Grenadille d'Afrique - Eau de Parfum
A tribute to ancient African Blackwood - and the land that shaped it.
From crackling sap to balmy resin. From smoky wood to sun-heated stone. From purple dusk to ink-black night. GRENADILLE D’AFRIQUE is not merely a portrait of African Blackwood, but of the primal landscape in which it grows.
“It is a surprising, uncompromising and emotional scent,” says master perfumer Alberto Morillas. “The materials are simple, stark and unadorned. Through density and restraint, the fragrance becomes art.”
At the heart of the composition stands African Blackwood (Dalbergia melanoxylon), one of the rarest and most precious woods in the world - known also as grenadilla. Its name, meaning black wood, belies a spectrum of color ranging from deep purple to brown-black. Revered for millennia, it was used by the Ancient Egyptians for sacred objects and furniture, and by the Makonde people of Tanzania - who call it mpingo - for their legendary Tree of Life carvings.
In GRENADILLE D’AFRIQUE, Morillas transforms this noble material into an olfactory sculpture. Aromatic, juniper-laced sap runs from twig to root, while a “trunk” of Haitian vetiver anchors the fragrance with facets of smoke, earth, flint, and dry wood. Around it, vegetal, animalic, and mineral elements converge in quiet tension.
The opening hovers between dusk and dawn. Sparkling bergamot captures the day’s last light, while lavender and violet cast a powdery, violet-hued glow over the savannah. As the fragrance deepens, vanilla - ignited by ambery cistus labdanum - releases a resinous warmth. Bleached wood, skin-soft bark, and sun-seared stone exhale the heat of the day into a dark, cooling night, tempered by a breath of musk.
Morillas describes the result as “fossilized wood rubbed in a vanilla accord” - a composition of striking contrast, where darkness is illuminated from within. GRENADILLE D’AFRIQUE occupies a rare place on the scent map: where woods and resins meet ink, stone, and silence.
Now housed in a refined new vessel - fluted glass with peacock-blue accents and a matte black, insignia-stamped cap - GRENADILLE D’AFRIQUE enters its next chapter within the Aedes de Venustas collection.
OLFACTIVE NOTES
African blackwood accord, vetiver, cistus labdanum, juniper, vanilla, bergamot, lavender, violet.
ADDITIONAL INFO
- Created in 2016
- Perfumer: Alberto Morillas
- Unisex
INGREDIENTS
ALCOHOL DENAT, PARFUM, AQUA, Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate, Butyl methoxydibenzoylmethane, Ethylhexyl Salicylate, Triethanolamine, CITRIC ACID, CITRAL, COUMARIN, EUGENOL, FARNESOL, GERANIOL, HEXYL CINNAMAL, LIMONENE, LINALOOL
ABOUT THE BRAND
AEDES DE VENUSTAS is turning a new page in the AEDES DE VENUSTAS story with the relaunch of the perfume collection in November 2021.
The relaunch begins with a reintroduction of seven of the existing fragrances: its first, Signature (2012), Iris Nazarena (2013), Copal Azur (2014), Palissandre d’Or (2015), Cierge de Lune (2016), Grenadille d’Afrique (2016), and Pelargonium (2017).
The finished works are presented in a re-designed fluted glass bottle marked by peacock blue accents, a matte black insignia-stamped cap, and a sleek yet weighty design that marks the next chapter in the AEDES DE VENUSTAS story. The particular peacock blue shade is a nod to the original location of AEDES PERFUMERY on Christopher Street, the birthplace of the brand and so much of its ethos.
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