Aramis: The First Prestige Brand to Change the Rules of Men’s Fragrance

アラミスの世界観と代表製品「Aramis Classic Eau de Toilette 110 ml」を表現したブランドイメージ

“Aramis told men that they, too, could wear a pleasant scent and have smooth skin.”

— From the official heritage of The Estée Lauder Companies

Basic Information

The Founder and the Brand’s Origins

The Woman Behind the Name: Estée Lauder

To understand the men’s fragrance brand Aramis, one must first understand its creator, Estée Lauder.

Estée Lauder was born to immigrant parents in Queens, New York. A turning point in her childhood came when she met her uncle, Dr. John Schotz, who had come from Hungary. A chemist, he made skin-care creams by hand in his home kitchen. In her autobiography, Estée: A Success Story (1985), she recalled the experience as follows.

“My uncle captivated me more than anyone I had ever met. He understood me. And, what was more, he worked miracles. From secret recipes, he made magical creams. They were truly magic potions that made the skin as soft as silk and made little imperfections disappear.”

This experience became the foundation of her later beauty empire. In 1946, she founded the Estée Lauder company with her husband, Joseph Lauder. With little capital to spend on advertising, she developed a “tell-a-woman,” or word-of-mouth, marketing strategy based on distributing samples. The official timeline records her first department-store order, from Saks Fifth Avenue, in 1947 (some sources date her first department-store launch to 1948). In 1953, she launched Youth Dew, which served as both a bath oil and a perfume. It sold 50,000 bottles in its first year and helped turn the company into a multimillion-dollar business.

Recognizing the “Uncharted Territory” of the Men’s Market

As the 1960s began, Estée Lauder accelerated her brand’s international expansion. Alongside further growth in women’s cosmetics, she began to consider the enormous, largely untapped men’s market. At the time, perfume and cosmetics were widely regarded as products for women, and prestige men’s fragrances with broad department-store distribution were not yet firmly established.

Estée Lauder therefore made a bold wager: a vision of placing men’s fragrance and grooming products on department-store counters that had previously been the exclusive domain of women’s cosmetics.

How the Launch Unfolded: A Men’s Market Built Through Samples

In 1963, Estée Lauder used her distinctive marketing approach to introduce Aramis to the men’s market. She slipped small sample bottles of Aramis into gift-with-purchase bags for female customers. Her idea was that women would pass them on to their husbands or boyfriends.

On November 18 of that year, Aramis made its official debut at Neiman Marcus in Dallas. Estée’s eldest son, Leonard Lauder, led the launch. A local television appearance took place the same day, and Aramis’s first five products were introduced: its signature cologne, spray shower oil, deodorant, bath soap, and skin conditioner. The packaging featured brown boxes recalling the parent Estée Lauder brand, accented with “Lauder blue” stripes.

In 1964, Aramis, Inc. was established as a separate business division. In 1965, it received an exclusive advance launch at Harrods in London.

The official heritage of The Estée Lauder Companies records the brand’s tagline as follows.

“‘Real Men Use Scent’ (meaning that real men wear fragrance): Aramis told men that they, too, could wear a pleasant scent and have smooth skin.”

Perfumer Bernard Chant: The Genius Who Created Aramis

Aramis’s fragrance was created by the French perfumer Bernard Chant, who served as head perfumer at IFF (International Flavors & Fragrances).

Chant was a master of patchouli-centered chypres: complex fragrance structures weaving together citrus, oakmoss, woods, and leather. His creations were known for projecting an “overwhelming presence despite their restrained expression.” His style is often described in perfume criticism in terms such as these.

“Like a symphony, he carefully layers each individual material. Chant’s chypres have an animalic shading, yet before you realize it, they are simply there: that is how they are structured.”

Before Aramis, Chant had created Cabochard for Grès in 1959. It was a women’s fragrance combining aldehydes and a leather chypre with powerful green notes. A fragrance researcher later analyzed the relationship in these terms.

“Strictly speaking, the intensely floral core was subsequently removed from the original sketch for Cabochard (1959), and that became the basis of the formula at the heart of Aramis (1965).”

In other words, Aramis was a masterpiece that took the structure of a women’s perfume as its template and rewrote it for men. Chant won high regard in the industry for this skill, and went on to create Estée Lauder’s Azurée (1969) and Aromatics Elixir (1971) for its Clinique brand, among other fragrances. Bernard Chant died in 1987.

The Origin of the Name: The Third Musketeer

The name Aramis comes from the character in Alexandre Dumas’s novel The Three Musketeers (1844). In the novel, Aramis is a complex, enigmatic figure who combines diplomatic flexibility and skill with a sword with religious convictions. Estée Lauder saw in this multifaceted gentleman, with his courage, refinement, and intelligence, an ideal for her men’s brand.

The Brand’s Commitments

A Philosophy That Men, Too, Should Enjoy Grooming

What distinguishes Aramis from other brands is a founding philosophy that extends beyond simply making pleasant fragrances: elevating men’s grooming into a cultural ritual in its own right.

According to official information from The Estée Lauder Companies, Aramis approached the men’s grooming market from the outset with a “master plan of 20 products.” Alongside staples such as cologne, aftershave, and bath soap, its early range included forward-looking products: Mark-Out to conceal dullness, Eye Pads to soothe tired eyes, the ten-minute Pick-Up Mask, and All-Weather Hand Cream to prevent rough hands. At the time, the very sight of men’s skin-care products on department-store counters was a social innovation.

Department-Store Distribution as a Strategic Choice

Aramis’s greatest impact on the history of men’s fragrance was establishing a department-store sales model. Before it, a culture of widely purchasing high-quality men’s perfumes in department stores had not yet taken firm root. Aramis filled that gap and can be said to have helped pave the way for later men’s fragrance brands such as Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, and Giorgio Armani.

Perfumer Roja Dove praised its significance in these words.

“Aramis was the first perfume to combine fresh cologne notes with sexy, alpha-male notes, and that made it a true icon.” (From an article in The Telegraph.)

On another occasion, Roja Dove also said the following.

“Aramis is an incredibly sophisticated and distinctive fragrance. It has inspired countless men’s fragrances over the years, but no one has yet created a version that surpasses it.”

Attention to Packaging Design

The original packaging in 1963 paid homage to the parent Estée Lauder brand while presenting a sophisticated design of masculine brown boxes with “Lauder blue” stripes. Later flagship products continued to retain a classic, timeless appearance.

In 2012, the brand introduced the Aramis Perfume Calligraphy series, developed specifically for the Middle Eastern market. Featuring Arabic calligraphy by graphic designer Tarek Atrissi, the packaging won acclaim for its black-and-gold palette, and the range became a bestseller at Harrods and in duty-free stores across the Arab world.

The Fragrance Lineup

The Aramis fragrance range has a rich legacy accumulated over at least 60 years. Below are some representative fragrances and their characteristics.

Aramis (Aramis Classic, First Unveiled in 1963)

The starting point of it all: Bernard Chant’s masterpiece of leather chypre. Its top combines distinctive herbal and bitter notes such as bergamot, artemisia (mugwort), gardenia, and cumin. The heart contains clary sage, patchouli, and iris. In the base, patchouli, sandalwood, vetiver, tree moss, leather, castoreum, amber, and musk overlap. In 1995, it received the FiFi Fragrance Hall of Fame Award.

Aramis 900 (Around 1973)

Sources give either 1973 or 1974 as its launch year. The fragrance grew out of the 900 Collection, which focused on hair care. A sibling to Aramis Classic, it is a more herbal, fresher chypre. It was repackaged and reissued in the Gentleman’s Collection in 2009.

Devin (1977)

A green chypre by Bernard Chant. Pine needles, galbanum, aldehydes, and oakmoss give this fragrance its distinctive, nature-evoking character.

JHL (Around 1981–1982)

An oriental-spicy fragrance. Sources differ on the perfumer, attributing it to either Bernard Chant or Josephine Catapano. Cinnamon, carnation, benzoin, sandalwood, and rose overlap in a warm, rich scent. It was included in the 2009 Gentleman’s Collection reissues.

Tuscany Per Uomo (1984)

The first fragrance created for Aramis outside the United States, in Florence, Italy. This aromatic-fougère masterpiece opens with bright citrus notes of lime, bergamot, lavender, and lemon, followed by a heart of caraway, orange blossom, tarragon, and anise, before settling into leather, oakmoss, patchouli, and sandalwood. The packaging was inspired by Tuscany’s warm red roof tiles.

New West for Him (1988)

A fresh fragrance ahead of its time, anticipating the aquatic accord.

Havana (1994)

An oriental fragrance combining tobacco and spice with woody notes. It has a devoted following as a scent evoking the sensual atmosphere of Cuba, so beloved by Hemingway.

Aramis Life (2003)

A fragrance inspired by tennis legend Andre Agassi. In 2006, Aramis Always followed, also featuring his wife, Steffi Graf.

Perfume Calligraphy (From 2012)

A unisex fragrance series for the Middle Eastern market. Bottles decorated with Arabic calligraphy housed combinations of materials associated with the region, including oud, cardamom, rose, and saffron. The original Calligraphy appeared in 2012, followed by Calligraphy Rose in 2013 and Calligraphy Saffron in 2014. The range became a bestseller at Harrods and in Middle Eastern airport duty-free stores.

Intuition by Aramis (2025)

A new release announcing a new chapter for the brand. With former National Basketball Association (NBA) superstar Dwyane Wade as its global ambassador, it launched globally in August 2025. This woody, green neo-fougère is built around the concept of a new masculinity: emotional intelligence (EQ) alongside IQ, sensitivity alongside strength, and purpose alongside power.

Wade said the following.

“I am delighted to be part of the Aramis family. Aramis is a brand that aligns with my values, and Intuition embodies modern masculinity and confidence. Fragrance is about how you present yourself to the world; your scent is your vibe.”

The Brand’s Evolution and Present Day

In October 2021, The Estée Lauder Companies announced the closure of its Aramis & Designer Fragrances (ADF) division. Alongside Aramis itself, this division included licensed fragrances for Tommy Hilfiger, Michael Kors, Donna Karan, DKNY, and Ermenegildo Zegna. The Aramis brand itself, however, was not to be discontinued entirely; it was to move to another division within Estée Lauder.

Some flankers and grooming products were discontinued, but the core Aramis Classic remained. With the release of Intuition in 2025, the brand is seeking to bridge the gap to a new generation.

Lab Series, the skin-care division born from Aramis in 1987, was separated into an independent brand in 2005 and continues to help lead the men’s skin-care market.

By the Way…

  • Within the first year after Aramis Classic’s debut, a decision had been made that Leonard Lauder would acknowledge as a mistake. When dedicated Aramis counters were introduced in 1964, the Aramis samples that mothers and wives had previously bought alongside other purchases at Estée Lauder counters were no longer in their view, and sales fell. Leonard Lauder himself later admitted that this decision had been a mistake.
  • Aramis was born from the fragrance structure of the women’s perfume Cabochard. In that sense, it can be described as a women’s perfume rewritten for men. Bernard Chant also used the same chypre approach for Clinique’s women’s masterpiece Aromatics Elixir and Estée Lauder’s Azurée, creating a family of scents that might be called the Chant universe.
  • It has also been said that “in fragrance, Aramis has become almost a genre in itself.” Sixty years after its launch, leading contemporary perfumers still speak of Aramis as an unsurpassed benchmark.
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