The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
L'Appartement de Madame de Florian launched in 2022, composed by Richard Asfour for Aurora par Charles Wong. The fragrance takes its name from a single preserved apartment, a setting the house treats as a literary fixture with weight and history behind it. Charles Wong's house, founded in 2018, treats each composition as a chapter in a larger narrative, and this one reads like a room preserved in time. The result sits between architecture and atmosphere, a scent built around the idea of a place rather than a person. Asfour's hand comes through clearly: there's a structural confidence to how the notes unfold, each layer arriving with purpose rather than ornament.
What makes this composition worth attention is the absinthe. It's a note most houses avoid because it tips green, medicinal, sharp. Asfour leads with it anyway, paired with laurel and bergamot for a herbal opening that reads almost culinary. The laurel cools the absinthe just enough to keep it from going bitter, and the bergamot lifts the whole arrangement into something brighter than you'd expect from a note this assertive. Then the heart pivots hard: blackcurrant and melon arrive unexpectedly sweet, grounded by saffron, cardamom, and black pepper.
The evolution
The first twenty minutes belong to absinthe and bay leaf, green and cooling, almost liqueur-like. Then the current shifts. Blackcurrant and melon surface around the thirty-minute mark, surprising after all that herbal severity, and the saffron arrives quiet but persistent. By the two-hour mark the spices have taken over: cardamom warm at the collar, pepper sharper closer to skin. The base of amber, vetiver, and incense doesn't announce itself. It grows underneath, and by hour four you're catching whiffs of it when you move, close and resinous. On fabric the next morning, the incense is still there, softer now, almost like the room remembered after everyone's left.
Cultural impact
This is the kind of fragrance that belongs in the rotation of someone already past the discovery phase, someone who knows what they like and wants a scent with actual character. The absinthe opening marks it as a choice, not a default. Wearers tend to be deliberate about occasion: evenings, dinners, places where the scent can breathe. It's a composition that rewards close attention rather than casual application, and it tends to land on people who treat fragrance as part of how they present a moment.
The House
Aurora par Charles WongAurora par Charles Wong is a niche fragrance house founded by Hong Kong-born Charles Wong. The brand made its debut in November 2018 with the fragrance Aurora, crafted in France through Perfumery Corialys. Wong, who describes himself as a luxury lifestyle connoisseur and fragrance enthusiast, channels French elegance into each composition. The house has since released three additional scents: Linderhof am Morgen (2020), L'Appartement de Madame de Florian (2022), and Le vent d'ete (2024). Each fragrance draws from European artistic traditions, historical settings, and olfactory heritage. The brand operates independently, prioritizing artistic vision over commercial considerations.
The Creator
Richard AsfourHis style resists easy categorization, though certain signatures emerge across his work. AsFour demonstrates particular facility with complex florals, building compositions that reveal different facets over hours of wear.
