June 2024 • Libertine

Fumerie is proud to host Libertine as our sixth Maker’s Residency artist and brand! Libertine Fragrance is an independent North American perfume house, blending, bottling & labeling perfumes by hand in Canada. Scents for exploring yourself. Inspired by storytelling and the contradictions of being human. Libertine’s owner and perfumer, Josh Smith, is a self-taught, independent perfumer based in the prairies of Canada. He came to scent through previous education in both design and forestry. He fell in love with making perfume soon after realizing its ability to translate both large open places and subtle emotions. Through his brand, Libertine he creates scents to build rituals into the everyday and notice more beauty around you in every moment.

“I was lucky that I stumbled into scent. Scent gave me a clue as to why I felt like I was in my life but not living it.

Studying perfume-making forced me to slow down. Our noses are for the most part, out of practice. To smell accurately we really need to slow down, the details take time to notice. We need to explore our own senses to really feel them… and it’s the same for our feelings. The important ones can be subtle, more subtle than we expect. As soon as I started slowing down I noticed so much of what I was missing, right in front of me. 

That realization led to Libertine, I lit this up as a beacon for myself to follow. It’s easy to know it’s good to slow down but it is a challenge in a world built on fast. Libertine is everything I needed to hear and to remind myself of. 

Like a mantra.
Faster isn’t always better. Art and creativity are in our blood, they aren’t commodities. Finding ways of exploring yourself, those hidden quiet spaces, holds the secrets of your own heart.” - Josh Smith of Libertine

Featured Fragrances

BURROW • SMELLS LIKE...

A crackling fire, earthy woods, an ochre patina of spice, the embrace of a fire’s warmth on a winter’s night.

IN OTHER WORDS…

Seven thousand centuries, fire our companion. The boundary between us & the world thinning as we look back. It is safety, it is comfort, it is warmth. Take the hand of all those that came before. Talk low and steady, deep into the night.  

EROS FIG • SMELLS LIKE...

A decadent feast of figs and honey, deepened by toasted spices and smoothed by coconut.

IN OTHER WORDS…

A wild bouquet of roses is hidden in the forest for you. You cannot stay civilized and find it. Run barefoot. Let your hair tangle. Leave the modern in the past.

FIN DE SIECLE • SMELLS LIKE...

A canopy of citrus guards, a mossy blanket cast a floral bed, something dark, rich, and alive

IN OTHER WORDS…

A casual hedonism; fruit juice dripping down your chin, a mouth full of sweetness and promises. A grin, full of joy and teeth and honey.

SOFT WOODS • SMELLS LIKE...

Hazy, midday sun warming roses and cedar, the warm smoke of incense curls around fir.

IN OTHER WORDS…

Bright morning light raked by tender green needles. A gradual warmth, an awakening. The speckled light of summer light sets the forest ablaze.

SWEET GRASS • SMELLS LIKE...

A beam of rosemary and mimosa glimmering against a field of cut hay and ambrette seed.

IN OTHER WORDS…

Late September steals the dying breath of summer: golden flowers, golden fields, golden skin.

Explore the Libertine website here

Explore Josh Smith’s parfumeur page here

Submissions for our 2025 Calendar will close on Dec. 8 2024. All applications and samples must be received by this date for this calendar, but submissions can be made any time for future consideration.

Here at Fumerie Parfumerie, we are first and foremost perfume lovers. The goal of this venture has always been twofold: to bring the finest niche and independent fragrances to the Portland area and to engage the fragrance community and create a space for people to come together. In an effort to serve the greater community of enthusiasts and up-and-coming makers, we are excited to announce that starting January 2024 we will be featuring a month-long spotlight on an independent perfumer who will be exhibited in our shop for the duration of said month.

We believe the growing community of self-taught and newer perfumers deserve access to spaces wherein their art can be shown and appreciated without fully committing to the rather rigorous systems of wholesale. We also believe our community of fragrance lovers want and deserve a chance to enjoy these very hard-to-find pieces of art. Often, local and micro-perfume brands are limited to working with stockists in their immediate area or are forced to compete with the algorithmic competition of social media. We are proud to offer our curative services to find these makers and to make available a public form for brands to apply to participate in this exciting new program.

If you are a perfumer or brand owner interested in obtaining a month-long Maker’s Residency here in our shop simply fill out the form below and we will follow up shortly with an introduction, any questions we may have, and next steps. If you have questions you would like answered before applying, please feel free to email info@fumerie.com.

Please complete the form below to apply to be featured in our Maker’s Residency Program