Heritage
A house, in its own words
AENTOS began in Shanghai with two founders, Sarah and Astrid, whose early conversations centered on slowing down, self-care and emotional well-being. That premise became a defining thread for the house: fragrance is presented not simply as decoration, but as a way to bring atmosphere and ritual into everyday life. The founders’ connection to southern China supplies another layer of identity. AENTOS has spoken publicly about the smell of burning incense and childhood customs honoring the God of Earth, or Tudigong, experiences that helped shape Grounded 坤元 and its grounded, earthen character. The brand also looks beyond China. Accounts of the founders’ research journeys describe visits to fragrance houses and flower fields in Grasse, France, linking Shanghai’s cultural references with the region’s long perfumery history. Baroma reports that AENTOS worked with perfumer Maxime Exler and MANE, while independent coverage of the Deep Root and Bold Journey collections describes the house as connecting Chinese olfactory identity with Grasse craftsmanship. The exact year of AENTOS’s founding is not confirmed by the available material, so the brand’s history is best understood through its place in Shanghai, its founders’ shared ritual-driven idea and its later international collaborations. AENTOS later formalized part of its mission by becoming a Certified B Corporation, a status verified by B Lab. That certification adds a measurable dimension to the brand’s environmental and social commitments, although the available sources do not specify the assessment date or the standards attached to AENTOS’s certification. AENTOS treats scent as an active part of emotional and domestic life. Its central idea is a return to slower rhythms, with fragrance acting as a cue for pause, presence and connection. Rather than describing fragrance purely through spectacle, the brand uses wood, forests, earth, incense and cultural memory to create atmospheres that can accompany private routines, rest or reflection. The phrase “slow living” therefore functions less as a lifestyle label than as a creative instruction: each composition is intended to make room for attention. Nature-inspired scent creation provides the house with its visual and olfactory vocabulary. AENTOS’s forest framing is not limited to green notes or a single landscape. It extends into soil, roots, open space and grounded materials, reflected in names such as Solum 土也, Nul 空境 and Grounded 坤元. Chinese names sit alongside the English titles, making the brand’s cultural position visible at the level of language as well as composition. The house’s values also include care and emotional well-being, themes reinforced by its B Corporation certification and its expanded range for home and body. AENTOS presents fragrance as a companion to routine rather than an isolated accessory. The approach is especially clear in its use of memories connected to place and inherited rituals, including incense and the southern Chinese worship of Tudigong. These details give the brand a more specific point of view than broad claims about natural fragrance, grounding its work in recognizable experiences and materials.