Though based in Paris, Neela Vermeire Créations’ perfumes are inspired by India: the Vedic period (Trayee), the British Raj/Mughal Empire (Mohur) and modern India (Bombay Bling). With its new fragrance, Ashoka, we’re promised a glimpse of Buddhist India. (It’s funny that Mauryan Buddhist emperor Ashoka, as an older man at least, would have probably been dismissive of those earlier perfume ideas: he rejected sacrifices of animals and what he deemed the “empty” rituals encouraged by the Vedas; he would have fought both domination by outside forces — the Brits — and blind faith in “tradition”; and he certainly would have shown disdain for the “foolish” antics, the flash and cash, of Bollywood.)

In honoring (or channeling) Emperor Ashoka,¹ Neela Vermeire Créations, utilizing the talents of perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour, has incorporated many standard Buddhist elements in its Ashoka perfume: a temple (sandalwood, incense, styrax), the symbol of purity rising from the muck (pink lotus, white lotus), and fig (a tree under which Buddha meditated and reached enlightenment).²

Ashoka begins on my skin with a striking sandalwood note…

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