The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
12° Excite, titled 心潮沸腾, was launched in 2022 by Chinese fragrance house DOCUMENTS 闻献, with Popeye Chan as its perfumer. It belongs to the brand's Season 03 Lost collection, an idea built around the aroma of celebratory drinks: craft beer, Champagne, and Maotai-flavored liquor. The concept pairs a numbered title with an emotional register, giving the scent an expressive, celebratory character. The fragrance opens with sharp fruit and effervescence, moves through boozy warmth at the center, and settles into restrained woods, musk, and ambergris underneath. As it wears, the sparkling fruit accord gives way gradually to drier, woody notes, and the ambergris lends the sweetness a mineral-salt depth rather than a simple syrupy impression.
The composition works because sweetness never arrives alone. Blackcurrant brings a tart edge to pineapple, while Champagne and Cognac turn the fruit accord fizzy and pleasantly intoxicating. Goji berry adds a red-fruit thread between the sparkling opening and the warmer base. Ambergris then changes the temperature, giving the sweetness a mineral-salt depth instead of simple syrupiness. Oak keeps the final shape grounded, while musk leaves a clean, skin-close trace. The result is a familiar celebration translated into something brighter and more contemporary.
The evolution
The opening presents sparkling notes alongside fruit, with blackcurrant and pineapple placed against the Champagne accord. Cognac contributes warmth through the center of the composition, while goji berry adds a rounded thread of red-fruit sweetness between the sparkling start and the warmer base. As the fragrance develops, the pace changes and the fruit gradually recedes. Oak introduces a firmer, woody line beneath the fruit layer, and musk softens the edges around it. Ambergris brings a mineral warmth that keeps the sweetness from reading as syrup, giving the composition a drier, more textured quality as it progresses. Through the middle stretch, the woody and musky base becomes clearer while the earlier brightness settles into the background. In the final hours, the scent reads warmer and more intimate, with ambergris lingering close to the skin rather than leaving a loud boozy trail.
Cultural impact
12° Excite sits within DOCUMENTS 闻献's Season 03 Lost collection, which frames its fragrances through the aromas of celebratory drinks such as craft beer, Champagne, and Maotai-flavored liquor. Rather than treating those references as purely literal, the composition translates them into an olfactory language of sparkling fruit, boozy warmth, woods, musk, and ambergris. The result places the fragrance in conversation with shared moments of drinking and toasting, giving an everyday sensory ritual a distinctive, contemporary accent.
The House
DOCUMENTS 闻献DOCUMENTS 闻献 is a niche Chinese fragrance house that emerged from Shanghai’s creative‑tech scene in the early 2020s. The brand translates the concept of “BOLD‑ZEN” into scent, material, and visual language, offering a line of perfumes that reference traditional incense, calligraphy and contemporary design. Its catalogue includes releases such as Wonder 羁旅归途 (2020), Void 空无一木 (2020) and the newer Inter Cedar 杉间 Eau de Parfum (2025). While the company’s legal entity was registered in 2021, public editions began appearing in 2025 and have continued through 2026. DOCUMENTS operates flagship concept spaces, most notably the Long Temple (珑宫) venue in Shanghai, where the brand’s olfactory and spatial ideas intersect. The house collaborates with Chinese incense makers and international aroma houses, positioning each fragrance as a quiet dialogue between heritage and modernity.
The Creator
Popeye ChanNo specific ingredients, accords, or techniques have been confirmed for Popeye Chan, so any detailed formula would be fiction. The name points instead toward an expressive style built around contrast, personality, and surprise.
