Can perfume fight climate change? In the eyes of Gregory Constantine, the founder and CEO of Air Company, the answer is an emphatic yes. The brand has risen to prominence thanks to a revolutionary process that transforms carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into impurity-free alcohols for use in consumer goods. Last year, it launched a crystal-clear vodka that forgoes fermented corn and potatoes for a pure ethanol mixed with water. Now, Air Company is applying that process to create a limited-run perfume.
Called Air Eau de Parfum, the citrusy fragrance contains top notes of fig leaf and orange peel, heart notes of jasmine, violet, and sweet water, and base notes of powdery musk and tobacco. (Synthetic scents were used instead of naturals, since harvesting those ingredients can be more environmentally destructive.) Fragrance design and development firm Joya Studio was tapped to concoct the actual juice, a genderless serum Constantine describes as “emulative of the elements—air, water, and sun—the three major things that make up our entire technological process.”
While the “clean beauty” movement is still murky and yet to be defined, a spritz of Air Eau de Parfum quite literally offers a breath of fresh air. “The type of alcohol that we create is what goes into things like spirits and fragrances, and because of the way in which it’s made from carbon dioxide, it’s much higher quality because there’s a lack of impurities,” Constantine tells The Zoe Report, which notes that no other beauty or fragrance brand can claim they remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. “The planet will survive and live on, but it’s going to become really tough for us to be able to stay here if we don’t act ASAP—as in yesterday.”
