AD 134,
Villa Adriana, Tivoli, Italy.

Such was the love emperor Hadrian had for his favorite Antinoös, that he commissioned thousands of sculptures to memorialize him after his demise. Like the contours of a statue, the physical and spiritual presence of the body is defined by a fragrant silhouette. Paying tribute to the beloved, like Hadrian did Antinoös, this fragrance captures the memory of skin, conjuring intimacy and closeness, and living in our hearts and minds as an idealized scent.

Notes include: Ambergris accord, proprietary musk accord, clary sage, white pepper from India, coriander seed, sargassum, leather-like labdanum derivatives, okoume wood from Gabon and ambermax.

Developed with Rodrigo Flores-Roux

Why you'll love it

If you’ve been waiting for Escentric Molecules to release a musk fragrance in their trademark minimalist style, good news: Arquiste has beat them to it. For those who don’t know, the former brand is famous for their bottlings of pure molecular base notes and abstract companion compositions which feature them. While in some ways, Peau seems filled with the feeling of ancient longing, like a ceramic vessel unearthed from a ruin of beige stone, to us it’s even moreso an ultramodern molecular musk. The scent purrs like an isolated bassline on the skin. Compliments from passersby ensue, convinced that incredible smell is something innate, even accidental. Textures dance: there’s a stupefyingly expensive fur coat, then a forest clearing animated with warm gusts of white pepper cedarwood air, then some invisible weight, sensual but abstract; love-data. Its projection is somehow both straightforward and infinitely complex, weightless but intoxicating. Layer under everything.

-Etiket