Oxygen [8O]

Love at first sniff. The fragrance opens with a sparkling and uber synthetic blast of aldehydes. It's extremely abstract during the initial phase and it immediately brings to mind of CDG's Synthetic Series. Avant, sort of alien and so clean to make White Linen smell like Muscs Koublai Kahn in comparison. A leathery saffron paired to the starkest oliban break in right away giving birth to a great juxtaposition with the clear opening. Now the fragrance is smoky and austere but, If you want, more approachable. At the same time the syntheticness of the opening is still pretty remarkable providing fantastic avant-garde facets a-la SKAI and Dry Clean. The saffron is plain leather here while peppery notes serve to increase the general austerity. The transiton from top to bottom is smooth and brings the whole composition to a transparent woody-vetiver base with waxy/incensey undertones. Minimalistic, striking, austere, modern and very nordic. Somewhere between Sissel Tolaas Hsideews, the CDG's Synthetic Series and Bois d'Ascese. If you're not obsessed with massive projection and super lasting power, give this a chance. Good stuff. Rating: 7.5/10

Utilizing oxygen's airy, crisp/clean connotations, Antoine Lie has created a noteworthy scent which demands attention. Synthetic aldehydes (cold and dry in tone) open the fragrance with a dream-like atmosphere. Nuances of saffron and white pepper punctuate the background, giving one's nose a slight tickle. One of my favorite albeit underutilized notes in the fragrance arsenal, olibanum, is utilized here to create an ethereal powdery/resinous quality. Its use here is nothing short of magnificently executed, highlighting the lemony facets of the resin. Oxygen's [8O] base rests upon a bed of woody vetiver. It is here that one truly appreciates the artistry and deft hand by which Lie captured the essence of his source subject. Yet another transcendent offering from the unique Nu_Be brand. (128)

Austere, industrial, grey, dry, pencil sharpener, wan, vacant, dusty air vent, used vacuum bag. I think this echoes all the adjectives below that come to mind when I first spray. Let me add wet cement-lime, dried play-doh, damp newspaper... I'm sure you're getting the idea. Then Oxygen [8O] quietly exhales with soft vetiver, bergamot, dewy aldehyde, a hint of sweet olibanum and cedar. Somehow, the breadth of this fragrance is more expansive than the minimalist notes suggest, naturally infusing the air that I breathe then becoming subliminal in its existence. Much like trying to hold a handful of air, Oxygen [8O] implicates an untouchable realm that you can't see but by faith, you know is there.

It’s very difficult to imitate oxygen in a scent. Measured in terms of difficulty of this task, the perfumer did it really well. Based on the concept of an “oxygenated wood”, the perfume became very interesting and elegant. The scent starts with some airy and slightly grassy notes. Discreet at the beginning, it reveals its woody and spicy heart only after a while. Some paper notes are detectable as well. The fragrance remains very close to your skin and interacts well with the skin chemistry. That’s why the perceptions of the scent remain very individual in this case. Its unobtrusive character makes the scent good suitable for use at work.

elegante, minimale, austero, glaciale. l'inizio, astrattemente ossigenato, è una boccata d'aria fresca che lentamente e con una leggerezza aerea, inizia a trasformarsi in un accordo che sa prima di aldeidi, quindi di zafferano, pepe nero e olibano. notevole anche la chiosa: un bel vetiver non terroso con accenni di incenso e cuoio. chi predilige ghiottonerie gourmand o resine collose farebbe meglio a stare lontano da questo gioiello supersintetico. notevolissimo.

I'm a huge fan of Antoine's work and I consider him an artist that stands out amongst artists, for his interesting avant garde wearable works. Here, he's interpreting an odorless gas in a liquid form put into pressurized wood. I gravitate towards this type of thing, futuristic creations like Ganymede and Ghost in a Shell. This one was ahead of it's time in 2012. The smell is sort of how I imagined it might be, aldeydes but not the soapy kind, ozone, woods, incense, vetiver, musk, orris and saffron are woven into something that initially smells like it's from another planet: steam impregnated wood. The full drydown is white woods, musk, a little orris and a semi earthy and mineral vetiver on my skin. This one is not so niche that you need to be careful with it. It's perfectly suitable for the office or even warm weather. Performance is middle of the road. It lasts a while but projection is bad so I carry a decant and refresh. ------------------------------------------------------ Scent 77/100 Performance 25/100

Nice and fresh. Not sweet or too masculine. Very similar to Escentric Molecules...but nicer IMO. Very easy wearing and inoffensive. Grey is a perfect colour reference. Classy, work wear worthy and perfect for casual days.

Minimalist but pretty interesting and elegant. For an ambiance scents, a candle perhaps. But as an EDT ? Not sure. And too much expensive, of course. Aliphatics aldehydes are NOT expensive materials...

This smells like deboxing a new thing - there's cardboard, plastic, slight smell of ink, and only then you start realizing that was actually saffron, pepper and woods. It's very lovely.

A well done minimalist woody-incensy-vetiver with an amazing safran-aldehyde opening who disappears too quickly. Very austere like a Comme Des Garçons abstract industrial perfume. The sillage is minimalist too, it would have been a huge like with more intensity. but at 20€ the big bottle i indulge myself with large splash

Reminds me of a subtle sundried linen, not cotton, not other laundried clothes, rather linen as fabric material. Dry and fibrous.

This gave me the sense of an Indian curry gone slightly wrong in the kitchen. A bit sour. This makes no sense when I look at the notes but that’s what I smell. Will not use up the sample.

An eerily vacant scent that manages to fire up the imagination in a compelling way. For me, this is hands-down the standout of the Nu_Be line. It takes CdG’s Odeur 53 and reworks the “nothing” aesthetic in a smart and fascinating way. Whereas Odeur 53 smelled like a dryer sheet, this smells more like a dusty air vent that has a wet dog and a pile of old books sitting behind it. In this sense, it manages to eclipse many of those “smells like a book” scents such as In The Library and Paper Passion without even trying to. With close attention, you can tell that the effect is produced chiefly through the use of a suede accord and some musty wood fixatives. Yet there’s a smart use of muddy vetiver and some fatty aldehydes as well that lend the scent a faint lactonic quality that’s not as overt as the CBIHP. Yet none of these individual notes is immediately recognizable, and what you get is a sort of used vacuum bag effect—dusty (not musty and rank), but somehow comforting. The wan milkiness—an almost creamy twist on an industrial space—is evocative and engaging, and were anyone to smell it on the wearer, it would come across as peculiarly alluring more than just plain old weird. But for anyone else to smell it, they’d have to pressed up close as Oxygen makes Odeur 53 seem like a screeching Bond No. 9-style foghorn; it’s extraordinarily muted and gauzy. But this is exactly how it should be—it’s an inkling of a scent, and not something you’d want launching off you anyway. It’s more of a subtle shade or a trace, and that’s what makes it so successful. For as dialed back as it is, it’s absolutely fascinating—the most evocative and resonant of the line. It conjures up images of empty industrial spaces that somehow clash up against the notion of what perfume is “supposed” to do, yet it still feels like a fully fleshed-out composition. And despite its faintness, it actually sticks around for quite some time. As a scent that will never overwhelm, I think it’s a brilliantly contingent offering—it’s perfectly suited for circumstances in which fragrance isn’t welcome, or on the days where you don’t feel like wearing much of anything. It’s totally haunting in its emptiness, but demands that you pay close attention to the space it creates. If you’re drawn to reserved and minimal effects, this should be on your list. And if you’re inspired by the olfactive evocation of space, this is as powerful as Montecristo’s “room” effect but with a fraction of the strength. Meditative, calming, yet somehow unnerving as well. By far the best thing that this new brand has done.

A cold, clean smell that reminds me of industrial packaging materials--think something along the lines of styrofoam, plastics, and adhesives, like if you bought a new printer or video game system and stuck your nose in the box right after you opened it. The plastic, rubber, traces of the glue used to seal everything, and a freshly manufactured smell all come together in Oxygen. It also reminds me of a new sneaker store--not in so much as there's any kind of leather involved--but the fresh rubber of the soles and the clean, newly installed carpet, maybe combined with a fresh coat of paint. This is what Oxygen smells like to me. It's strange, but not unpleasant. I don't think of this one in terms of notes at all, it's more conceptual. It's not something I would wear often, as I like my fragrances to have a friendlier, more human edge, which this one lacks to some extent, but it becomes woodier and friendlier as it dries down to its mundane, though serviceable, cedar and sandalwood base. I tested the entire nu_be line at least a year ago, and Oxygen was not my favorite one. At the time I preferred Carbon, Hydrogen, and Helium. However, Oxygen is their only offering that's stood the test of time as far as I still find it interesting and probably the best executed in the lineup. Oxygen truly accomplishes what it's intended to, while I find some faults in most of the others. While it's still not something I would buy a full bottle of, it's a good example of a fully realized concept, and if you're of the rare breed that appreciates this style of perfume, it's definitely worth a look. Projection is average to reserved and longevity is around 5 hours.

Antoine Lie is dear to me because he seems to be without any fear when following a certain idea. Here he set himself an almost impossible task: to evoke the smell of something that hardly has any smell, such as oxygen, a colorless and odorless gas. Supposedly its ozone variant has some odor, which may not be advisable to try because ozone is a strong oxidant and harmful to humans (which doesn’t stop the detergent industry from luring us with its “ozone odor” products, whatever that means). Antoine Lie came up with the problem by taking the basic material in a light form and adding a certain amount of aldehydes. The base here is wood, with a very recognizable pepper that is especially felt at the beginning. But what is truly spectacular is the drydown: when the wood evaporates, something like incense appears, but so translucent that it is still present only as a trace. For an incense lover, this is a unique experience because the favorite note here appears in a way that is unlike any other. Only the greatest artists can do that.

So I am pretty new to all this and can't tell you what notes are prominent in here (as I am unfamiliar with them), but I can tell you my general impression. When first applied, there is a sharp green opening, which then settles to a cool fresh air scent - if you were ever forced to run outside in the cold fall air in middle school, that's how it smells. Cold and fresh with the tiniest bit of woods and earth underneath. About two hours later, it lightens to watery notes, and it almost really does smell like the cooled oxygen you get at hospitals. It stays watery and cool until it fades. I applied it for testing around 9pm and could still detect a little something when I woke up at 7am. It's not floral, not sweet, not musky or overbearing - just clean and cool and fresh. It's definitely on my list for a full bottle purchase.

Apart from the wonderfully woody notes in the opening Oxygen gets pretty simplistic as it radiates mostly Aldehydes. The comparison to Escentric Molecules is accurate as the scent almost vanishes and becomes more and more undetectable. Further on a combination of Vetiver and Cedar is what remains. In a nutshell 8O is pure understatement.