The Ascentium
Contemplate a perfume
Decomposing a fragrance
«Sense of smell, vital sense for our ancestors that the modern man has denied and the contemporary one should re-educate thanks’ to perfume.» Edmond Roudnitska, famous perfumer at Dior, L’Esthétique en question.
The Ascentium is an object decomposing the fragrance notes of a perfume. It allows understanding better the complexity of a perfume and the work of the perfumer. The perfumes are not just to be smelled but contemplated.
Olfactory ritual
The first step is to put just a drop of perfume in the bottom of the Ascentium. The head notes are the first to rise up to the top of the scent carafe. They are composed of lighter molecules which evaporate first.
The second step is to warm up the perfume thanks to a double boiler to rise up the heart notes and then the base notes, which are the heaviest.
The perfume changes, evolves during the ritual. The scents are decomposed to be, in the end, better understood back together.
Research / Development
The main technical issue to design the Ascentium was to consider the perfume as a raw material and to understand how it reacts. I was inspired by the retronasale nares which link the mouth and the nose. Those nares, located behind the nose, allow the olfactory molecules of the food to reach the nose thanks to the mouth heat.
PUBLICATIONS
Dezeen.com
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Milk Decoration Magazine number 17
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Exhibition “Scents and Fragrances” at the Museum of Craft and Design of San Francisco by the IMF foundation