Genius in a bottle: MCMC Fragrances
Bespoke perfumes from a bijou Brooklyn atelier
From humble beginnings in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, to a place on the shelves of Paris’s Colette and Tokyo’s Asoom, MCMC Fragrances’ founder Anne Serrano-McClain has quietly, but confidently, begun to make a name for herself among the perfume cognoscenti. A graduate of the prestigious Grasse Institute of Perfumery, she specialises in small batches of artisanal scent – many bespoke – that are created in-house.
Bespoke creations are a deceptively simple mix of just 10 to 20 ingredients, built around one of the main perfume families – citrus, wood or floral. Once Serrano-McClain has assessed her client’s affections for the various foundation options, she begins to build the scent with a delicate top note such as bergamot or cherry blossom, middle florals and a base note of sandalwood or vetiver. Those able to visit the Brooklyn studio can take part in a lesson in the art of perfume-making as they watch the process unfold before them – while those commissioning a scent from afar receive a beautiful box full of samples and scent strips to kick off the creative process.
“I enjoy working with clients to create their vision,” explains Serrano-McClain. “At the moment I am working with a jewellery designer who has long had a signature scent that her friends know her by. We are taking the musky base from this scent and combining it with rich floral notes that she encountered on a recent trip to Sicily.”
In addition to customised perfume, MCMC also offers a line of eight fragrances ($95 for 40ml) – Garden, Hunter (third picture), Kept, Love, Maine, Maui, Noble (second picture) and Phoenix, as well as cedar-wood inflected Dude No 1 Beard Oil ($65 for 30ml) and Dude No 1 Cologne ($75 for 30ml) – that often serve as a creative springboard for Serrano-McClain’s one-off commissions. Her special compositions – eau de parfum and perfume oils – are priced from $2,500 for a 50ml bottle, with refills at $275 each.
“When I discovered perfume, I realised this was the perfect medium for me as an artist,” says Serrano-McClain. “I’m interested in the way memories have a haze around them, how reality becomes ethereal and infused with meaning and romanticism. This is what I am hoping to convey through my fragrances.”