Onda Extrait de Parfum

As my search for additional Djedi-like perfumes continues, I arrive at my second stop - Onda. Damn - what an exquisitely beautiful creation, crafted with the care, attention and complexity of a century-old vintage. If you are into vintage, animalic perfumes, this will be very close to your holy grail. Onda smells, indeed, very similar to Guerlain's discontinued Djedi but with several key differences - I will restrict any comment in relation to Djedi to the following: if you like Djedi, you will like this too on the sole condition you enjoy honey as a note. Djedi is drier than Onda, but the latter certainly lands squarely in the same genre of animalic vetiver chypres. Onda extrait opens with a gargantuan honey that is tinged with an animalic darkness. It's sweet, thick, dusty and vegetal. If you imagine smashing an entire beehive at mach speed into an ancient, moss-laden tree, and smelling the chaotic splatter that results - this would be the smell of Onda's opening. This honey note does me no harm (as a lover of honey) but will do serious damage to anyone remotely intolerant of this note. Ironically, the honey is the most challenging part, and it fades away from one hour onwards to leave behind Onda's greatest treasure - its mid-to-drydown. There is some SERIOUS orris in here - coupled with spices and vetiver to create an accord of powdery earth. A leathery backdrop combines with oakmoss to give the cocooning familiarity of all the best chypres rolled into one, sans any fruit or "prettiness" per se. As it continues to develop, it becomes primarily a dance of orris and vetiver on my skin, and evokes the same kind of wistful serenity that one only experiences as a child, running one's hands through the garden soil on a cool day. In times long past a perfume such as this would have been the height of feminine sensuality but, to the modern nose this will smell not only masculine but quintessentially fossilised. I only own the extrait version and it lasts a good half day on me with very little projection (as one would expect). Onda is fantastic and one for the vintage chypre lovers - there's nothing more I can say.

Saying that Onda EDP is a challenging composition would be like considering Marcel Proust and easy read. Onda is far beyond being just challenging, is weird, destabilizing and unusual but at the same time "cultured". It is built around a solid structure that shows many characteristic of classic perfumery and adds a bizarre, sort of futuristic, accord of passion fruit and vetiver that together with floral pattenrs and ginger gives birth to a strange blend that sits somewhere between a disinfectant, a mass destruction weapon and pure luxury. Overall Onda smells salty/sweet with fresh nuances, flowery with acidic/unripe fruits and definitely sulfurous (urine?). While all of this may sound disencouraging, I still believe that Onda deserves our respect as one of the most intriguing, complex and original compositions around. Onda, more than like a proper fragrance, sounds like a declaration of intent that says "I'm here, and I'm here to stay!". On the other hand the extrait de parfum is, paradoxically, more familiar. Don't get me wrong, it's still far from being easy to wear or "pretty" but, its chypre-y animalic leather structure brings, somehow, to mind of the beloved Djedi. A loud vetiver-leather concoction that moves on the thin line between glory and precipice, between a luxurious smell and a revolting stink. Earthy, animalic and almost disturbing yet extremely compelling. Onda was definitely an ambitious and risky project just like doing tightrope walking between two skyscrapers. It took some skills and a guts but Vero Kern has successfully managed to walk to the other side. Chapeau. Two of the most challenging and compelling compositions that I've ever experienced. By all means niche stuff. Rating: 9/10

The notes listed here are not accurate according to the list of ingredients on my sample (from Bloom perfumery). It should read as follows : TOP notes : basil, bergamot, coriander, ginger, lemon, mandarin MIDDLE notes : honey, iris, ylang ylang BASE notes : ambergris, Bourbon vetiver, musk, patchouli, sandalwood When I smell this from my sample, I immediately get a picture of expensive grey suede wrapped around me. I can almost touch it. This feeling lasts for several hours and is strangely comforting. I guess it would be like sniffing inside of a new suede bag. Then I get a little bit of sweetness from honey, some musk and a bit of sandalwood but nothing else. The longevity is not bad at all, I have applied 4 heavy dabs on my neck and behind ears approx 8 hours ago and I still get whiffs of the fragrance. Even though I am not a fan of leather/suede fragrances, I could easily be swayed by this one but I shan't as the cost is rather high.

Strange wave plays within the dirty, unconventional aromas that are made to the classic and totally handmade. Onda is a provocative fragrance, bordering on the aggressive where the spices and especially the ginger as a starting note feels powerful like a slap. The mixture lets you feel a dominant vetiver that mixes with the animal sensuality of honey, a thick and sweet honey that rounds the heart notes. To a wild, woody drying, I would say that with a wild character, a note of civet with leather is added that dirty all the fragrance and leaves it halfway between the sweetest and lascivious delicacy of a sweaty skin, everything is sexy and attractive. Onda is not a fragrance that stays half-inked, and like the great masterpieces, or you love or hate it, without leaving anyone indifferent. This version of perfume, is sensational, yields and lasts dramatically as a 100 ml perfume and the unisex potential is indisputable. Rating: 9.3

Wow- the opening of this is really unique - if you've ever visited a log cabin that had a fire roaring, and caught a wiff of the soot left on the wall, there's the smell. Lately I've been associating perfume with what it makes me feel like doing, and this makes me want to participate in something that may soon be legal here in bankrupt State of California. (That burn smell thing...) Definitely a scent for when you aren't in the mood for following hte crowd and need to be a little rebellious. This is just a fun scent and I highly recommend giving it a try.

Onda, the name has a mystical world cites (Wave), not to mention the smell! The Onda Extrait woody and spicy notes are in harmony with each other, the raw power of nature and at the same affection revives me. The raw scent of vetiver is also soft and coriander, ginger, nutmeg and fresh and gently aromatic chord surrounds. Simply great!

Aesthetics might be shared but beauty is experienced personally. Discussions of aesthetics often lead to unanswerable questions on the nature of attraction, absolutes and subjectivity. Onda's contribution to the debate is to show where the discussion takes place. Wearing Onda shows you that beauty is experienced at the limits. Simple ease and comfort might be found without much effort, but satisfaction and the greater pleasures don’t land in your lap. They require your engagement and determination. The cliché, 'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.’ takes the burden off the object and places it in the mind of the witness. Onda refutes the passivity of the 'beholder' making the experience not just looking, but craving. Onda fuses beauty with desire. The question shifts from, "What is Beauty?" to Beauty slapping you in the face, smiling and asking, "So, what are you going to do about it?" Onda's question of beauty come in the form of a dare. The mirror image of beauty isn't ugliness, it is fear and Onda gives you desire and fear in equal helpings. Fear as much as beauty balances on the precipice of activity and passivity. In considering fear you find the seeds for the broader questions of agency and fate. Is a fear of heights a fear of falling or jumping? Onda interrogates beauty in a similar manner and beauty is revealed to be neither pretty nor polite. It is sinister and seductive. It is gorgeous. It comes at you forcefully whether you're ready or not. Onda favors destructive beauty and the heights that challenging work inspires. Beauty can cut, but it can also transform you. It is up to you whether or not to take the risk. I wear Onda EDP often, but have recently been introduced to the Extrait de Parfum, which is a slightly different breed of cat. A little less alarming, a good bit more seductive. The differences are noticeable in the projection. The EDP uses passionfruit to light the fuse on the hot, salty, earthy heart of Onda. The EDP lunges at you with a sense of momentum and feels constantly expanding as if an exercise in olfactory physics. The Extrait moves more fluidly. It surrounds you and seeps into you. It's harder to pinpoint its source even though you know where you dabbed it. It is extremely rich and elaborate. The Extrait is darker than the EDP and its complexity makes it denser, though not heavier. It is even more alluring than the EDP and cuts me deeper. The Extrait is more a chypre than the EDP and while it has all the magnetism of the classical chypres, it is neither retro in style nor reminiscent in tone. Kern uses three concentrations (Eau de Parfum, Voile d’Extrait and Extrait de Parfum) to explore the range of ideas that she presents in each of her perfumes. They share common ground, but they offer different perspectives. In Onda, the EDP and the Extrait both play with the notion of wildness and the whimsy of trying to tame it, the capriciousness of control. Onda EDP gives its animal a long leash and provokes a feeling of recklessness, excitement. The animal in the Extrait appears more tame and on the surface the Extrait seems less less audacious than the EDP. But here is the the Extrait’s threat: It might be quitely purring at the moment, but how tame can a wild animal really be? When will the confidence of your safety shatter? The EDP urges impulsiveness. The Extrait feels dangerous. There is an etiquette in corporate perfumery that dictates that perfume shouldn’t challenge the consumer for fear of alienating even one potential buyer. The rule is reversed in niche perfumery. It’s a spin on neo-punk: a show of outrageousness or non-conformity but no attempt to alter the status quo. Kern looks past these constraints and makes perfume that both challenges the wearer and disrupts convention. She reserves the right to provoke. Her work doesn’t simply express a range of aesthetics, it engineers aesthetics to poke at the questions of beauty, desire and self. The questions aren't easy, and neither are Kern's answers, but they are rewarding and satisfying. Wear Onda. I dare you. from scenthurdle.com

Onda is advertised for those who love the good things in life. It's quality fits the bill since it goes on dense and luxurious with galette-like layers of earthy vetivers and ginger, peppered with exotic spice. It's longevity is impressive and a single bottle will likely last a person a lifetime. However, the mood of Onda is very different from what I'd expect of something intended for a bon vivant. It's dark, a tiny bit scary, and putting it on is to make a commitment to smelling like drama for many hours. If it were a color it would be the color of a bruise. It's beautiful and I can imagine it would appeal to women who prefer vintage perfumes. It's major transformation happens around 4 hours in when it quiets down to an intimate animalic, a little dirty and familiar, skin scent. The EDP formula is a tiny bit louder with a fully fleshed out fruity topnote of passionfruit. The extrait is more nuanced, it's vague fruitiness a facet of the vetiver, and, in my opinion, the best smelling version of Onda. 4 out of 5.

I cried when I first smelled Onda. It was just a wee sample at the time, but that cascade of emotion forced me to purchase a bottle of the extrait. Do I want to wear it? No, not often, hardly ever. But I do want to experience it. To me, Onda smells like brokenness. Deeply sad, but with a sliver of light, of optimism, of fortitude at its core. Broken, though not completely so. I once read that Vera Kern likened Onda to Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini in Lynch's Blue Velvet) and Ed Wood (Johnny Depp in Burton's Ed Wood) finding each other in a ballroom, embracing for a dance. Yes, that is Onda. Two broken people finding solace in each other's brokenness. Onda is capital-A Art. I urge you to experience it on its own terms, shedding any preconceptions you have about the traditional functions of fragrance. May Onda trigger its "waves" in you too.

At first I was very disappointed, so fruity! Looked at the other versions of Onda and saw that one had a prominent passion fruit note, that matched the scent (and I don't like passion fruit). It was not a bad perfume, high quality, just a bit too fruity for me. But not sweet, not nauseating in any way (and most perfumes nauseate me). Just before I fell asleep, it changed drastically, the fruit disappeared. I really liked it. My left and right wrist smelled very different, could have something to do with one nostril being more congested than the other. Now, 12 hours after application, it's a soft, slightly animalic warm scent. Will test more and not sleep when the transformation starts next time. Funny how both Onda and Sultan Pasha's Thebes are being compared to Djedi (that I have never smelled), they are very different, to my nose.

I've been wearing this scent for about three years now and each time I put it on it takes my breath away, it's that mysterious, strange and beautiful. In parfum formulation, a little goes a long way and the sillage lasts for hours. I can't resist smelling my wrists all day. On me, it eventually dries down to a salty, warm and comforting coriander/vetiver. It's so precious to me that I'm rashioning my little bottle so I won't run out. Alfarom did a perfect job of describing this enigmatic scent, so I don't need to add more. I'll just say that Onda remains a hidden perfume treasure and will one day be as sought after as the elusive Djedi that it's often compared to.

It opens up like a digestive aperitif:-) bitter Such a raw vetyver ginger take, turns into hay like, barnyard smell, of some village from 19th century, smells of brown colour, and of retro classical male fragrances, complexity of ingredients rarely seen among modern perfumes, here everything is about shading of the same colour: brown, done in so much details! The drydown goes into warmer sweeter , musky cloud, that reminds of Guerlain! ....and lasts for ever! An amazing scent!

This is my favorite composition by vero, although it is disturbing... there is such a sexual animalic scent...it is startling. Every one of vero's fragrances tell a story and its so nice to see other perfumistas pay her homage. She is also the mentor and friend of Andy tauer....for those who don't know

Wow, my experience with this was unlike the other reviewers for the most part. I got a water and wood scent, like a Zen garden, just ethereal and light, breezy and calm. It's unfortunately also sheer to the point of being indetectable, but oh, so peaceful and calm. I really loved what I could detect.

Do you like the scent of a rough leather belt? If so, Onda is a must try for you! In the very beginning this fragrance has a strange strong scent of leather, ginger and grated horse-radish (!), the base is a lovely strong leather scent. The staying power is great!

I am totally seduced by this very, very unique fragrance!........I love the green spiceness that tails off to dulcet notes and then collides in harmony with whatever else is in it! Vero Kern is a true genius of smells.....I salute her!

Probably the worst perfume I've ever smelled. It's also crazy expensive. Silage is decent longevity is sadly very good. It's like djedi done by a toddler.

Tobacco covered in baby powder. Smoke and gasoline. Honey barnyard. Bitter chocolate and dirt.

love the smoke, hate the cat pee