May 2024 • SYD Botanica
Fumerie is proud to host SYD Botanica as our fifth Maker’s Residency artist and brand! SYD Botanica is a fragrance house created by perfumer and interdisciplinary artist Syd Buffman. Every bottle of SYD Botanica perfume is hand-blended and packaged in her home studio in Los Angeles, California.
Our five senses define the very edges of human consciousness and experience. Of all our senses, smell has the most direct pathway to the brain and can tap into deep emotion and memory. Like poetry, fragrance can transport you to another time and place in an instant. SYD is a fragrance project that explores these transformative effects of scent on the mind and body. SYD views this as a realm to be accessed for play, and their scents invoke imaginary worlds; both strange and familiar, while encouraging exploration.
Syd's interest in perfumery began when she was a young designer in the Bay Area. She became fascinated by the potential of scent for poetic storytelling, transformation of mood, and euphoric embodiment. A deeper desire to understand the plants listed in the notes of perfumes and their effects on the body led Syd to enroll in school for clinical herbalism. She studied with many teachers over the years, including a couple of modern-day alchemists - where she learned about the art of distillation and began to think more deeply about the poetry of nature.
After a few years living abroad in Warsaw, Poland, Syd came back to the USA and landed in Boulder, CO, where she met Dawn Spencer Hurwitz, one of the pioneers of American indie and niche perfumery. Studying with Dawn was life-changing for Syd, and brought her back full circle to the art of perfumery.
Syd moved to Los Angeles in 2021 and launched her first fragrances as SYD Botanica in October 2022.
Featured Fragrances
ANGELFACE • Rosy, Delicate, Alluring. A light, creamy, fruity, and floral perfume with notes of Maraschino Cherry, Pink Peppercorn, Dewy White Roses, Heliotrope, Brown Sugar, and Light Musk
BUTTERFLY TAMER • Ethereal, Agrestic, Animalic. A musky, modern Fougére (fern) perfume with notes of Bergamot, Apple, Gin, Violet, Tarragon, Lavender Absolute, Vetiver, Leather, Tonka, Castoreum.
GHOST FLOWERS • Floral, Gourmand, Phantasmal. A supernatural and delicious scent with notes of Cardamom, Milky Fog, White Flowers, Indole, Fir Balsam, Ambrette, Sandalwood and Vanilla.
HONEY BODY • Spicy, Gourmand, Sensual. A euphorically embodied perfume with notes of Apricot, Sichuan Pepper, Tuberose, Honey, Petrichor, Toasted Grains, Beeswax, Musk.
PROTEAN DESIRE • Sensual, Mysterious, Ambery. A smoldering and elegant scent with notes of Bay, Carnation, Plum, Amber, Leather, Incense, Smoked Wood, Patchouli, Animal Musk, and Myrrh.
SUSPENDED WATER LILY • Aqueous, Green, Ethereal. A soft floral and watery perfume for mermaids with notes of Salt, Ozone, Melon, Ginger, Gardenia, Water Lily, Algae, Moss, and Roasted Seashells
Explore SYD Botanica’s website here
Explore Syd Buffman’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