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The Ghost In The Shell

  • Vegan
  • Cruelty Free
  • Sustainable

100ML / 3.4FL OZ - EAU DE PARFUM

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In stock at the shop on Grand Avenue — choose pickup at checkout, or come smell it in person.

565 Grand Ave, Carlsbad, CA 92008

Tue–Sat 11am–6pm · Sun 11am–4pm

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More in the Amber, Musk & Animalic family

The Story

Fresh, Floral

A fragrance from the future; where nature and technology meet and complement each other. A fusion of liquid-scented Aqual™ and Yuzu bring to life a citrusy metallic freshness. While the velvety skin and juicy fruitiness of peach and pear form a metaphor for human flesh and intertwine with a human heart of Jasmine. A hybrid, superhuman body, between natural and synthetic, whose vital force is born from the power of amber woods and the chrome minerals of moss.

Aqual™, Yuzu HE, Hexyl Acetate (MANE Biotech), Jasmin absolute Mugane™, Milky Skin Accord, Moss Accord, Vinyl Gaiacol (MANE Biotech), Orcanox™

A fusion of liquid-scented Aqual™ and Yuzu bring to life a citrusy metallic freshness. This is a metaphor for human flesh, as the velvety skin and juicy fruitiness of peach intertwine with Hexyl Acetate, an enigmatic ingredient derived from biotechnology, with the scent of a green, melting pear.

The precious soul of jasmine is embodied through contact with Mugane™, a research molecule booster of floral vibrancy. The heart becomes humanized with a nourishing accord that replicates the scent of milk and skin.

A hybrid, superhuman body, between natural and synthetic, whose vital force is born from the power of amber woods and the chrome minerals of moss. A duality animated by the carnal imprint of Vinyl Gaiacol, duplicating the amber and animal biotechnological DNA of vanilla.

“It is a night of pale moonlight, a night toward the end of the 20th century, a night when the old world is ending and the new one is beginning. It is a night when one trembles to boldly lower the sacred cross against the heart, to aid in the passage to fatherhood.

So, as a crucifix, that night I pick up Hyperion, a novel by Dan Simmons. This is a masterful science fiction saga that celebrates the infinite legend of the French Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who was a 20th century researcher, palaeontologist, theologian and philosopher.

And I read, pacified, until the reflections of the dawn, until the first golden rays of the East. I read the future of man, the celebration of transhumanism and the qualitative leap of humanity enhanced by machine. I have rarely loved a book this much, I have rarely loved a thinker this much.

I read that night what a man thought he saw in the tombs of time.

I am a lover of words in the service of materials when they come together to make poetry in the bottom of our bottles; thus, a few years ago, I bring up the work of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin to one of the last living vestiges of the triumphant 20th century, and I ask him: - "Then Teilhard de Chardin, precursor of genius?" A look, a silence and for the answer four unexpected words, four words whispered by my father: “THE GHOST IN THE SHELL".

This is the act of birth that makes the spirit of perfume. The rest is poetry to live on the skin. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin died in 1955, but his spirit continues to travel. This fragrance extends it through an alliance with the Japanese artist Shirow Masamune to transcend the spirit of Earth.

By mixing biotech and natural materials, this perfume silently celebrates the wake of the future and also whispers of a day to come, by providence or chance, when humanity is reunited and organized. A day when all consciousness is summoned by the infosphere to constitute a superior being and pass from the inert to the living. As the molecules assemble to make the living, we will then make a qualitative leap that becomes the starting point and arrival of transhumanism.

This perfume is the future. It comes to us from the 20th century.

The Ghost in the Shell, a perfume that speaks of the human phenomenon and its paradox, a perfume to wear on oneself ab libitum, at one’s pleasure. A perfume as a propagation towards the other, that makes you the axis and the arrow of evolution; modern, indeed!

From the bottom of the matter, rise up.”

-Etienne de Swardt

The House

Etienne de Swardt founded Etat Libre d'Orange in 2006 and named the house for the Orange Free State of his South African birthplace — the autonomous republic that, briefly, lived by its own rules. The house carries that spirit of independence into fragrance: liberated, flamboyant, and unafraid to provoke. Where most perfumery aims to please, Etat Libre d'Orange aims to challenge — sometimes with subjects polite houses would avoid entirely.

The Perfumer

Julie Masse