The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Hade is a composition from Arpa Studios, the house built by perfumer Barnabé Fillion. The line began with a simple but stubborn idea, that scent can reach beyond its conventional role and act as something closer to material than accessory. Hade fits that thesis perfectly. It's built from a small, deliberate set of materials: amber, sandalwood, labdanum, gurjan balsam, ashanti pepper, neroli, sage, and cistus. Each plays a role in a composition that refuses to behave like a conventional release. The opening burns warm and resinous, the drydown settles into smoke and sweetness that hangs close to skin rather than reaching across a room. There is a density to the fragrance from the start, almost no air between the materials, and that compression is what gives Hade its particular gravity.
What makes Hade structurally unusual is how few notes do all the work. Labdanum and gurjan balsam carry the real weight, while amber and sandalwood anchor the composition and provide the warm frame around them. Labdanum brings a sticky, ancient sweetness, the smell of old churches and burnt sugar, while gurjan balsam adds the smoky, almost tarry edge that prevents the whole thing from sliding into simple warmth.
The evolution
Hade begins dense and sweet, with amber and sandalwood pressed together so tightly it's hard to tell where one ends and the other starts. Within the first few minutes the labdanum surfaces, bringing a sticky, almost burnt-honey warmth that makes the opening feel edible. Gradually the gurjan balsam takes over, shifting the composition toward smoke, not cigarette smoke, but the heavier resinous kind, like a fire that burned down hours ago and left the air still warm. The sweetness recedes over the course of wear, replaced by a drier, woodier profile that hugs close to skin rather than radiating outward. As hours pass, the composition thins without disappearing, moving through smoke, dry wood, and a faint residual sweetness that clings to fabric and hair the next morning. What remains smells like old wood and something faintly sweet, the ghost of the composition that started the day.
Cultural impact
Hade wears as a deliberate composition built on resin, smoke, and dry wood rather than mainstream sweetness, sitting closer to artistic perfumery than commercial gourmand territory. The glycerin shell bottle presentation gives each fragrance a tactile presence, more handled object than shelf decoration. Labdanum and gurjan balsam do the heaviest lifting here, materials with deep histories in perfumery that are rarely given this much room to speak.
The House
Arpa StudiosArpa Studios is a Parisian fragrance house founded in 2020 by perfumer Barnabé Fillion. The studio positions itself as a laboratory of sensory exploration, where scents become catalysts for synesthetic experiences rather than mere olfactory products. Fillion, a French native who spent years as a collaborator with Aesop and worked alongside artists such as Anicka Yi, established the house to explore the boundaries where fragrance intersects with other senses. The name derives from the harp, chosen for its associations with subtle vibration and invisible emotion. All seven of Arpa Studios' debut fragrances launched in 2023, spanning compositions named Ferragus, Arco Spettro, Fosforo, Recedere, Hade, Manta, and Matter. The house operates without an in-house perfumer, instead enlisting a network of creative collaborators to shape its olfactory research projects.
The Creator
Barnabé FillionFillion favors natural extracts that retain their original character, often pairing a single flower with an unexpected mineral or resin. He builds his compositions layer by layer, allowing each note to settle before adding the next, a method he likens to developing a photograp…
