Iso E Super at the forefront, ÆTHER takes a more nuanced approach, featuring symbolic synthetic molecules within complex formulas.​