Reykjavík Grapevine - Mar 2023, Page 29

29The Reykjavík
Grapevine 2/23
Best before:
March 2, 2023
Brian Pilkington’s
books have been
the favourite gift
for travellers to
take home year
after year.
Fun stories with
wonderful
drawings that
make every
child (and
adult) happy.
BEST-
SELLERS
Forlagið bookstore | Fiskislóð 39 | www.forlagid.is
Open weekdays 10-18 | Saturdays 11-17 | Sundays 12-16
ICELAND’S LARGEST BOOKSTORE
HOW IT’S MADE
The Sense of
Wonder in Fischer­
sund N0. 23
Words: Josie Anne Gaitens Photos: Art Bicnick
SHOPPING & DESIGN
Dead flowers and marine life
might not sound like your average
perfume description, but then
again, Fischersund’s flagship
fragrance isn’t exactly your stan-
dard eau de toilette.
“No. 23 is our first scent, and
it’s inspired by old Reykjavík,” Lilja
Birgisdóttir tells us, as she sprays
it onto our outstretched arms
with a flourish. “In particular our
father. Before he stopped working
he was a metalsmith. He took over
his father’s business and he was
often near here, at the slippur
[shipyard], fixing ships.”
As she speaks, Fischersund No.
23 wafts up to meet our nostrils,
enveloping us in its scent. It is
at once woodsy and fresh, with
bright evergreen top notes layered
over a smokey base. Lilja instructs
us to close our eyes as she reads
us the accompanying poem and
suddenly we are whisked away
into a perfumed flight of fancy.
A famous nose
While many readers outside of
Iceland will have probably never
heard of Fischersund, most will
be more familiar with the name
of the nose behind it. Jónsi, Lilja’s
brother, is perhaps better known
as the singer and frontman of
Sigur Rós than a perfumier, but as
Lilja explains, both activities have
their origins in creativity.
“Jónsi is self taught in perfum-
ery like he’s self taught in music —
he learned to play instruments by
himself. But that's why I love his
approach to perfumery, because
it's so his, it’s so personal. It's so
honest and raw and emotional,”
she says.
Starting with a dream
So, how exactly is a perfume like
Fischsund No. 23 made? Well, in
true creative fashion, the first step
starts with a dream or memory,
one that Lilja says is always
“connected to Iceland, or family.”
While the first three perfumes
that Fischersund produced (No.
23, No. 54 and No. 28) were all
developed by Jónsi, more recently
his and Lilja’s other sisters, lngib-
jörg and Sigurrós, have become
involved in the designing and
scent blending process.
“Now we are all doing it
together,” Lilja says. “So we’re all
self-taught noses today! It’s more
of a dialogue.”
Regardless of who is the origi-
nal source of the dream or concept
behind the perfume, the next
step is always the same: trying to
identify the elements of the scent
within the memory. In the case of
No. 23, these are predominately
aniseed, black pepper, grass,
tobacco and smoke.
“There’s not actually whale
in it,” laughs Lilja, referring to
the poem that accompanies the
perfume. “That line is to get you
located on the beach. Of course
there is the ocean so there is some
seaweed and sea salt, and when
we were kids my father smoked a
pipe. That’s my favourite scent —
so nostalgic and warm.”
Finding the blend
After the individual scents have
been identified and isolated, then
comes the difficult process of
blending them and finding the
right balance of low, high and mid
notes — much like in a song. The
process takes a long time, with
almost endless trials — and errors
— as Lilja explains.
“It’s very scientific. Everything
is weighed, and we write every-
thing down,” she says.
This is for good reason, as
Jónsi learned this the hard way.
Lilja continues: “Sometimes
when he was just doing stuff, he
made something amazing — and
then he hadn’t written anything
down.” Although Lilja assures us
that nothing astounding was “lost
forever,” nowadays the family take
a more thorough approach to their
blending experiments.
While the various oils used
to create the perfumes aren’t all
exclusively Icelandic, some are
only created as the result of hard
labour on behalf of the Fischer-
sund team. These days, youngest
sister Sigurrós is largely respon-
sible for blending all the scents for
the perfumes and candles. “She’s
the artisan of the family,” Lilja
states, proudly.
Getting the word out
Finally, when the recipe for the
perfume is finalised, the family
are ready to share it with the
world. But that too is a process,
involving trusted testers and
thoughtful packaging and market-
ing.
“In the workshop, we all try it
together,” says Lilja. “We have a
conversation about it, and people
start taking it home, trying it on
their family and friends.”
Once the scent is endorsed by
this lucky crew, it is time to return
to the original inspiration behind
the perfume in order to create
unique artwork inspired by the
memories and elements it embod-
ies. Inga and Lilja, as visual artists,
are both deeply involved in this
part of the perfume’s creation.
Kjartan, Jónsi and Sindri have also
created music to complement
the Fischersund fragrances. The
ultimate goal here is to design
the right environment to foster
the element of connection that is
created by shared human experi-
ence through scent.
Sense of wonder
But in the overwhelming fast-
paced era of Tik Tok and relentless
PR machinery, Fischersund’s lack
of high-key business and market-
ing know-how can also work in
their favour. “What I love is that
there’s this natural word of mouth
about us,” says Lilja.
Fischersund’s store manager
Rachel agrees: “We kind of love
it,” she says, of both the brand and
its location’s semi-hidden nature.
“You don’t have so much of that
these days. Everything’s so acces-
sible to everyone. All information
— you can just look on your phone
and Google it. We’re missing this
sense of wonder.”
Stepping into Fischersund’s
store, that sense of wonder that
Rachel calls to mind is imme-
diately instilled in you. From
Jónsi’s fascinating ‘scent organ’ (a
literal antique organ with the keys
replaced with row upon row of
tiny bottles of scents and oils) to
the ever-changing scent-themed
exhibitions hosted in the build-
ing’s basement, the whole house is
the embodiment of the values and
intentionality the family wants
to bring to the world with their
products. And while the Reykjavík
Grapevine’s budget doesn’t quite
stretch for scented pages, we
encourage you to get your hands
on a bottle of Fischersund No.
23 if you can, so that you too can
immerse yourself in the delightful
wonderment it brings.