By: Tucyard [ Instagram ]
Edited by: XEONIQ [ Instagram | Tumblr ]
The cyberpunk genre has been comprehensively mapped out in terms of its visual and auditory aesthetics by dozens of films, anime and video games over the years [ Explore SHELLZINE’s Cyberpunk Media Index ]. One aspect that hasn’t been able to be explored considerably is what cyberpunk smells like. In this article, Tucyard speculates on this question and reviews two of the most accessible and popular cyberpunk-themed fragrances that one can buy and wear today.
Finding The Scent of Neo Tokyo
Imagine that you suddenly find yourself in a cyberpunk future. The year is 2049, it’s a dark, moonless night but you’re blinded by a horde of neon signs. Hovercraft whir past you and from somewhere in the distance you hear undefined mechanical whirring noises. Steam from a nearby duct on the street tickles your skin. But what exactly do you smell?
Depending on the environment it will wildly differ. In a dystopian futuristic metropolis, the scent of roses and jasmine will probably be faint at most; contained only in the walled off gardens of an uber-elite ruling class. Maybe the streets are covered in filth and oil is leaking from broken down engines. It’s damp and cold and you only have a cracked and heavily-worn leather jacket to keep yourself warm.
Perhaps there is even chemical waste flowing into the drainage system right on the sidewalk. The very recognisable smell of gunpowder still lingers in the air from a violent police chase. All in all, we could imagine that the fragrance of a dystopian city would be gritty, industrial and most likely dirty.
On the other hand, a sterile, techno-futuristic city should smell vastly different: sharp, artificial notes, sanitized with no room for dirt whatsoever. The need for organic materials is long gone with superior engineered alternatives available. You’re surrounded by objects made out of plastic, metal, glass, and silicon.
All trees have been felled a few decades ago, and now green liquid tanks produce the oxygen you breathe. In fact, you are not even eating the bugs anymore, instead you are fed recycled, synthesized matter of indeterminate origin, guaranteed by your city-state’s corporate overlords to fulfil all your nutritional needs. The scent surrounding a person living in this environment should be minimal, but distinctly artificial.
Two Contending Cyberpunk Perfumes: Cyber Garden & The Ghost In The Shell
Two of the more readily available cyberpunk-inspired fragrances are Cyber Garden by Costume National and The Ghost In The Shell by Etat Libre d’Orange.
Costume National is an Italian fashion house that started selling perfumes in 2002. Etat Libre d’Orange (ELDO) on the other hand was founded in 2006 as a fragrance house first and foremost. They are known for creating unusual fragrances, far away from the mainstream.
Released in 2013, Cyber Garden sports top notes (which are smelled initially upon application) of grapefruit, ether, bergamot and pink pepper. These transform into heart notes (the core of the perfume) of violet leaf, vinyl, geranium, and saffron after a few hours. At the end we are left with base notes of moss, opoponax, vetiver, labdanum and patchouli. It’s a “green”, synthetic and fresh fragrance.
The concept of Cyber Garden is quite clear; the scent of an artificial garden in a future where plants don’t exist or are not needed. The green bottle accentuates this aspect.
The Ghost In The Shell, more recently released in 2021, is ELDO’s officially licensed GITS fragrance and is described as: “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“.
ELDO’s The Ghost In The Shell offers top notes of hexyl acetate, yuzu and aqual. The heart notes are sensual skin accord, jasmine absolute and mugane. Finally, the base notes are vinylguaiacol, orcanox and moss.
This fragrance has a less straightforward vision than Cyber Garden, and ELDO describes it as the combination of biotech and natural ingredients: a form of transhumanism. As the name suggests, it’s an homage to Ghost in the Shell by Shirow Masamune, however Etienne de Swardt (founder of ELDO, but not the perfumeur of this particular fragrance) dedicated this scent to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and his work on transhumanism.
Impressions and Personal Review
I acquired tester samples and wore each fragrance for a few days to perform a small review of impressions in the context of wearing a “cyberpunk” perfume.
Cyber Garden
The fragrance instantly opens up with a very industrial PVC scent, almost like vinyl that has been exposed to the sun for a long time, but not yet charred. This scent accord is very unique and gives Cyber Garden an unusual twist not often found in traditional fragrances. I found this quite fitting for a futuristic perfume with a science fiction reference.
Giving it some time, facets of green enter the stage, notably violet leaf and moss. Still, the scent continues to emit a very synthetic quality. Most of the time, this trait isn’t positively connotated, as synthetic fragrances are often seen as cheap – as it doesn’t take much skill to create a synthetic fragrance. In the case of Cyber Garden, this synthetic quality doesn’t feel cheap at all, it’s what sets it apart. This aspect makes it different from the thousand of other green scents that are found everywhere in so many variants. I feel that Cyber Garden offers a unique spin on the green genre with its intentionally synthetic notes.
Cyber Garden is well composed and interesting, however the accord that some perceive as burnt vinyl might turn some off.
At this point I want to add that scent pyramides are never truly accurate and that scents change both with reformulations as well as with different people’s skin. A fragrance from the same bottle may not smell the same on two different people. In the case of Cyber Garden, the whole cocktail is mixed quite well and it’s not easy to make out any one note, except the vinyl accord. To me, having the notes blended well is a sign of proper perfumery, but some may prefer more easily discernible notes.
The Ghost In The Shell
Reviewing an ELDO fragrance is always a challenge, they can be quite ethereal. At first there is a twist of citrus but most prominent to me is the combination of something “milky” with yuzu. The milky aspect comes from the skin-accord and it doesn’t really smell like cow milk, it’s closer to a plant’s “milk” or sap juice. Although again, that is very ethereal as a note.
While the skin/milk accord gets more dominant, a very fleeting hint of PVC shines through every now and then, making the fragrance a lot more interesting, particularly as a cyberpunk fragrance. Transparent PVC has been a staple of costuming in the genre’s films and has been represented in consumer electronics with similar DIY “hacker” themes.
ELDO’s The Ghost In The Shell feels a lot more abstract than Cyber Garden, and at the same time it might also be less tangible. In fact, it might not be even perceived as a fragrance due to it heavily using the skin-accord. Whether this is a good or bad thing is up to the wearer.
Which Fragrance is more “Cyberpunk”?
Looking at the fragrances from a cyberpunk perspective, Cyber Garden sits in a weird spot in this aspect, while it’s not giving off truly cyberpunk vibes at first, it is also potentially too weird for a contemporary fragrance. The smell of burnt rubber could certainly be present in a cyberpunk environment, however it’s also not uncommon in the present. Forecasting what the future holds isn’t an easy task, guessing what it will smell like might be even harder. On the other hand, cyberpunk is a genre of science fiction set in the not too distant future, and as our own reality appears to be taking on many aspects of famous media such as Blade Runner (1982) or Bruce Sterling’s Snow Crash (1992), perhaps this is a strength for Cyber Garden.
In short, Cyber Garden is right on the edge of being a futuristic fragrance while still being not too far out there to make it unwearable; if you can get past any aromatic associations with modern industrial factories.
With a transhumanism inspiration, The Ghost In The Shell does not reference a robot that’s made out of cold metal with no blood in its veins; but rather it is about a cyborg. And a cyborg still contains the warmth of human, natural skin: it has a pulse. The fragrance is the combination of the natural, human aspects brought by the wearer and the modifications that come with improving your body with mechanical parts. While not as “loud” as many other fragrances (and this might make it more appealing to people who usually don’t wear fragrances), I believe that The Ghost In The Shell fits the cyberpunk label quite well.
With that, both of these fragrances may work in a cyberpunk setting but are also just good fragrances in general at tolerable price points. As it is an older fragrance, Cyber Garden has been officially discontinued, however it’s still readily available from retailers and resellers.
If you are interested in wearing a cyberpunk fragrance, I would recommend ordering tester samples and seeing which works for you and your own preferences. After all, like good fashion, that is what makes collecting, and wearing, your own set of fragrances fun: the process of defining your own individualism through aromatic expression.
Honorable Mentions
There are many other fragrances that play into the cyberpunk genre, however many of these are harder to find. Some are made by artisans in the USA and don’t ship outside of CONUS, others are locked in other countries. For those interested, I have included a list of potentially viable cyberpunk fragrances below with either official links or links to resellers of the fragrances:
- Alkemia Industrial Sabotage | OFFICIAL LINK
- Alkemia Deus ex Machina | OFFICIAL LINK
- Andromeda’s Curse Cyberpunk | ETSY LINK
- Andromeda’s Curse She Dreams in Digital | ETSY LINK
- Arcana Wildcraft Pollution | OFFICIAL LINK
- Black Phoenix Channel Snow | OFFICIAL LINK
- Black Phoenix The Enterprise of The Night | OFFICIAL LINK
- Death and Floral Electricity | OFFICIAL LINK
- Fyrinnae Aerobraking | OFFICIAL LINK
- Strangers Parfumerie Punk #2077 | OFFICIAL LINK
Fair Use Statement: This article contains images hosted without express permission from their copyright holders. These images are provided for illustration purposes to support an informational objective. This should constitute fair use of any such copyrighted material.
Ethical Statement: Cyber Garden and The Ghost in the Shell fragrances were purchased by myself with my own funds and are in no way endorsed or otherwise sponsored by the manufacturers (Costume National and Etat Libre d’Orange).