I’ve talked on here before about certain scents more challenging to noses. These are not the mass appeal scents you’ll typically see from designer fragrances a la Eau Sauvage EDT or Montblanc’s Explorer. No, these sort of fragrances are liable to make someone else in the room think something died.
Gaea from Centauri Perfumes is one such fragrance. The house was founded by fragcomm YouTuber, Peter Carter. To Carter’s credit, he develops and mixes his own fragrances and invested his own money into this line as opposed to getting an investor or crowdfunding. I can respect that.
Founded in 2019, Centauri currently has three fragrances to its lineup, each representing part of the concept of Past, Present, and Future. Gaea represents the present. Let’s take a dive into the notes.
Gaea Notes
Honey, earthy notes, green leaves, apple, tuberose, rose, orris root, wormwood, ambergris, patchouli, lavender, cedar.
So that’s quite a mix there of florals, woods, herbals, and more which indeed makes for a very challenging scent, even to those with well developed noses.
Verdict
Let me preface this by saying I have no problem with trying out challenging scents. I quite enjoy a lot of them or at least appreciate them for the art that went into them. I appreciate the olfactory effect Imaginary Authors achieved with Bull’s Blood, and I own a bottle of Barrister and Mann’s uber-challenging Leviathan. I absolutely ADORE hyraceum (aka Africa Stone), I love how f*cking dirty it is and how it manifests in offerings such as Hyrax from Zoologist, Tropic of Capricorn from Olympic Orchids, and Mayura from Auphorie. I am not afraid of, nor do I naturally shy away from, trying challenging scents.
However… to borrow from a popular lexicon… this ain’t it.
I never want to be mean in my reviews because there’s enough negativity in the world. What I’m about to say is just how this smells to ME, personally, and because I’m really not sure how else to phrase this.
Gaea smells like a sidewalk caked in dried human urine.
I can only love skanky scents so far. My nose doesn’t pick up these wonderful scents of nature so much as a muddled vestige of a neglected sidewalk found in any larger city area. Or, so we’re not picking on the cities as much, that one tree or shrub area of the fishing hole where everyone goes to do their business.
Now, obviously, others have said they enjoy this fragrance, and if you’re one of them, more power to you! If your nose is picking up what the perfumer intended that’s wonderful!
Gaea just isn’t doing anything for me. (Though it has a bitching cool bottle!)
That said, even if I DID enjoy this scent I could still recognize that this is NOT an office-appropriate fragrance. This is not a mass transit or plane (whenever it’s safe again) appropriate fragrance. And it sure as shit isn’t a first date-appropriate fragrance. Gaea is the type of fragrance you wear when you’re alone and can enjoy it without offending everyone around you. Just like I would not wear a scent with my beloved hyraceum around unwitting victims, you should not wear this around anyone else who has a sense of smell and can’t get away from you.
If you want to get your hands on Gaea and see if it’s right for you, Luckyscent sells a 1 mL sample for $7. If you’re brave enough to plunge for a full bottle, it’ll run you $145 for a 30 mL bottle.
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The Fandomentals “Fragdomentals” team base our reviews off of fragrances that we have personally, independently sourced. Any reviews based off of house-provided materials will be explicitly stated.
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