Fragrance house

Chris Rusak

Chris Rusak is a Los Angeles-based visual and scent artist whose practice treats fragrance as an artistic medium rather than a conventional gendered product category. In May 2018, he launched his first artisanal fragrance line with Io, 33, and Quasi una absurdia, alongside the chronologically organized Studio Series, which opened his development process to collectors. His work has also joined experimental fragrance development with art and writing collaborations and an explicitly queer perspective on perfumery. In 2020, he released After Every Ounce of Joy (Leaves My Body), an experiment whose title evolved through successive versions and whose initial presentation withheld notes, ingredients, influences, and inspiration. One early fragrance in the line, Io is an incense perfume built around earthy, smoky, resinous materials. Later, 33, Bluer Skies (Whenever You’re Around), and Quasi una absurdia were retired after IFRA changes, material shortages, supply-chain disruption, and exhaustion made them impossible to recreate.