This majestic scent is a true niche perfume. It came to my collection years ago, I do not remember where and when. What I do remember is that from the fist smell I was torn between ‘beautiful’ and ‘too serious’. It never became one of my most beloved perfumes, but always had a special place in the area where I keep my favourites. Writing this it becomes quite clear how strange that might sound, but the perfume’s effect on people is not easily described.
“00 Auriel” opens with a lot of cassis berries, but is soon combined with roses, spices and oud. The perfume does not drown you in oud, but it is carefully present. The combination becomes very unique and inherently well connected, like the overall impression of a strong personality. The cassis berries are very present all the time.
The fragrance is not cheerful or happy-go-lucky, it is calm and deep and serious. It is also positive.
On the ODIN New York website “00 Auriel” does no longer feature, but the scent notes are named on the original label that I stuck on the bottle. They read as follows: cassis berries, coriander, black pepper, rose absolute, jasmine sambac, muget, agarwood, sandalwood, patchouli, and labdanum.
On the parfumo and the FRAGRANTICA platforms the notes given sightly differ, but the direction is clear:
The parfumo platform names blackcurrant, coriander, Malabar pepper, jasmine sambac, lily of the valley, rose absolute, labdanum, oud, patchouli, and sandalwood.
The FRAGRANTICA platform mentions cassis, blackcurrant, pepper, coriander, rose, jasmine sambac, lily of the valley, and oud.
Pepper and coriander are definitely there; they give a certain sharpness to the perfume. The labdanum does the opposite. It gives perfumes a special soft and warm twist, also some noblesse. Wonderful labdanum is far too rarely used in perfumes, unfortunately!
The colour of “00 Auriel” is a very dark red.
ODIN New York is a shop and a brand founded by Eddy Hain and Paul Birardi in 2004. I have only one source that named the two founders (the website of Berlin based ‘The Different Scent’). As the website of ODIN New York gives exceptionally little information on the founders or the history of the label, I decided to mention the names I got. Still, most about the brand stays in the dark. The website only shows ODIN’s own brand products and the other products that are sold by the shop.
ODIN New York created a bunch of perfumes between 2009 and 2015. “00 Auriel” was the last, and the only one created in 2015. Unfortunately, it is also one of the few that is not available any more. “01 Sunda” from 2009 is still produced and can be ordered. The numbers in the perfume’s names seemed to follow the creation order – except “00 Auriel” that came last and made it number wise to the start of the list. It is not possible for me to find out what stood behind the decisions and also not who the perfumer was. Whilst for the other fragrances the perfumers are mostly named, this is not the case with “00 Auriel”.
It seems the perfume was also special for the owners of ODIN New York. The rating of the fragrance on both perfume platforms is high – why it is no longer available stays a mystery to me.
The naming of the ODIN New York perfumes seems also not to follow a clear rule. Whilst “00 Auriel” is the name of an angel, others are named after geographical areas and others cannot be clearly assigned. Naming a new (mainly men’s clothes) boutique and a brand ODIN, after the mightiest god of the Germanic-Celtic mythology, is also something that stays unexplained.
With “00 Auriel” we have a masterful perfume with an unknown perfumer “nose” before us, one that certainly combines all the mysteries of the brand and the naming. This is quite fitting. The perfume is far from common or run-of-the-mill.
I am glad I own my bottle of “00 Auriel”. After re-discovering it now, I will use it more often. The scent deserves to be smelled. Let us -at the same time- curiously watch if something new is created by ODIN New York sooner or later. There could be a gem hidden.