Cæleste, Adi ale Van and Kanchaveli are three independent houses from eastern Europe, the oldest of them active since 2021. Two come from Romania, the third from a Georgian artist based in Berlin. They are nothing alike: angels handed to four different perfumers, bottles painted by hand in a village on the Danube, negative emotions cast in porcelain. Here is what connects them, what sets them apart, and which perfumes to start with.
Three young houses
Adi ale Van is the oldest of the three: the Romanian artist who gives it his name launched it in 2021. Cæleste released its first three extraits in 2024, and a fourth in 2026. Kanchaveli published its first two eaux de parfum in 2025.
A word on our sources. These houses are small and communicate mainly through their own websites. What follows comes from the information they publish, as it appears on our product pages and in our detailed profile of each one. When something is not documented, we say so: Kanchaveli, for instance, does not give the concentration of its extraits.
These three houses do not sum up perfumery in the East. Russia has a scene of its own, the best known house probably being Bortnikoff, which distills its own oud and which we cover in a profile, without carrying it to date. We are talking here about the houses we sell and know well.
What connects them: storytelling, Orthodoxy and the handmade object
The story comes before the formula
At all three houses, a perfume starts from a text or a memory, not from a market trend. Cæleste follows the hierarchy of angels: nine ranks in three orders. The house began with the third, the one said to watch over earthly life, with Principalities, Archangels and Guardian Angel. Virtues, released in 2026, opens the second order. The collection reads like a work in progress, climbing the hierarchy one rank at a time.
Adi ale Van tells of a childhood in Grojdibodu, a village on the Danube plain, and of winters spent listening to his grandfather talk about the anti-communist partisans of the Muscel mountains. Decembrie 89 refers to the revolution of December 1989, and Leaves in the wind is subtitled Elixir de Muscel. The house also says it supports the preservation of traditional Romanian music and forgotten rural crafts.
Bidzina Kanchaveli comes from theater and film. He wrote and staged four plays, shot short films and then a feature, before moving on to aroma compositions and finally to perfume. His two series translate colors on one side and four negative emotions on the other, which he says he waited for within himself in order to compose at the moment they became tangible.
Incense and the Orthodox church
This is what the two Romanian houses share. Cæleste starts from the idea that the first perfumes were burnt offerings, and incense appears in all four of its compositions, often with myrrh, frankincense or benzoin. Its illustrator, Aleksandar Stoicovici, says he wanted to become an Orthodox monk as a teenager and lived for a time in monasteries.
At Adi ale Van, religion arrives through the cooking of rituals. Coliva takes its name from the wheat cake shared at Orthodox memorial services, and blends frankincense with baked bread and cocoa. Cozonac revisits the braided sweet bread of the holidays. Incense, leather and animalic bases come up often at this house.
Kanchaveli escapes this logic, which is worth knowing: its perfumes evoke neither the church nor Georgia. The common thread in its compositions is leather, present in White, Yellow, Fear and Envy, often placed right at the opening rather than saved for the base.
Bottles made by hand
All three houses treat the bottle as a piece in its own right. Adi ale Van paints and assembles the bottle, cap, decoration and box himself, using metal, leather, reclaimed wood, ceramic, clay or stone. Some caps are carved from tree fungus, dried for more than six months. No two bottles match the photo, and the house produces to order, which lengthens the wait before shipping.
Kanchaveli sets his bottles inside sculptures he shapes in Berlin: concrete for the color series, where the White piece can weigh up to 600 grams, hand-molded porcelain for the emotions. Each piece is limited and numbered.
Cæleste stays closest to classic perfumery, but its 30 ml bottle, the only size the house offers, was designed by Anne-Marie JP from sacred geometry, and its packaging uses Aleksandar Stoicovici's collages.
What sets them apart: who composes the perfumes
This is the real dividing line between these three houses.
Cæleste is a creative-director house. Ștefan Răduț does not compose himself: he picks one perfumer per creation and hands them a theme. Guardian Angel is signed by Chris Maurice, the artist name of Christian Carbonnel, Archangels by the Italian Cristiano Canali, Principalities by the Romanian David-Lev Jipa-Slivinschi, who also creates under the name Toskovat', and Virtues by Michael Nordstrand, based in the United States. Four perfumes, four hands, a single resinous thread.
Adi ale Van holds the vision, the story and the making, and often hands the formula to a guest perfumer. The house has worked with Jimmy Bodin, Giovanni Festa, Anne-Sophie Behaghel, Antonio Alessandria, Camille Chemardin, Michele Marin, Flavius Călaj and David-Lev Jipa-Slivinschi. Some recent perfumes are signed by the artist himself, such as Cozonac, Adiere and Gun Shadows.
Kanchaveli does the opposite of the other two: a single author, who composes everything and refuses to present himself as a perfumer. He explains that he does not try to recombine existing olfactory ideas, and deliberately composes perfumes without an obvious reference, so that the nose has to think as much as feel. His product pages name the molecules used, which few author-led houses do.
One name links the two Romanian houses. David-Lev Jipa-Slivinschi signs Principalities at Cæleste and is among the perfumers of Adi ale Van. Another comes from France: Jimmy Bodin, founder of The Unleashed Apothecary, signs six of the thirteen Adi ale Van perfumes we carry, including Decembrie 89. The scene is still small, and the same people move around it.
Sizes, concentrations and prices
- Cæleste: four extraits in 30 ml bottles at 215 €, concentrated between 20 and 30% according to the house. The 3rd Order set brings together the first three perfumes in 5 ml each, at 89 €.
- Adi ale Van: thirteen extraits in 50 ml bottles, from 250 to 350 €, concentrated from 25 to 40% across the references we carry, with maceration over several months. Made to order.
- Kanchaveli: two 30 ml eaux de parfum at 160 € for the color series, four extraits in 15 ml at 320 € and in 100 ml for the emotion series. Availability depends on the pieces delivered by the studio, made by hand in small numbers.
Concentration affects longevity and how much to apply, as we explain in our article on the differences between extrait, eau de parfum and eau de toilette. The perfumes below also come as 2 ml samples, subject to stock.
Six perfumes to understand the three houses
Cæleste
Guardian Angel, by Chris Maurice, is the most concentrated of the collection, at 30%. On top, a white bouquet of neroli, tuberose, jasmine, heliotrope, bergamot and hawthorn. In the heart, musks, coconut milk, cardamom, vanilla and tonka bean. In the base, incense, benzoin, myrrh and amber. The perfumer speaks of the texture of a cloud. It is the softest of the four and the easiest to wear during the day.
Principalities, by David-Lev Jipa-Slivinschi, is the opposite. The perfumer received neither a brief nor a title, only a code name, Project Quasar, and one idea: space. He drew on accounts from astronauts, who describe a smell of hot metal and burning on objects returning from missions. The pyramid follows five elements, from the petrichor of water to the gunpowder and burnt-almond biscuit of ether. On skin it is dry, mineral and spicy. It was a finalist at the 2025 Art and Olfaction Awards and deserves a sample before you commit.
Adi ale Van
Decembrie 89, by Jimmy Bodin, concentrated at 32%, starts from a child's memory of the 1989 revolution: apple, orange and lemon, then vanilla pod and hazelnut, over three vanillas and rum. It is the easiest perfume of the house to like and the best place to start.
Coliva, by Giovanni Festa, concentrated at 35%, is the most unusual. Licorice, wormwood, frankincense, coffee and cocoa on top, then baked bread, iris and cypriol in the heart, over a base of labdanum, butter, amber and vanilla. Bread and church wax in the same bottle: it is the clearest example of what this house can make of an Orthodox ritual.
Kanchaveli
White is the house's first creation. It opens on a light vanilla, framed by bergamot and orange peel. After about two hours, saffron takes over, then a fine leather. The house describes it as introverted: it stays close to the skin and reveals itself over time.
Yellow does the reverse. Leather is there from the opening, with a bright lemon note, then a sparkling cinnamon, over a herbaceous, woody and balsamic base. It is the most extroverted and the sunniest of the six perfumes of the house.
To go further, our full profiles cover each house in detail: Cæleste, Adi ale Van and Bidzina Kanchaveli.
Frequently asked questions
Are there niche perfume brands in Romania?
Yes. Cæleste and Adi ale Van are two examples, one launched in 2024, the other in 2021. Both are independent houses that make extraits only, in small batches, with distribution limited to a few retailers.
Do all Eastern European perfumes smell of incense?
No. The incense mainly comes from the two Romanian houses and their link to Orthodox liturgy. Adi ale Van also makes pastry gourmands and sunny fruity scents such as Dulce plai and Melancolie, and Kanchaveli's perfumes revolve around leather. Read the notes on the product page rather than the name or the origin.
Who composes these perfumes?
The three houses work differently. Cæleste hands each perfume to a guest perfumer. Adi ale Van signs some formulas and delegates the rest, often to Jimmy Bodin. Bidzina Kanchaveli composes all of his own.
Which house should I start with?
It depends on what you already like. For gourmands and vanillas, Decembrie 89 by Adi ale Van. For white flowers and resins, Guardian Angel by Cæleste. For leathers and author-led perfumes, White by Kanchaveli. The safest approach is to compare two or three samples over several days.
Where can I buy these perfumes?
Passion Parfum is an official retailer for Cæleste and Kanchaveli in France, and carries thirteen Adi ale Van perfumes, made to order. The 2 ml samples are available subject to stock, and we ship from France to the rest of Europe.
These three houses are part of the scenes covered in our niche perfumery guide, alongside the new Chinese perfumery. Every house we carry is listed on our houses and creators page, and our samples page explains how to put several 2 ml together before choosing a bottle.