Hi all, briefly, I am Portia from Sydney, Australia, have a blog called AustralianPerfumeJunkies with one of my BFF’s Evie C and I am thrilled to be meeting all of you through the Perfume Posse. Long time reader, first time writer here and shaking in my boots with excitement. As my first piece for the Perfume Posse I wanted to write about a sample I’ve procured from SurrenderToChance.

Aleksandr by Arquiste by Carlos Huber Perfume Review

Photo Stolen Arquiste

Not so long ago I was reading someone else’s blog (can’t remember whose, sorry) and there was a picture of the most divine hunk smiling out at me. Tall dark, glossy and buff, the photo was of a man who wouldn’t be out of place in a ManPower all male stripper review. GORGEOUS!!

Photo Stolen artwelove

See? I know. Ridiculous, right? This is Carlos Huber, New York based, four language fluent, Mexican born architect and avant-garde preservationist, who was lucky enough to do his final study with architect and artist Jorge Otero-Pailos at Columbia where he graduated with honors in Historic Preservation, and now works all over the world fusing old and new in such amazingly braggable places as creating Ralph Lauren stores signature look in historically significant sites to restoring old Venetian Palazzos. Not just uber yummy but clearly clever, likeable and driven too.

Why am I writing about Carlos on Perfume posse? This year he has extended his scope to perfumery and released his own line called Arquiste. It didn’t happen overnight though, Carlos remembers to Ron at NotableScents

At that time I was friends with Rodrigo Flores and Yann Vasnier. About eight years ago I talked to Rodrigo about my love for perfume. He told me that if I was really serious about it, he would teach me. He told me that when I was finished with my job I could come once a week to talk about perfume. He told me that I could come and smell perfumes, go to the lab and do proper classes…

Photo Stolen fashion.elle

Carlos idea is to find a moment in time and create a scent around snippets of information that are hidden in history, folklore and letters, then make a scent incorporating all these layers. It is much like the Parfum d’Empire credo but way more specific, take Aleksandr; here is a snippet of a GQ exposé;

Aleksandr happens to capture the essence of the crisp morning when famous Russian author Aleksandr Pushkin died in a duel. From the historical writings of Pushkin’s friend that morning as he described the scene, Huber deduced how that moment might smell, right down to the birch trees as the men whisked past on their way to the field where Pushkin met his end. It’s like archaeology for the nose…

Aleksandr by Arquiste’s note list is short neroli, violet leaf, fir balsam, Russian leather and was developed with Yann Vasnier

A cool, almost mentholated freshness bursts from the initial spritz, bracing and stark. This is very barbershop masculine and reminiscent of some of the oldest in the book but quieter, wealthier, more distinguished. You have to be within whispering distance to know Aleksandr by Arquiste is on someone after about 30 minutes. I can imagine this being very popular with the buff, manscaped, suit end of town; can see it being the scent of choice in gyms all over the world that are filled with men trying to be exactly as gorgeous, urbane and cross cultured as Carlos Huber looks from the spiel. It warms beautifully into its ambery fir balsam and Russian leather. Never a big statement piece Aleksandr by Arquiste is softly understated but when the tie is loosened or the suit comes crashing to the floor, divine. Warm, fresh and rugged; I would LOVE to smell this on a woman too, I think it would be surprising and razor sharp elegant. I am not transported to Pushkin’s deadly duel, unfortunately the reference has sailed completely over my iggerent head, but this is a wonderful hark back to what I remember as a Grandpa scent and the youth of today may never have smelled.

Photo Stolen wmagazine

To make it easy I’ll do a 5 star rate for you all, * is crap;***right in the middle; ***** is to kill for
Scent ****
Longevity***
Desirability****

You can buy 55ml Aleksandr by Arquiste online at Arquiste for $165
SurrenderToChance does samples and decants starting at $4.99