Men

Arquiste: Carlos Huber Interview 2014

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Post by Anslie Walker

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Arquiste at Peony Melbourne’s Event

Carlos Huber is director/curator of Arquiste perfumes. I got to have a lunch with him in Melbourne, moments before the Australian launch of new fragrances L’Etrog Aqua and Architects Club at Peony Haute Perfumerie.

Arquiste Peony 2014 #1

Arquiste: Carlos Huber Interview 2014

You are studied Preservation Architecture, did you also study perfumery?

I started as a Preservation Architect and also worked for Ralph Lauren. I met a perfume evaluator who introduced me to perfumer Rodrigo Flores-Roux. I became friends with him, spending a year studying with him as much as possible. We share a love of history, so he understands my passion and interprets my visions well.

How did the range develop?

I came up with 6 stories, moments in history for the perfumers to translate. I choose places I have visited and connect with deeply to ensure the fragrances are authentic. The aim is to bring olfactive references to life. They are historic moments in time, yet I did not want them to be vintage, I wanted them to be modern concepts where we are dropped in that moment, not have the moment brought to us. We also use the most modern of ingredients to create hyper real experiences.

Tell me about the Arquiste signature bottles?

I love these, they are Italian made, solid and round and if you look closely on the inside you cannot see where the glass and perfume begin and end. I just had the lids remade so they are heavy in the hand. The new fragrances are in 100ml only and the originals are in 50ml, eventually they will all be available in the 100ml size.

Arquiste Peony 2014 #2

Overview of the range with quotes from Carlos:
Woods and Citrus:
Aleksandr is an amber leather developed by Yann Vasnier that interprets a Russian love story in 1837. Violet and neroli is the fired-up lovers after shave products, as he gets ready to leave the house for a dual. He dons his fur coat and leather boots and heads outside amongst the snow-laden fir and birch trees, where in a clearing ahead, the fateful duel awaits him.

Architects Club by Yaan Vasnier “this fragrance is set in The Fumé-the jewel of Claridge’s and has 3 phases – the first fresh icy gin martini phase with juniper, angelica, lavender, clary sage and coriander, the second comfortable woods and amber where oak, guaicwood and sensual ambermax settle on skin and thirdly the dry smoky vanilla tobacco, old books and leather phase. I love wearing this fragrance!!”

L’Etrog is a citrus chypre developed with both Rodrigo and Yann. It’s inspired by Jewish harvest festival Sukkot, which occurs in October. “L’Etrog is Hebrew for Citron and is the balmy sweet night time in Calabria, Italy 1175 where farmers gather after a day in the citron fields. Dried date accord and scents from the wood cabin mix with the intense citron leaving a velvety powder dry down after the zest has died down.”

L’Etrog Aqua is an Eau De Cologne style yet contains 15% perfume concentration!! It’s the morning after L’Etrog, where dew is heavy on the citron fields, green, tart, wet, juicy and cool, it sheds light on aspects of the original and highlights them. “This fragrance contains more myrtle than any other fragrance, along with lavender, rosemary, vetiver and pistachio, which is like a dry cedar.”

Anima Dulcis was developed by both perfumers and is definitely worth a try. Carlos describes it as “a baroque gourmand” combining cocoa, Mexican vanilla, cinnamon and three types of chilli to interpret a convent in Mexico City in 1695 where a group of nuns prepare recipes of bread puddings and hot chocolate.

Florals:
Fleur De Louis is a woody floral developed by Rodrigo Flores-Roux’s. It’s the French perspective in 1660 on the French and Spanish boarder, where Louis XIV is about to capture a glimpse of his new bride, Maria Theresa. Orris, jasmine and rose represent the French as they peer from a pavilion made from freshly cut pine and cedarwood. Orange blossom wafts from the Spanish infant’s clothing.

Infanta en flor is a floral musky amber and is Yann Vasnier’s take on the same time/place as Fleur de Louis, but from a Spanish perspective. Maria Teresa, blushes, fans herself and steals a look back at the gallant King as he lays his eyes on her for the first time. Cistus, Spanish leather and immortelle dance with the innocent scent of orange flower water, rose-rouge and rice powder.
“The French perfumer did the perspective from the Spanish border and the Spanish from the French!” Carlos marvels.

Boutonniere No7 was Rodrigo Flores-Roux’s work and is a green floral fragrance made with the brief of “How does a man wear a flower?” Carlos explains “The answer is that men wore white gardenias on their lapel to the opera in Paris in 1899 to seduce women. We originally wanted it to be at the end of the night – it became quite sickly and did not work so we went for the first intermission at the opera combining gardenia with cologne ingredients such as lavender, vetiver, oakmoss, mandarin, bergamot and then added an ultra dose of jasmine”

Flor Y Canto meaning “flower and song” was developed with Rodrigo Flores-Roux and is a fresh, green opulent white floral “mixing Mexican originated flowers of tuberose, magnolia, marigold and frangipani with incense of Tenochtitlan, Mexico in August 1400 to represent a festival of flowers called Tlaxochimaco where flowers are offered on temple alters for the gods and the dead.”

Which are favorite fragrances for you?

My favorites are Cologne Bigarade by Jean-Claude Ellena for Frederic Male, D’Orsay’s Le Nomade, Tom Ford’s Champaca Absolute and Neroli Portofino.

Arquiste Peony 2014 #3

Of the Arquiste line – what do you wear the most?

I have been wearing a lot of the Architects Club lately (I have to say it smells FANTASTIC on Carlos!) and also Fleur de Louis is my other favorite.
In winter in New York I also like to wear L’Etrog /L’Etrog Aqua on my scarf and under layers as they contrast with the winter in a nice way.

Can we have a glimpse into the next story/moment in time you will bring to us with the next fragrance?

I can say it is based between 1614 and 1622 and is based on special cargo that traveled between Mexico, Europe and Japan.

Ainslie Walker x

DIOR Homme Genesis mini movie

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WOW!

From DIOR: “A black and white voyage of hypnotic beauty.
A new genre of film presents the Dior Homme composition in a way that no other fragrance has ever been seen. Poetic and in-depth, modern and sophisticated, it allows itself the luxury of stopping time.”

dh-genesis-pu-medium3806528744706261839Photo Stolen DIOR

Here is Australian Perfume Junkies look at the original DIOR Homme

DIOR Homme 2011 by Francois Demachy for DIOR

DIOR Homme FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Lavender, sage, bergamot
Heart: Iris, amber, cacao
Base: Vetiver, patchouli, leather

Beauty Encounter currently has $51/50ml
My Perfume Samples starts at $2.50/ml

Dior Homme Genesis – The art of fragrance creation

Habit Rouge by Jean-Paul Guerlain 2003 (Or: 1965)

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Post by Liam

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Hello fantastic fragrance heads,

It’s a pleasure to meet you all. I’m Liam and I love to smell anything and everything, which I’m sure everyone else loves to do also! Appropriately, for my first post on this marvelous website I felt it was only appropriate I talk about the introductory Guerlain fragrance that changed my life – Habit Rouge (EdT). It’s really bloody good. It’s novel, it’s historical, it’s a reference fragrance! When I become king of the world my first order of business is to rename Habit Rouge to ‘Happiness’.

Habit Rouge by Jean-Paul Guerlain 2003 (Or: 1965)

Habit Rouge EdT Guerlain FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

BaseNotes gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, Lemon, Rosewood, Basil, Pimento
Heart: Sandal, Carnation, Patchouli, Cedar, Rose, Cinnamon
Base: Vanilla, Amber, Moss, Leather, Benzoin, Labdanum, Olibanum

Habit Rouge embodies effortlessly what I love in a fragrance. It’s somewhat pompous without being obvious or nauseating. It has a gentlemanly quality that is comforting, very exciting and delicious! It opens like a lemony orange soda with a sherbet-like crispness. It’s a citrus accord moulded with opopanax and sweet and sticky tree resins. It’s incredibly toothsome, and has these light floral nuances that tickle the feminine side… Carnation and rose especially.

My favourite thing with Habit Rouge is the fact that it was (according to Guerlain) the first male fragrance to use a heavy dosage of vanilla. I love vanilla – I mean, who dare say that vanilla is a boring ingredient? The vanilla stems from Shalimar also by Guerlain, but in this fragrance the vanilla presents itself with less of a coumarin spike and more of a refined stickiness softened with discreet herbs. Vanilla, benzoin and a touch of orange blossom create the Guerlain Marshmallow accord, which is obvious… A tart and somewhat sugary smell reminiscent of white marshmallow.

Habit Rouge EdT Guerlain White_Marshmallows WikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

Subdued modulations of leather are to be found here. The carnal quality is lost, or at least pushed to the very back whilst a buttery and more rounded form of supple leather can be smelt. The underlying oriental spiciness differs heavily from the female archetype, and the oriental category has been made for men.

Habit Rouge is effervescent like lemonade and trails like sweet orange dust. It’s slightly poignant at stages with a gloomy quality, but I’ve found this often entails a sense of complexity. Habit Rouge is perfectly crafted for a man with a sincere and dapper facet, yet also has a mild primal quality that suggests something a little more after that.

Have you seen the advertisement with the red whip?! Grr that’s hot!

“Non, Habit Rouge c’est comme les petits pains,” — [Habit Rouge is] a French institution as constant as croissants

Habit Rouge has a slightly above average longevity and a mild sillage on my skin. It’s inoffensive and universal. You can wear it whenever, wherever and however. Work, rest, play.

Habit Rouge EdT Guerlain Braekeleer Wikipedia.jpgPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

Further reading: Now Smell This and Memory of Scent
FragranceNet has $45/50ml (before coupon)
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $3/ml

Thanks for reading! For more please check out my site Olfactics. My journey is still in my infancy! Can you think of any other male oriented orientals? Spare me the Paco Rabanne pl-ease! See ya later!

Liam 🙂

Tom Ford Noir 2012

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Post by ElizaD

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Tom Ford Noir 2012

Laquer, Pepper, roses, spice, iris, and sweet oranges. Tobacco perhaps? Interesting.

These were my thoughts as I stood in the Sephora sniffing my arm after spritzing Tom Ford’s Noir. The ladies in the Sephora always frown when they see me coming. I SNIFF my perfume. I don’t gently waft the tester under my nose, I spray forcefully and inhale. And I ask for samples! They’re limiting me to two these days. No matter, I am quickly making my way through the whole line of Sephora-approved fragrances at my local outlet. I’m almost done.

Noir Tom Ford Portlandbridges WikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

But this was a store in Portland, with many more choices, and saleswomen who were not on to me. I was trying to be discreet, but when you are a head taller and twice as old as almost everyone else in the store, it’s challenging.

Anyway, back to the fragrance. This one gave me pause. With a name like Noir I expected something much more intense. Some oud perhaps, or liquor notes: something thick and viscuous. This was beautiful. It opened with a sparkle of pink pepper and herbs, quickly followed by a sweet laquer note, but quickly settled to a lovely floral bouquet. Powdery with a little spice. Soft and graceful. I could even detect a note of baby shampoo. It reminded me of Jean Charles Broussea’s Ombre Rose. Like the lovely Margaux, who reviewed Noir exactly a year ago, I was intrigued.

Noir Tom Ford FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Italian bergamot, verbena, caraway, baie rose (pink pepper), violet flower
Heart: Black pepper, nutmeg, Tuscan Iris resin, Egyptian Geranium, Bulgarian Rose, Clary Sage
Base: Opoponax, amber, Indonesian patchouli, vetiver, civet, vanilla

So imagine my double surprise when I returned home with my sample and pulled up the information on Fragrantica. A men’s fragrance? Because it has violets and vetiver and verbena? Two months ago I suggested that Essence Aromatique might be suited for a man, and now I seem to be swooning over a men’s fragrance. Hmmm, perhaps after a couple of years my tastes are starting to expand.

Noir Tom Ford Sephora MyNamesAxel FlickrPhoto Stolen Flickr

It was in the women’s section. I swear.

Further reading: Candy Perfume Boy and Bois de Jasmin
FragranceNet has 50ml/$95 before discount
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4/ml

So tell me, APJers, where do you find fragrances to try locally? Are you lucky enough to have sympathetic salespeople at your local stores, or do you have to travel to satisfy your senses? I think I need a roadtrip, STAT!

Noble Leather by Julie Massé of Mane for Yves Saint Laurent 2013

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Hey hey APJ,

Loving the house; YSL has been a fave of mine since before fashion school and during became a hero for both his fashion and foresight but also because he lived this incredibly flamboyant life in a time when the world seemed to be quite conservative. He showed me, through his own actions that you could be whoever you choose to be if you have a talent, a little luck, work really hard and choose your friends wisely. That the people in charge of Yves Saint Laurent have taken the name Yves from his fashion house is a complete travesty and I hope never to own anything from the house without all three names on them, so anything pre 2013 and I can still grab YSL fragrances and makeup. I have received this decant in an order from Surrender To Chance, they have a special area where you can find the brand newest things from a year or a month, as you can see I have a backlog….

Noble Leather by Julie Massé of Mane for Yves Saint Laurent 2013

Noble Leather Yves Saint Laurent FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Leather, amber, wood, vanilla, patchouli, saffron, dried fruit

The first time I wore Noble Leather it was late and I was trying to think of what I should write, take some notes etc but my mind was completely blank. Not processing anything. So I decided to do some reading about it on the blogs. There isn’t much around and most of it hates Noble Leather. It was no help because I don’t hate it. In my mind the best leather of them all is the Pineider: Cuoio Nobile, followed closely by Bottega Veneta. Noble Leather is more like Cuoio Nobile with a hefty dash of Lonestar Memories thrown in. Dark, erotic leather, like a whisper of the feeling of the scent of the inside leg of a party monster’s chaps or the saddle that’s been ridden in all day and is still warm.

Noble Leather Yves Saint Laurent Remington Dash Timber WikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

Vanilla leather, amber leather, saffron leather an amalgam to begin with, dark, sweet and waxy. It smells birch-ish once the fireworks die down, darker and more tannins, with avery interesting super sweet overlay that must be the dried fruits but is really just an amorphous sweetness to my nose, not the same as the vanilla sweetness though which also play around the edges. There are momentary Cuir Ottoman memories but nowhere near as challenging or evocative. What whistles through my mind are images of cowboys and their saddles, drovers and their sheep, the labdanum having some similarities to the Lanolin we get from wool. I think it’s very aromachemical based because the scent goes in and out of my ability to smell if I am paying it close attention for more than a couple of minutes, when on a hand and it comes and goes from my olfactory vision then it comes back again whenever I put my hand to my chin or face area.

Noble Leather Yves Saint Laurent Walter_Wither Drover WikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

There are some spices that tickle my nose and the patchouli makes a lovely dusty cameo for a while, so reminiscent of working the Australian outback, but this is a leather/amber/vanilla for most of its journey and in dry down Noble Leather maintains much the same story to fade.

Further reading: Katie Puckrik and Kafkaesque
House of Fraser has £195/80ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $5/.5ml

Sillage is excellent and longevity quite good, I think I might like it much more if it wasn’t priced so outrageously. £195 that’s 3 – 4 Serge Lutens (Tubereuse Criminelle, Bas de Soie, Muscs Koublai Khan, Un Bois Vanille or Noble Leather’s sweeter and lovelier brother Chergui)  or 2 Neela Vermeire Creations Discovery Packs. Sorry I don’t see the value YSL and I think you, as a consumer, can spend your dollars better elsewhere.

Did you get your sniff on the Oriental Collection from YSL yet? Thoughts?
Portia xx

 

Armani Code – The Film featuring Chris Pine

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Hi Happy Huffers,

Chris Pine, Star Trek actor and handsome man about town, is the latest screen idol to become embroiled in fragrance advertising. I love the mini movie, it has a great suspenseful and fun story with killer backing track and shot beautifully. I grabbed it from my fave up to the second fashion blog art8amby. Go check them out, mag covers, ads, everything fashion and fashion advertising vision.

Please enjoy,
Portia xx

Armani Code

Antoine Lie, Antoine Maisondieu & Clement Gavarry for Giorgio Armani

Armani Code Giorgio Armani FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, lemon
Heart: Star anise, olive blossom, guaiac wood
Base: Leather, tobacco, tonka bean

Armani Code - The Film featuring Chris Pine(source)

Armani Code – The Film featuring Chris Pine

Hard Leather by Jerome Epinette for LM Parfums 2014

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Post by FeralJasmine

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Sometimes civilized people have to agree to disagree. There is a lot written about the fecal aspects of LM Parfums’ Hard Leather. To which I say: Really? Seriously? Have these people ever actually smelled feces?

Hard Leather by Jerome Epinette for LM Parfums 2014

A Night in Hard Leather

Hard Leather LM Parfums Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Leather, rum
Heart: Iris, honey
Base: Sandalwood, cedar, agarwood (oud), olibanum, vanilla, styrax

That is SO not what I smell. Initially, I smell clean, healthy barnyard, the kind you get with a really good oud. All the animals here are bursting with animal vitality, and you can smell it. The stroll through the barnyard lasts about 15 minutes on me. Then you come to the rough heavy wooden door into the tack room, and walk in among the leather. Through the scent of the wooden walls and the oiled and polished saddles and bridles hanging all around you, you smell a clean, vital male behind you. He is your wild lover, your animus, the one you’ve never confessed to anyone that you wanted, the one that you dream about and are sorry when you wake, the one you can only see out of the corner of your eye because he disappears when you turn to look straight at him. Dionysus. That’s what I smell.

Hard Leather LM Parfums Tack Room FotopediaPhoto Stolen Fotopedia

If I were in charge, which I certainly am not, all men in my vicinity would wear Hard Leather at least occasionally. Ah, what a world it would be.

Does that mean that a woman can’t wear this scent? Not by a long shot. There is a honeyed vanillic softness to the leather that makes it lovely on women. Probably all of us have a Dionysus aspect if we admit it, and scent is a splendid way to channel your inner incubus.

So where does the talk about feces come from? I think it’s possible that some people smell all strong animalics as having notes of urine or excrement. I have heard similar talk about Muscs Koublai Khan, which has animal notes but no urine or poop to most of us. To noses of the Fresh’n’Clean type, anything that suggests nature may suggest dirt or even excrement. Or it may be a genetic difference in the way we smell things, which is known to exist with some scents. In this context I always think of Hermès: Vanille Gallant, a lovely vanilla-lily scent to many, a fishy disaster to some.

Hard Leather LM Parfums Horse Beach Sunset Jimmy McIntyre FlickrPhoto Stolen Flickr

Further reading: The Scented Hound and
First In Fragrance have €295/100ml and €9/4ml Samples

So, sample first, by all means. You should always sample first, because your olfactory universe is not like anybody else’s. But if part of your own olfactory realm is out on the fringes, beyond civilization and governed only by natural law, the primal beauty of Hard Leather is likely to produce an interesting degree of shock and awe.

FeralJasmine

 

Oroville: Shooting Stars Collection by Christian Rostain for Xerjoff 2010

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Hello Tobacco Lovers,

Thanks to Michael for passing me his sample which I decanted into a spray. You know those great photos of women wearing killer dinner suit inspired suits or gowns. They always look so elegant, except poor old Celine Dion who put hers on backwards. Remember the whole YSL Le Smoking? We studied that phase of his design life at fashion school. Remember also Alexander McQueen’s love of tailoring, fit and suits that worked perfectly with women’s bodies, often camouflaged by the OTT overlaying of belts, buckles and other pieces of drama? This is the fragrance I would spray lavishly on a person wearing such costume.

Oroville: Shooting Stars Collection

by Christian Rostain for Xerjoff 2010

Oroville Xerjoff FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Roman chamomile, clary sage, orange
Heart: Leather, orange blossom, Italian neroli, carnation, Cuban tobacco leaves, galbanum
Base: Mysore sandalwood, vanilla, amber, white musks

You’d think by reading the notes that I would be expecting a lush, green, herbal opening but it surprised me. I always expect Xerjoff to be hefty oudh or amber. Not here, this is extremely fresh, like CHANEL 19 but nothing like it, that is just the nearest correlation I can give you. I think it may be the sage and galbanum, but of course I could be dreaming. Reading Ca Fleur Bon, Mark Behnke got indole and when it comes in it is beautiful, before reading his review I had missed it because it doesn’t stay indolic for long and it is only up close that I can smell it so put your Oroville on the back of your hand and then rest your chin in your hand.

Oroville Xerjoff Drum Tobacco WikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

When I see tobacco as a main note my mind goes straight to the pipe tobacco of my Grandma’s second husband Jim who put up with her nagging in return for the cleanest house and best cooking I’ve ever tasted. His smell through my earliest memories up until I was about 12 years old was a thick boozy miasma of stale pipe that had sunk into his cardigan and was ultimately “His Smell”. I really loved that smell and him. Sadly when he gave up the pipe all he smelled like was old man and cuddles were a lot less enjoyable. I digress, this is NOT what Oroville’s tobacco gives me, I get fresh plucked tea leaves/tobacco with a mini dose of leather, supple and plush early on which opens up into a very slightly toastiness both unusual and enjoyable, still crisp and snappy due to the flowers and resin. Curiously honeyed and not as green as I was expecting. The heart stays solid for about 3-3.5 hours, I continue to get wafts of the notes listed and the clove-ish carnation especially maintains.

Oroville Xerjoff carnation mrhayata FlickrPhoto Stolen mrhayata  Flickr

Sadly the base has been eaten up by my skin leaving only the merest whiff of what seems like clean laundry musks. I did get three good fragrant hours with a small projection and soft sillage. Worth the $$? You need to try it, my skin is notoriously scent hungry. I’ve given this sample 3 good wearings, 1 x dab and 2 x spritz. The spritz gives me nearly 4 hours of fragrant life, and the scent is excellent till it all sort off collapses at base level. If I had the money to burn I would buy a bottle and reapply every 4 hours because the top and heart are lovely.

Further reading: Ca Fleur Bon and The Scentuary
LuckyScent has $260/50ml
First In Fragrance has €199/50ml
Surrender To Chance starts at $5/.5ml

What did you think? Tried it? Want to?

Till tomorrow, be good to yourself and those i your orbit,
Portia xx