September 2024 • Commune

Fumerie is proud to host Commune as our ninth Maker’s Residency artist and brand! Commune Parfum offers gender-inclusive luxury fragrances inspired by the natural world. Meticulously hand-crafted in Portland, OR, their perfumes are intended to be worn and experienced as radical acts of self-kindness. 

Commune is a living experiment, exploring the ineffable relationship between aroma and joy. What better method could there be to channel the grandeur and mystery of nature, while evoking and creating intimate memories?

Commune is actively engaged in reclaiming the concept of luxury- It is not the pinnacle of consumerism, but rather the deeply personal act of self-care. Commune’s commitment to disrupting extractive economies is reflected in every aspect of their process. From sourcing reclaimed, compostable, and perpetually reusable materials to their mindful engagement in small-scale manufacturing, we ensure that each product is made as if it were a gift to their own beloved.

Commune’s founder and self-taught perfumer Ben Smith leans heavily on his engineering background and honed expertise in the kitchen. He arrives at his formulas through rigorous experimentation, joyfully agonizing over every last detail. 

Featured Fragrances

ATOMIC GARDENS • “Having grown up in New Mexico, the late summer thunderstorms carry a strong scent memory for me. I really wanted to recreate that post-monsoon desert petrichor and resinous green aroma with a slight ozonic element from the charged air. Once I found a source for a beautiful co-distillation of piñon and chaparral the composition fell into place. A tip of the hat to the artist Walter de Maria for providing inspiration through his Lightning Field and Earth Room installations.”

Notes Baked earth, mitti attar, resinous desert plants, cracked dry leather

CANOPY • A love letter to the Olympic Peninsula. Old growth forests, mushrooms, oyster beds, the Sound. This may be the only perfume on the planet which incorporates a rice koji enfleurage element (handmade by Commune).

Notes Hinoki forest, rose, koji enfleurage, marine oyster accord

DISKO • “This fragrance was created while ruminating on the Jakobshavn Glacier as it calves icebergs into Disko Bay near Ilulissat, Greenland. It’s a place I have wanted to visit for many, many years yet has remained just an obsession for now. This is a fantasy scent; creating my mind’s picture of what standing under the bright, cloudless Arctic sky on an overlook watching these massive icebergs drop into the blue, blue, blue Disko Bay could possibly smell like.”

Notes Yuzu-coriander-black pepper accord, tobacco, vanilla, ambergris

Explore the Commune website here

Explore Benjamin 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, even if they do not necessarily fit the curation of our regular offerings. Often, local and micro-perfume brands are limited to working with stockists in their immediate area or are forced to compete with the algorithmic hardships 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