FUEGUIA 1833

“Such a confusing name when it wasn’t founded in 1833.” “I hate the scent changing from one edition to the next, so I bought a ton of the previous edition.” “My Fueguia collection just keeps multiplying.” “The discount for Argentina winning doesn’t apply online. Crying.” “Their stores are only where wealthy people live.” Fueguia regularly sets Japan’s perfume-obsessed corners of social media buzzing with comments like these. Just who is Julian Bedel? What exactly is Fueguia? I would like to explain this brand, which has not yet left a deep mark on perfume history but inspires such enthusiasm among Japanese fragrance lovers, in as much detail as possible.

Fueguia is born from a fusion of a botanist’s dedication to plants, a chemist’s approach of analyzing fragrance down to the molecular level, and an artist’s intuition. The approaches of botanist, chemist, and artist cannot be separated. We offer not only the scents of nature, but a range of fragrances that let you experience something akin to a musical performance and other experiences.

Julian Bedel, from an interview with WWD Japan

Basic Information

Founded: 2010
Founder: Julian Bedel
Official website: English-language official website (Japanese-language official website)

Founding History

Talking about my life is boring. I think the main aspects of Fueguia are botanical research and our own manufacturing. So yes, I don’t think my story matters as much as the products, or how we make them every day. But, well, my father and I are both artists, and I am also a musician. I play guitars, and sometimes make them. I think of making perfume as something like working in a workshop.

Julian Bedel

Fueguia 1833 was founded in Buenos Aires in 2010 by Argentine artist Julian Bedel and his then business partner Amalia Amoedo, who has since left the company.

Who is Julian Bedel? Born in Buenos Aires in 1978, Julian counts the French entomologist Louis Bedel, the travel writer Maurice Bedel, and Filiberto Oliveira de Cézar among his ancestors. His father and siblings are artists.
He himself had no interest in perfume and was not a perfumer. While making guitars, playing music, and studying painting and sculpture, he reached a major turning point when his father sent him an article about the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. It concerned biologist Linda Buck and neuroscientist Richard Axel’s research into the genome and olfactory receptors, a molecular genetic investigation into how we identify smells. Fascinated by the science of smell, Julian felt this was what he should create through his art and decided to pursue fragrance.
Although he did not come from a family involved in the perfume industry, scents had always been tied to his emotions, and he apparently found it easy to remember the differences between ingredients and the facets of their aromas.

The brand name Fueguia is a tribute to Fuegia Basket, an Indigenous woman from Tierra del Fuego, the island at the southern end of Patagonia in South America, whose name means “Land of Fire.” Her local name was Yokcushlu, and in 1830 she became one of the hostages taken by Robert FitzRoy, a naval officer and captain of the Beagle. She was only nine years old at the time, and the intention was to hold her until the local people returned a boat they had stolen from the Beagle. Despite being a captive, her cheerful smile made her popular aboard the ship. The men who were making a basket boat to replace the stolen boat and return to the Beagle gave her the name Fuegia Basket.
Ultimately, FitzRoy took Yokcushlu to Britain to educate her as part of his plan to “civilize” Tierra del Fuego. There she met important British figures, including the king, Darwin, and various scientists. In 1831, it was decided that she and the other captives should be returned home, and the Beagle began its second voyage, carrying the young Darwin. In his diary, Darwin described her as “a pleasant, modest, reserved young girl, with a rather agreeable but sometimes sullen expression, and very quick to learn anything, especially languages.”
In December 1832, the Beagle finally reached Tierra del Fuego, and its crew returned the three captives, who had been educated for the purpose of civilization, to the local people. The “1833” in Fueguia 1833 comes from the year she returned, though precisely what is correct here remains a mystery. Yokcushlu lived until 1883, and Eduardo Rawson’s 1991 historical novel Fuegia includes a dedication in her memory.

Fueguia’s perfumes are created as tributes to the plants native to South America and its Indigenous communities, almost as if they express through scent the civilization Captain FitzRoy had envisioned.

Patagonia is our point of origin, an undeveloped land with few people where nature reigns. In that environment, local communities harvest the native species we have been looking for through sustainable projects, allowing us to extract unconventional essences. I much prefer supporting communities by buying sustainably grown crops to making a fortune from a popular perfume project. Fueguia is not a popular brand; it is just a small brand that releases a lot of perfumes.

Julian Bedel

Julian conducts botanical research, and in 2016 acquired a 50-acre plantation in Uruguay, roughly the area of four to five Tokyo Domes, where aromatic plants are sustainably cultivated and distilled. The synthetic fragrance ingredients he uses mainly come from Firmenich and Givaudan.
Because the materials are generally harvested from the company’s own farm, supplies are limited and each production run consists of 400 bottles. These runs are called editions, and the scent varies slightly from one edition to the next. When a key ingredient can no longer be harvested, a fragrance is discontinued.
The entire process takes place at Fueguia’s laboratory in Milan, Italy, where Julian composes the perfumes.

Fueguia perfumes are made using facilities borrowed from universities in Patagonia and the Inca region (perhaps now at its own facilities in Italy?). The wooden boxes housing the perfumes are all handmade from wood from Patagonian forests at a carpentry school in Patagonia, with the help of the nonprofit Help Argentina Foundation, which Bedel established with Lloyd Nimetz in 2002. The brand also declares that it never uses plastic.

We noticed that perfumes that did not sell very quickly were getting better with time. So we decided to keep 10% of our production, not sell it, and let it rest for five years. […] This is the concept of the Vintage Cave, and I think we were the first company to do it.

Julian Bedel

Fueguia does not use an olfactory pyramid to describe the principal accords of its perfumes. The pyramid is a traditional French perfumery convention, but Julian, who has no background in that world, uses an “atom” approach that he finds easier to understand. He describes the principal ingredient as the tonic, or keynote, and the two supporting ingredients as the dominant and subdominant.

The pyramid is aimed at salespeople and customers, but the atom should be easy to remember. We are creating a new way to introduce all our many perfumes. So we do not use blotters, nor do we spray perfume into the air. We simply spray it into flasks. The scents do not mix, and the boutique itself does not smell of perfume, so customers can smell the true fragrance inside each flask. Another reason is that I discovered paper does not show the real scent as it smells on skin, and some molecules do not diffuse properly on it.

Julian Bedel

In Japan, the first store opened at the Grand Hyatt Tokyo on October 7, 2015. A second Japanese store opened at Ginza Six in 2021 during the pandemic, and another was scheduled to open at Azabudai Hills in November 2023.

Writing this article left me with the sense that Fueguia offers a range of perfumes almost broad enough for a single brand to satisfy everyone’s individual taste. Perhaps its appeal lies in Julian’s rich sensitivity, an enthusiasm so absorbing that he himself compares it to masturbation, and his extraordinary fixation on Argentina. Personally, I am not especially fond of a brand having at least 100 fragrances. Still, perhaps that number reflects an exceptional gift for inspiration and for carrying an idea through to completion.

Perfume Collections

Fueguia’s perfumes explore Patagonian forests and lakes, passages of literature, music and ritual, and relationships between people and plants. They are grouped by subject into collections such as Destinos, Literatura and Linneo. Even within a single collection, fragrances suggesting cold water sit alongside rich impressions of spirits, wood and smoke.

“It is listening to the perfume,” Julian Bedel says of experiencing a scent. This means allowing time to take in a fragrance rather than judging it at first encounter. Alongside Acorde, which presents a tonic, dominant and subdominant, Melodía lists elements of the scent, while Sensaciones describes associated textures and scenes. Terms such as gunpowder, ink and glacial water can also be understood as the smells and landscapes a perfume evokes.

Exploring Plants, Extracting Materials and Composing Scent

Botanical exploration began in Patagonia and expanded around the world. At Fueguia 1833 Botany in Uruguay, aromatic plants native to South America are cultivated and distilled. Fieldwork with plants and the composition of fragrances at the Milan laboratory both underpin Fueguia’s work. Patagonia remains an important setting for its perfumes, but neither their subjects nor their plants are confined to that region.

The approach to materials is equally varied. In 2022, Bedel explained, “We use synthetic ingredients from natural origins.” His examples included materials obtained through sugar fermentation and synthesizing the same molecules as alternatives to animal-derived materials. His commitment to plants should not be taken to mean that every perfume consists solely of natural essential oils. Extraction, fermentation and work with molecules allow him to isolate the aspects of scent he seeks.

Destinos

Destinos takes places and journeys as its subjects. Alongside South American forests, lakes and plains, it includes memories of sea voyages. The plants visible in a landscape are only part of the picture: cold water, damp ground and the timber of an old ship also help give a place its olfactory character.

La Patagonia evokes a forest holding the memory of ancient plant life. Its principal accords are Paramela, Austrocedrus and Araucaria, surrounded by elements including juniper berries and oakmoss. It is conceived as a humid forest scent, encompassing moss, lichen and sunlight falling on damp undergrowth as well as the trees themselves.

Lago del Desierto turns to Mount Fitz Roy and the ice of Patagonia. Lenga wood and cyclamen appear in its transparent floral composition, alongside impressions of cold water and the watery freshness of cucumber and melon. Compared with the mossy forest of La Patagonia, it evokes the chill of glaciers and mountain water, illuminated by white light.

Beagle moves the journey aboard a ship. Inspired by Darwin’s voyage, it centers on accords suggesting oak barrels, aged rum and gunpowder. Bergamot, mandarin, clove, black pepper, cedar and vetiver contribute to an impression of salt-worn timber, drying plants, spirits and a faintly scorched undertone. Its maritime subject includes the ship’s cargo and human activity, expressed through wood and spice.

Literatura

In Literatura, books and language give rise to scent. The Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges is a particularly important presence. Libraries, labyrinths, dreams, light and shadow find counterparts in impressions of wood, flowers, paper and ink. These perfumes reach beyond the literal reconstruction of a scene toward the spaces and sensations that reading creates.

Biblioteca de Babel evokes Borges’s world of books through the wood, leather and ink of a library. Austrocedrus, cabreuva and cedar bark form its central structure, with cinnamon, violet, tobacco, vanilla and tonka among the surrounding elements. Wood and spice have a sweet lingering quality; textures recalling paper and bindings suggest books accumulated over time.

Elogio de la Sombra is connected to Borges’s poem of the same name. Diminishing sight and the clarity and peace found in darkness are its subjects, expressed through powdery iris, earthy impressions and the brightness of lemon. Rose, violet, chamomile, cedar and sandalwood also appear in its description. The balance of light and shade differs from the uniformly heavy fragrance its dark title might suggest.

Komorebi, whose name is Japanese, also belongs to this collection. It evokes light filtering through trees with accords of cherry blossom, Barba de Viejo and Sombra del Toro, accompanied by ginger, mint, lavender, cardamom and musk. A luminous, translucent floral impression carries a very light saltiness and powderiness. A word drawn from a Japanese landscape becomes a fragrance in which youth and age, light and shade coexist.

Personajes

Personajes gathers stories about people. Naturalists and poets appear alongside figures passed down through Argentine culture. Rather than recreating the perfume someone wore, these compositions translate journeys, thought and encounters into contemporary scent.

Darwin draws on exploration in Patagonia and the observation of plants. This woody citrus composition centers on cedar from Misiones, vetiver and grapefruit, with bergamot, cardamom and patchouli among its other elements. In contrast to Beagle’s impressions of spirits and gunpowder, it places the bitterness and freshness of citrus peel clearly against wood. Subjects connected to the same voyage lead to different olfactory emphases.

Tagore takes its background from the relationship between the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore and the Argentine writer and intellectual Victoria Ocampo. Accords of cardamom, chamomile and coriander, together with ambrette seed, evoke conversations about gardens, poetry and mysticism. Sweetness and aromatic spice are joined by facets suggesting licorice and ripe fruit.

La Cautiva draws on the history of Argentina’s territorial formation and the figure of the captive woman depicted within it. The perfume reinterprets the subject through the idea of people captivating one another. Vanilla, blackcurrant and musk meet rose, patchouli, jasmine and iris in a gourmand composition with fruity, milky softness. The violent historical background and the interpretation chosen for the fragrance need to remain distinct.

Linneo

Linneo focuses on plants and their scents. Its name refers to the naturalist Carl Linnaeus. Flowers, fruits and trees provide starting points, but the perfumes extend beyond putting a single material into a bottle: they also take in the places where plants grow, personal memories and food culture.

Dedicated to the naturalist, Linnaeus is a woody, aromatic composition with principal accords of cedar, bergamot and Cardo Santo. Cardamom, copaiba, incense and vetiver add impressions of citrus, earth, roots and spice. Linnaeus’s work of classifying, naming and observing plants finds an olfactory counterpart in clear wood notes and detailed textures suggesting close attention to roots and leaves.

Fueguier is set in the shade of a fig tree during a midday rest. Fig joins galbanum, green apple, magnolia, petitgrain and rosewood, combining fruit sweetness with green plant impressions. Although its story includes the dry Zonda wind, its texture also suggests the freshness of water left on skin. Leaves and air are part of this fig portrait, alongside the sweetness of the flesh.

Xocoatl centers on vanilla, cacao flower and rum, with tuberose, jasmine, rose, clove, Peru balsam and sandalwood among its accompanying elements. Inspired by myths surrounding cacao and vanilla, it brings flowers, spice and spirits into a sweet gourmand composition. It recalls both the plants behind these flavors and the human imagination that turns them into a special drink, rather than simply reproducing chocolate confectionery.

Fábula Fauna

Fábula Fauna gathers fragrances around the forms and presence of animals. Names include the whale, huemul and jaguar, but reproducing an animal’s bodily smell is not their sole purpose. Surrounding vegetation, the wind and the sensation of observing a living creature also become part of the story.

Ballena de la Pampa depicts a whale enveloped in a warm, dry Patagonian wind. Accords of tobacco, totora and Barba de Viejo are joined by impressions of hay and ambergris. Although its subject is a sea animal, hay, tobacco, honey-like sweetness and evening light come to the fore. Dry grassland and sea air occupy a single scene.

Huemul takes a deer running through Andean forests as its subject, combining musk, canelo and Maniú macho. Ambrette seed, jasmine, massoia, tonka and sandalwood create earthy, milky softness and floral sweetness. Plant-based musk plays an important role in this evocation of an animal’s presence; the name does not mean that fragrance material is obtained from the deer.

Armonías

Armonías translates musical subjects, from a tango voice to a night around a fire, into fragrance. For Bedel, who plays and makes guitars, combining materials also relates to considering the number, intensity and spacing of sounds. The density with which flowers, woods and smoke overlap shapes the character of a composition.

Malena takes a melancholy tango voice and the sound of the bandoneon as its subjects. Magnolia and bergamot are joined by cassis, grapefruit, geranium, rose and patchouli. Alongside a generous fruity floral character, there is a green impression of freshly cut vegetation, placing the emotion of a song within a floral fragrance.

Milonga Verde depicts a night of throwing forest leaves onto a fire and dancing around the smoke. Accords of Algarrobo Negro, Lapacho Rosado and jacaranda leaves are accompanied by cypress leaves, incense, palo santo, cistus, benzoin and myrrh. Green leaves and sweet sap coexist with burning wood, giving the scent a density that goes beyond either bright foliage or dry smoke alone.

Bedel describes it this way: “Milonga Verde is a Wagnerian orchestra with 200 people on stage.” By contrast, he compares Muskara’s exploration of a single plant to a voice and guitar. The comparison does not place one above the other: the same creator works both with a restricted palette and with many elements sounding together.

Antropología

Antropología explores the burning of plants and the use of smoke and scent in ritual. Words evoking prayer and nocturnal forests meet the smells of sage, wood and resin. References to purification and the sacred describe cultural scenes and olfactory subjects here, rather than effects of the finished perfumes.

Los Humos Sagrados depicts a ritual in which plants and wood are burned together. Accords of Oud Patagonia, Palo Santo Andes and sage combine with cedar, amyris and copaiba. Aromatic sage and wood matter as much as smoke in this memory of fire. The story of prayers carried skyward is expressed through the complex smells of burning herbs and timber.

La Luna is set at a nocturnal ritual in Mexico’s Lacandon forest. An offering of copal to the moon goddess is evoked through accords of Xochicopal, Pacurí and copaiba, accompanied by amyris, incense, benzoin, myrrh and cedar. Where Los Humos Sagrados emphasizes sage and fire, La Luna focuses on resin, damp forest and an earthy sweetness.

Alquimia

Alquimia, meaning alchemy, includes fragrances inspired by moonlight, color and the night air. Halo Lunar and Luna Roja both concern the moon, but one turns toward the quiet Patagonian night sky and the other toward intimate human encounters. A shared subject leads to different impressions: the temperature of woods and herbs on one side, and textures suggesting fruit and spirits on the other.

Halo Lunar is inspired by the halo around the moon in the Patagonian night sky. Accords suggesting sandalwood, lavender and ambergris are accompanied by cedar, musk and neroli. The composition combines herbal freshness with a sweet, warm impression of wood.

Luna Roja depicts encounters under a red moon and tango stories of passion and betrayal. Oak barrel, nocturnal rose and Coirón Dulce form its central accords, with hay and vanilla among the other elements. It suggests red wine, warm plums and red fruit, with a metallic impression within its smooth texture.

Muskara

Muskara brings together close-to-the-skin musk and an exploration of a single plant’s scent. Bedel explains that even when working around one plant, he selects and combines materials from different origins and varieties, obtained through different extraction methods. Portraying jasmine means bringing together its diversity, rather than simply using one essential oil.

Muskara Phero J. is a transparent, skin-close fragrance presenting musk and Yerba del Desierto. Bedel treats musk as a language, with the idea of enhancing the wearer’s own smell. It is also positioned as a base for combining with other perfumes. The word pheromone in its name or story, however, does not establish an ability to attract the opposite sex.

Muskara Jasminum brings together several jasmines, grandiflorum, sambac and auriculatum, as well as different extraction methods. Its principal accords are jasmine and Muskara Phero J. The fragrance reaches beyond the beauty of petals toward the presence of the whole plant, including dense green growth and earth.

Muskara Santalum likewise treats different kinds of sandalwood through varied extraction methods. With sandalwood and Muskara Phero J. as its stated accords, it presents the wood at an intimate distance from the skin.

El Mundo de los Ouds

El Mundo de los Ouds pays tribute to oud and to the impulse to connect the earth with the sacred through scent. The perfumes center on oud and musk, but their textures differ in their impressions of forest humidity, greenery, fruit, smoke and sweetness.

Oud Patagonia offers a green, herbal expression with transparency and juicy fruit impressions. In Oud Chaco, dark wood meets smoke and sweetness, evoking a land rich in living presences. Despite their shared oud name, the open greenness of the former differs from the latter’s deep woody character.

Oud Prachin depicts a Thai forest after rain, with gently spiced wood and a lingering smoky impression. A place name in a perfume’s title does not, by itself, establish the origin or species of its agarwood, or the extraction method used.

Editions, Vintage Cave and Pura Esencia

The Roman numerals accompanying a perfume’s name identify its edition. Products with the same designation were made in the same period, while harvest timing and season can introduce variations in scent. Production is described as 400 bottles per batch, made in small quantities with the materials available at that time. Checking the edition as well as the name can help explain differences from a fragrance enjoyed before.

Vintage Cave involves setting aside finished perfumes to explore changes over time. The Japanese guidance checked in November 2026 describes reserving 15% of a production lot for at least five years of aging. The earlier interview quotation above gives 10%; it should be read separately from the current guidance. An older edition still being available is also different from a product deliberately stored and offered as a vintage.

In 2021, Bedel explained that time changes a scent as well as individual distillations do. Citrus impressions may weaken, while he sometimes finds favorable changes in flowers and woods. He also said that the person using the perfume ultimately decides which they prefer. This does not make every older edition or vintage superior to a newer one.

Pura Esencia is a choice of how to wear a scent, distinct from collections organized by subject. Made without dilution in alcohol or solvents, it is presented as an intimate fragrance that settles into the skin and its warmth. A higher concentration does not necessarily mean stronger projection; diffusion and the way the scent develops on skin also matter when comparing it with the regular Perfume format.