By Amber R in Fashion — 27 Sep 2026

Aesop launches Unforeseen Aer and redesigns its fragrance collection

Aesop's new Unforeseen Aer eau de parfum leads a redesigned Fragrant Fables Collection, with new bottles and a phased rollout into 2027. Here is what it smells like and what it costs in Australia.

Unforeseen Aer leads Aesop's redesigned Fragrant Fables Collection. Image: Aesop

Aesop has released Unforeseen Aer, a new eau de parfum that leads the Melbourne-born brand's reworked fragrance offer, now called the Fragrant Fables Collection. The launch matters because it is more than a single scent: Aesop has also redesigned its bottles and packaging, and is rolling the new look across its existing perfumes in two phases.

What Unforeseen Aer smells like

Aesop describes the fragrance as "a fragrant fable of fresh, aromatic, mineral character, taking the mind to rugged, wind-blown heights." It is positioned as an unconventional take on the fougère family, pairing what the brand calls a Pure Air accord with the textured warmth of nutmeg.

According to the Australian product listing, the notes are:

Top: lime heart, petitgrain, nutmeg
Middle: eucalyptus, geranium, lavandin
Base: patchouli heart, cypress, labdanum resinoid

Each scent in the Fragrant Fables line is framed around a short fable and a question. For Unforeseen Aer, the story centres on wind embracing chaos, and the question posed is how change can enrich us.

Aesop Unforeseen Aer packaging printed with its accompanying fable — Each fragrance in the collection comes with its own printed fable. Image: Aesop

The structure is consistent across the line: every fragrance is built around what Aesop calls a Radical Ingredient and a Fabulist Accord. In Unforeseen Aer, the crisp Pure Air accord is meant to evoke alpine winds, while the nutmeg brings a deliberately rough, spicy edge that the brand frames as finding beauty in imperfection. It is a fresh, aromatic scent rather than a sweet one, which should suit warmer months in Australia.

A new bottle and a reworked collection

The packaging refresh is the other headline. The new amber glass bottles are taller with a domed base, finished with metallic amber typography and an embossed insignia. The caps have a textured, basalt-inspired finish that nods to Melbourne's volcanic geology, and the atomisers can be removed to make recycling easier. Each fragrance comes in a box printed with a poem.

Side view of the redesigned Aesop Unforeseen Aer bottle showing the domed base and textured cap — The redesigned bottle has a domed base and a basalt-inspired cap. Image: Aesop

Alongside the new scent, Aesop is reimagining existing fragrances under the Fragrant Fables banner, including Tacit Truths, Evoking Eidesis, Entirely Aurner, Eternal Karst, Above Us, Steorra and Rozū Arises. The first phase arrived in September 2026 through Aesop stores and the brand's website, with the remaining fragrances due in February 2027.

Launched in Beijing

Aesop introduced the collection internationally with a Fragrant Fables exhibition at WF Central in Beijing, running from 21 September to 11 October 2026, which explores whether fragrance can provoke thought and emotion in the way poetry does.