“We want to make perfumes that are neither decorative nor obvious, but rooted in the earth. Scents that feel like standing in a forest, breathing deeply, and finding your own path.”
— Sarah Ching, co-founder (translated from the original into Japanese; English translation of that Japanese text)
Based in Shanghai, AENTOS is a fragrance brand that translates forests, earth, moss, moisture, and the changing seasons into contemporary scent. At its center is not a competition to find novel representations of nature but an attitude that seeks to reclaim “pausing” itself as a skill for living.
Essential Information
Brand name: AENTOS (official pronunciation: /æntəʊs/)
Place of establishment: Shanghai, China
Starting point: Fragrance-product development from 2022. Sources give both 2022 and 2023 as the founding year
Co-founders: Sarah Ching and Astrid Chan
Perfumery partners: Fragrance company MANE and perfumer Maxime Exler
Official website: https://www.aentoshome.com/
The brand name is constructed from the initials of “A To Slow,” while also echoing the sound of “A Toast.” The former symbolizes slowing down; the latter, a toast to mindful living. Pausing in a hurried world and returning time to oneself: that philosophy is inscribed in the brand’s name itself.
The Founders and the Brand’s Origins
Sarah Ching, Raised at the Forest’s Edge
Co-founder Sarah Ching grew up in a quiet residential neighborhood on Musqueam land, bordering the forests of Vancouver, Canada. Surrounded by tall cedars and the smell of rain-soaked woodland, she heard Indigenous classmates speak about salmon fishing and respect for the forest. These experiences cultivated a sense of nature not as “something to look at” but as something with which people form relationships.
The forest AENTOS would later portray is not a place of bright, dappled sunlight alone. It is a living environment encompassing soil, moss, moisture, rain, the presence of animals, and even life continuing underground. Tracing that formative landscape leads back to her childhood on the outskirts of Vancouver.
Business, Cooking, and Scent
After earning a business degree, Sarah went to Paris to study cooking, driven by her interest in food. Encounters with open-air markets, artisanal distilleries, and niche-perfumery ateliers led her to recognize common ground between taste and smell, ingredients and stories, and she began exploring perfume.
Cooking and perfumery may appear to be different fields, but they are closely alike in selecting ingredients, combining them, and allowing them to change over time. Materials such as citrus peel, wood, leaves, resins, and spices act not only on the nose but on memory and bodily sensations. Her experience in Paris became a turning point in seeing scent not merely as adornment but as an expression in which materials and stories meet.
After returning to Asia, she worked in the international fashion industry for approximately 10 years, with connections to the family’s textile business also forming part of her background. Her work included involvement with G-Star RAW and Carhartt WIP. During this period, she began making candles as a personal creative practice connecting natural materials, scent, and storytelling. That quiet experiment grew into what would become AENTOS.
Giving “Slowness” a Name
AENTOS championed slow living and self-care. Rather than merely selling calming scents, it seeks to create habits of returning to the present through fragrance, bodily movement, and attention to the seasons. Defining itself as “a wellness fragrance brand rooted in Eastern forests,” it has translated the scents, materials, landscapes, and traditions of Asian forests into contemporary rituals for daily life.
The brand built its foundations on home fragrances such as candles, diffusers, and room sprays, eventually expanding into fine fragrances worn on the skin. Moving from scents that shape the air in a home to those that accompany the body was also a process of deepening its range of expression while maintaining its original aim of slowing the pace of life.
Working with Maxime Exler
An important role in designing the perfumes is played by Maxime Exler, a French perfumer based in Shanghai. A perfumer at MANE, Exler is also a triathlete and outdoor enthusiast. He has lived and worked in several cultural settings, including India.
“Mornings in Shanghai are a time to reset for me. I cycle as the city is waking up. […] A quick coffee and a quiet moment. Then I return home for a shower and begin the day.”
— Maxime Exler (translated from the original into Japanese; English translation of that Japanese text)
The relationship between AENTOS and Exler goes beyond commissioning a formula from a fragrance company. Their collaboration involves ongoing conversations about materials, memory, fragrance structure, restraint, evolution over time, and emotional well-being. The breathing and rhythm of exercise, and perception outdoors, also flow into the creative process.
Sarah herself gathered plants in Japanese mountain villages, walked through remote forests, and reflected on slow living. That time led to the first perfume collection, Deep Root, Bold Journey.
“To put down deep roots and journey boldly.” This title contains the idea that being rooted in a place or memory does not contradict moving toward the unknown. Roots do not bind people; they support them in going far.
2025: Stepping Out as a Perfume Brand
On July 3–5, 2025, AENTOS gave Deep Root, Bold Journey its international debut at Grasse Perfume Week in France. Sarah and Astrid visited Firmenich, Robertet, LMR, MANE, and other companies, encountering the places where the agriculture, science, and perfumery of natural ingredients meet.
Sarah was particularly moved by the work of chemist Monique Rémy, who devoted herself to sourcing natural fragrance ingredients and improving their quality. Rémy traveled to different regions, built direct relationships with farmers, and supported biodynamic and sustainable agriculture. Her commitment to providing long-term support for farmers’ incomes even in poor harvest years demonstrated a view of ingredient quality inseparable from the land and people’s livelihoods.
“Fragrance is not only composition. It is also community, science, and responsible stewardship.”
— Sarah Ching (translated from the original into Japanese; English translation of that Japanese text)
The Grasse presentation was positioned less as a summit celebrating completion than as the beginning of planting a seed. A view of nature from southern China, Japanese mountain villages, life in Shanghai, and French perfumery techniques: AENTOS’s method is to let what it has gained from different places converse, rather than confining them within a single scent.
In December of the same year, Grounded won Best Chinese Fragrance at China’s Golden Osmanthus Awards (GOA). The brand’s announcement lists Solum as silver for Best Unisex Perfume, Sheng as silver for Top Fragrance, and the home fragrance Moss Garden as silver for Top Diffuser. Together with Grounded, four creations spanning both fine fragrance and scents for spaces were named.
“We believe Chinese fragrance can stand on the world stage with contemporary clarity while rooted in its own cultural depth.”
— AENTOS founding team (translated from the original into Japanese; English translation of that Japanese text)
In February 2026, the company obtained B Corp certification. B Corp is a certification system that assesses social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability across an entire business. At the time of its certification, the company was evaluated in five areas: governance, workers, community, environment, and customers. The brand emphasizes ongoing responsibility, including recertification every three years.
What Defines the Brand
Not Making the Forest Too “Pretty”
AENTOS’s forest does not consist only of clear, dappled sunlight. It encompasses earth, mud, moss on trees, dampness after rain, and the trace of animals passing through. Sarah also refers to the 72 micro-seasons that further subdivide the 24 solar terms, identifying new shoots, wild herbs, and life that does not stop beneath the snow as parts of the signature.
This is why incense, patchouli, vetiver, resins, leather, and animalic nuances recur in its creations alongside citrus and flowers. Rather than refining nature into a clean, innocent image, it depicts a place of life that includes moisture and darkness.
Not Pitting Natural Against Synthetic
The perfumes are created in collaboration with MANE, using fragrance ingredients sourced around the world. Natural essential oils are combined with synthetic ingredients selected with an emphasis on safety and quality to balance stability, depth, and longevity. The formulas are described as complying with IFRA (International Fragrance Association) standards, reflecting a preference for responsible formulation and reproducibility over an insistence on exclusively natural materials.
Deep Root, Bold Journey has a fragrance concentration of 20% and is classified as eau de parfum. The scents evolve gradually close to the skin, with a stated average longevity of 6–8 hours depending on climate and skin type. The 20% concentration was chosen for an unfolding that breathes on the skin rather than projecting forcefully.
Smaller, Simpler Packaging
The outer boxes use FSC 100% certified paper and are designed to fit the perfume bottles with less empty space and fewer inserts. Made from a single material, cardboard, they contain no plastic or glue. The brand says they can reduce paper use by up to 50% compared with conventional perfume packaging and can be reused afterward to store small items. The kraft paper used for shipping is also a material that can be reused and then biodegraded or recycled.
Japanese sales materials also introduce the use of upcycled cork for the caps. The idea of making full use of a few elements rather than adding materials to create an ornate appearance runs through the entire packaging design.
Not Declaring Itself “Sustainable”
AENTOS does not simply call itself a “sustainable brand.” Recognizing that producing new objects inevitably has an environmental impact, it positions itself as a “responsible brand” that continues to measure, understand, and reduce that impact. This careful language also connects to its view of self-care not as a comforting escape but as an attitude of confronting one’s own choices.
“Certification is not a marketing badge. It is a framework that requires us to be accountable.”
— From AENTOS’s official “Sustainability” page (translated from the original into Japanese; English translation of that Japanese text)
The Perfume Lineup
The first perfume collection, Deep Root, Bold Journey, comprises six creations that made their international debut in Grasse in 2025. What they share is a refusal to set putting down roots in the earth against moving forward from there. Available in two sizes, 30mL and 50mL, all are offered as eaux de parfum at a 20% concentration.
Grounded
Its Chinese name is “坤元 (Kun Yuan).” Mandarin, grapefruit, and lemon are layered with cumin, cardamom, and pine, passing through olibanum, cypriol, Virginian cedar, and orange flower before sinking into patchouli, guaiac wood, incense, ambergris, and amber. Its structure descends from bright citrus into a ritual of earth and smoke.
Behind the creation are memories of one of the founders growing up in southern China and praying to the Earth God on the first and fifteenth days of the lunar month. Traveling to different places as an adult, the founder learned that customs of praying for protection of the land and fruitful harvests also connect with those of Southeast Asia, Japan, and Korea, extending a personal memory into a universal respect for the earth. It won Best Chinese Fragrance at the 2025 GOA.
Solum
It tells a story of growing toward the light while putting down roots in the earth. Ginger, cardamom, petitgrain, and lavandin move into jasmine sambac, cedar, lily of the valley, incense, and orange flower, leaving a quiet trail of patchouli, sandalwood, ylang-ylang, musk, and ambergris.
The gentle warmth of ginger, the softness of lavandin, and the creamy depth of sandalwood express a calmness like a gradual return to balance rather than an intense uplift. It is one of the collection’s most direct expressions of its philosophy.
Sheng
The name means “life,” expressing the moment tiny forms of life awaken in seeds and forest soil. It opens with basil, peppermint, spearmint, and clary sage, passes through cedar, lily of the valley, and mint leaf, and settles into patchouli, white musk, vetiver, and ambergris.
In contrast to the sharp coolness of typical mint perfumes, it leads mint in a soft, warm, slightly animalic direction. Rather than icy air, it is rounded, textured greenery, like rubbing leaves warmed by sunlight.
Nul
It treats the “nothingness” before something begins as the power to return to zero after defeat and rise again. Ginger, mint, birch, cade, cardamom, and elemi are combined with eucalyptus, saffron, jasmine, cedarwood, and leather, finishing with vetiver, myrrh, lavandin, patchouli, labdanum, and musk.
Just before an athlete stands at the starting line, breathing settles and no result yet exists. The fragrance depicts that stillness through a purity reminiscent of a snowy forest and the tension of smoke, resin, and leather. Quiet but not weak, it sharpens the senses for a new beginning.
Caché
French for “hidden.” It draws inspiration from the Greek myth in which Prometheus hid fire in a fennel stalk and carried it to humanity. Bergamot, orange flower, black pepper, fennel, and dong quai are layered with cedar, orris butter, lily of the valley, lavender, and patchouli, with sandalwood, musk, ambergris, and amber giving depth.
At its heart is lush, wild fennel. Dong quai, evocative of traditional Chinese herbs, is layered over it, creating herbal, mysterious shadows behind familiar green notes. The work brings Western mythology and Eastern botanical culture together around the idea of “power concealed within.”
La Racine Sous Peau
Its home-market name is “La Racine Sous Peau,” French for “the root beneath the skin.” Fig leaf, amber, and pink pepper are layered with rose, moss, and cedar, leading into guaiac wood, musk, and ambergris.
The work superimposes roots that support growth without being seen and the heart that beats continuously beneath the skin. The rose at its center does not display its splendor but breathes softly among moss and wood. It is designed to accompany night and rest, continuing quietly close to the skin.
Rather than dividing freshness, flowers, wood, smoke, and resin into separate themes, the six creations bring them together as “movement beginning underground.” To understand the brand’s cultural background, try Grounded; to encounter the vitality of plants, Sheng; for a softer entry point, La Racine Sous Peau. These may help make the collection’s breadth easier to grasp.
Incidentally…
The first store in Shanghai occupied a corner of a lane on Jiaozhou Road in Jing’an District. Rather than a large sales floor presenting a broad selection, it is described as a small, intimate place to spend unhurried time with scent. The current official store directory lists a Xintiandi location in addition to Jiaozhou Road.
The sense of a “reset” recurs in AENTOS’s story. For Maxime, early-morning cycling; for Nul, the silence just before the start; for the brand as a whole, slowing down: each prepares for a new beginning. A key to understanding this brand is its treatment of slow living not as stopping but as active breathing room for the next movement.
Additional Note
Sources differ on the founding year. The official About Us page says products have been developed since 2022, and introductions by authorized Japanese retailers likewise give 2022 as the establishment year. Meanwhile, the official account of the Grasse appearance states that the brand was founded in 2023, and B Lab’s profile also describes product development as beginning in 2023. All are official or authorized accounts of the brand’s history, but they do not explain the reason for the difference between 2022 and 2023.
References
- AENTOS official website, “About Our Perfumer” — https://www.aentoshome.com/pages/about-our-perfumer
- AENTOS official website, “About Us” — https://www.aentoshome.com/pages/about
- NOSE SHOP, “Aentos,” brand introduction — https://noseshop.jp/collections/aentos
- AENTOS official website, “Grasse Perfume Week July 3–5, 2025” — https://www.aentoshome.com/blogs/news/grass-perfume-week-july-3-5-2025
- B Lab Global, “AENTOS – Certified B Corporation” — https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/find-a-b-corp/company/aentos/
- Channel NewsAsia Luxury, “A guide to Shanghai’s indie boutiques and concept stores” — https://cnaluxury.channelnewsasia.com/obsessions/shanghai-indie-boutiques-concept-stores-292921
- AENTOS official website, “Our Fragrance” — https://www.aentoshome.com/pages/our-fragrance
- Sarah C., public LinkedIn profile — https://www.linkedin.com/in/ching-sarah
- AENTOS official website, “AENTOS GOA Award” — https://www.aentoshome.com/blogs/aentos-goa-award
- Fragrantica, “Golden Osmanthus Awards 2025: Winners, Recognized Fragrances, and Key Trends from Shanghai” — https://www.fragrantica.com/news/Golden-Osmanthus-Awards-2025-Winners-Recognized-Fragrances-and-Key-Trends-from-Shanghai-23991.html
- AENTOS official website, “Sustainability” — https://www.aentoshome.com/pages/sustainability
- AENTOS official website, “Grounded Perfume” — https://www.aentoshome.com/products/grounded-%E5%9D%A4%E5%85%83-30ml
- AENTOS official website, “Packaging Philosophy” — https://www.aentoshome.com/pages/packaging-philosophy
- AENTOS official website, “Solum Perfume” — https://www.aentoshome.com/products/solum-30ml
- AENTOS official website, “Sheng Perfume” — https://www.aentoshome.com/products/sheng-30ml
- AENTOS official website, “Nul Perfume” — https://www.aentoshome.com/products/nul-30ml
- AENTOS official website, “Caché Perfume” — https://www.aentoshome.com/products/cache-30ml
- AENTOS official website, “La Racine Sous Peau Perfume” — https://www.aentoshome.com/products/la-racine-sous-peau-30ml
- NOSE SHOP, “La Racine Sous Peau | Roots Dwelling in the Skin” — https://noseshop.jp/products/aen-pf-rp
- AENTOS official website, “Our Retail Stores” — https://www.aentoshome.com/pages/our-retail-stores
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