SYDNEY: Sydney perfumery Scent Room has released a fragrance carrying the name and signature of Habib Qaderi, one of the best-known singers in Afghan music. HQ, Habib Qaderi's extrait de parfum, is his first fragrance, sold as a signed first edition in limited bottles, and it went on sale this week.
The launch pairs a Sydney maker with an artist whose audience stretches across the Afghan diaspora, from Los Angeles, where Qaderi has been based since the mid-1980s, to the large communities in western Sydney and Melbourne. Scent Room says the brief was simple: compose a scent around the man himself rather than a market segment.
What is in the bottle
HQ is a 100ml extrait de parfum at 30 per cent concentration, the strongest category in fine fragrance. It opens on Italian mandarin, aldehydes and sea notes, moves into black pepper, neroli and cedarwood, and dries down to tonka bean, white musk and amber. Scent Room describes it as fresh and woody, made for everyone, with 10 to 16 hours of wear from one or two sprays.
The bottle is a plain glass 100ml flacon with a black textured cap and a black label: the Scent Room name, the HQ monogram in Qaderi's hand, and "Habib Qaderi, 100ml extrait de parfum" beneath it.
Made in Sydney, sold direct
Every bottle is made by hand in Sydney. Scent Room builds its formulas from individual aromachemicals sourced from IFF, Givaudan and Firmenich, the suppliers behind the major fragrance houses, and sells only through its own site. HQ is A$69 for 100ml, with shipping Australia-wide and worldwide by FedEx. The signed first edition closes when the bottles run out; Scent Room has not said how many were made.
The artist
Habib Qaderi was born in Afghanistan and grew up in Kabul before his family left the country after the Soviet invasion, settling in Los Angeles in the mid-1980s. Over three decades of albums and singles he became one of the most popular Afghan artists of his generation. HQ is the first product to carry his name outside music, announced by the singer to his own audience as his own fragrance, created with Scent Room.
The launch film
A 20 second film accompanies the release: the bottle in close-up, black peppercorns and amber resin, and Qaderi himself, ending on the gold HQ monogram.
Where to buy
HQ is available now from the HQ launch page at Scent Room. Scent Room can be reached at [email protected] and on Instagram at @scentroom.au.
