The air is getting cooler, the days are getting shorter, and already our senses are seeking warmth elsewhere, in materials, sounds and scents. To satisfy this need for softness and comfort, there is nothing like amber and woody scents. Provided you know how to reinvent them. This is precisely what Above Us, Steorra, Céline Barrel's latest creation for Aesop, offers. The promise? An amber scent stripped of all artifice to retain only its light. Inspired by a shooting star, the fragrance explores the dialogue between sky and stone, between incandescence and silence. A sensual and philosophical tension that the perfumer recounts here, behind the scenes of a fragrance that is incandescent and grounded, airy and earthy at the same time.
Sirine Errammach: What was the inspiration for Above Us Steorra?
Céline Barrel: It all started with a shooting star: a simple and poetic idea – what if we could bottle that brief incandescent moment?
To understand the brief more deeply, I immersed myself in the world of Aesop, so closely linked to design and architecture. I particularly remember the ceiling of the Collins Street boutique in Melbourne: a matte, ethereal surface made of crushed Aesop bottles embedded in concrete. It immediately reminded me of stardust, something refined and luminous, but also grounded and earthy.
The brief also referred to a poem by Mayuzumi Madoka, Shooting Star, a photograph of the night sky and the many shades of amber. These elements inspired me to create a tension between the celestial and the mineral, light and matter, the intellectual and the sensual.
I wanted the fragrance to reproduce the sensation of a glowing star, round and mineral at its heart, with an ardent trail. To achieve this, I worked with a strong concentration of spices – cardamom, incense, pepper, cumin – removing the sweet and powdery facets of amber to reinforce the woods, spices and resins. The result is an olfactory light: a fragrance that is thoughtful, vibrant and unmistakably Aesop.
Sirine Errammach: Amber is a highly codified material in perfumery. What was your approach to offering a new interpretation of it?
C. B.: I built it around the duality between an imaginary amber, which we call the ‘fabulist accord’, created from incense, labdanum and vanilla pod, and the radical ingredient that is cardamom, raw and unfiltered.
Voir cette publication sur Instagram
Sirine Errammach: What was the biggest challenge in creating the composition?
C. B.: The challenge was to subtract, to eliminate everything that was expected, while creating something rich, dimensional and accomplished. Amber is generally synonymous with softness, powder and sweetness. I wanted to move away from that, to create an amber that was elemental. Primal. Stoic. Almost philosophical. Something that expresses the idea that true pleasure comes not from excess, but from the essential. The goal was to create a fragrance that was both reduced and expansive, giving an impression of purity without falling into simplicity. It's an extremely delicate balance.
I also like to think of it as the invention of a new branch in the amber family: spicy amber, but radically minimalist. Most amber fragrances are dense, powdery, almost heavy with nostalgia. This one defies gravity.
Sirine Errammach: Any anecdotes from the creative process to share?
C. B.: From the outset, the brief was demanding: Aesop wanted an amber fragrance without the usual ingredients. No rich flavours or excessive sweetness. So I rethought what amber could be, under the concept of Bare Amber, a stripped-down, minimalist interpretation, where each ingredient had to be justified.
A very personal aspect for me was the use of cistus labdanum. I know this plant intimately, as it grows in my native region in the south of France. I used both the resin and the twigs and leaves: the resin brings a crackling intensity, almost like a fire on wood, while the twigs and leaves evoke something mystical, almost sacred.
Sirine Errammach: In three words, how would you describe it?
C. B.: It is airy, celestial, luminous.
Sirine Errammach: What does the juice evoke for you?
C. B.: In my opinion, it's the most sensual fragrance Aesop has ever created. There's something primal and sensual about the interaction between cumin, resins and warm spices. It evokes physical closeness, an animalistic depth, but always botanical and elegant. It's neither cloying nor sweet, but golden and incandescent.
Sirine Errammach: The ideal person to give it to?
C. B.: Above Us, Steorra will appeal to lovers of modern opulence as well as those who adore amber, woody and spicy notes. It is a fragrance for those who seek the comfort of amber without heaviness or sweetness, for the discreetly elegant, those who like to be noticed subtly, by connoisseurs.
Translated by Bethszabee Garner
