Do you sometimes stop dead in your tracks when you smell someone wearing the perfume of an ex-boyfriend (like Bvlgari Aqua), an older relative who’s passed away (Red Door) or a scent you wore when you were a young, frisky nightclubber in the 90s (Joop)?

I do.

And so does Canberra northsider Adam Rosagrata.

Smells define the stages of Adam’s life.

His childhood smells like Pino Silvestre, the Italian cologne his father wore. And his early 20s smell like Ralph Lauren Polo Double Black, gifted to him by relatives and treated as sacred (15 years later, there’s still some left in the bottle). His first love smells like Giorgio Armani Si, a relationship that didn’t last and a scent that now “feels like pain”.

While Adam grew up in an Italian household of powerful scents, beautiful flavours and big personalities, it wasn’t until last February, on a day when a work colleague came in wearing a Tom Ford Oud Wood dupe, that Adam’s true obsession with scents was born.

“Something just clicked,” he says.

“I just homed in on the fact that with ‘imitation’ perfumes, people could smell amazing without this huge hit to their pockets. That cost shouldn’t preclude anyone from being able to enjoy those big-name scents.

“And from there came this very random but extremely quickly evolving obsession with perfume.”

The A and E in AEON come from the names of Adam’s two small daughters. Photo: Supplied.

The public servant and cybersecurity specialist started trading logic and servers during the day for researching oils and fragrances at night. He wanted to launch a line of perfumes and colognes that paid homage to big-brand scents but added a unique twist.

“It seemed like this incredible science,” Adam says.

“I had this image of me in the garage, mixing with all these vials and beakers like Walter White from Breaking Bad.

“But I learned that the bulk of the world’s perfume comes from a small handful of major factories in Switzerland, France, Spain and Turkey … and that I could order the perfumes largely already made and then mix in minor ingredients for my own touch.”

Adam’s developed more than 100 parfums so far, but will refine his collection to take to markets this year. Photo: Supplied.

The result is AEON Parfums, born in the garage of Adam’s Holt home late last year. So far, he’s created more than 100 perfumes, including Limitless, based on Hugo Boss’s Unlimited and Azure Noir, based on Bleu de Chanel (not the Microsoft Azure he uses day in and out in the APS).

Friends and family were gifted AEON Parfums for Christmas, and Adam will soft-launch the AEON range at select Canberra markets this year. AEON will also be stocked at The Salon CBR, Phoebe Morrison’s new sex shop in Fyshwick, when it opens in March.

Adam describes perfume as a ‘passion project’ that could turn into a side hustle. Photo: Supplied

Adam wants to keep the cost of his perfumes down so people can have “a literal wardrobe of fragrances and wear whatever suits an outfit or a mood”. A big part of his presence at markets this year will be education, including challenging my question: “Don’t you need 8000 sprays for a dupe to work?”

“Not all dupes are created equally,” he says. “That’s a matter of fact. And as I say, some of the big brands are getting their oils from the exact same places as more cost-efficient parfumeries.

“The smell of perfume is actually the smell of oil evaporating from your skin. And there are so many factors when it comes to choosing a personal scent: projection, trail (sillage) and overall character, to name just a few.

“My intention is to help Canberrans find fragrances they love and which work for their skin.”

Follow the AEON Parfums journey on Instagram, or email Adam your fragrance requests and questions: aeonparfums.au@gmail.com.