Heritage
A house, in its own words
Neandertal emerged from the London art scene in 2017, when Japanese artist Kentaro Yamada began exploring fragrance as a medium for philosophical inquiry. The name references Homo neanderthalensis—humanity's closest relative, who inhabited Eurasia for over 450,000 years, roughly five times longer than Homo sapiens has existed. Yamada saw in this comparison a sharp critique of human self-regard. The house's first release, Neandertal Dark, arrived in 2015 as a personal project before the brand formalized. Neandertal Light followed in 2018, offering a different facet of the same inquiry. By 2020, Yamada had enlisted perfumer Euan McCall for Neandertal Us and Neandertal Them—twin explorations of connection and difference. The house continued its conceptual arc into 2025 with the release of is and was, two fragrances that examine temporality and being. Each release arrives with minimal fanfare and maximum intent, challenging assumptions about what perfume can carry. Neandertal operates from a deceptively simple premise: modern humans have an inflated sense of their place in the story of life. The house uses fragrance to puncture this bubble. Where most perfume brands promise transformation—your life improved, your presence amplified—Neandertal offers something stranger: the invitation to feel small, briefly, and find that exhilarating rather than diminishing. Yamada has described the brand as a form of artistic practice, not a commercial enterprise. There is no house accord, no signature note, no consistent aesthetic across releases. What connects Neandertal fragrances is an attitude—a willingness to make wearers uncomfortable, curious, or contemplative. The brand resists categorization precisely because it refuses the conventions of the perfume industry. Each creation exists as an independent statement, a standalone work that rewards attention and punishes passivity.