It's widely known that scent is linked with memory, giving perfumes transportive capabilities. Brands invoke escapism in their advertising—put on our smells and they’ll take you to far-flung places, real and imagined. Escapist perfume is definitely fun, but here we're treating a bottle of perfume as a vessel that lets us take home with us wherever we go. In lieu of escapist fantasies, artist and writer Jenny Odell suggests that we “escape laterally” towards each other. Domestica aims to facilitate this kind of lateral escape. To ground you in the mundane happenings of everyday life. To draw your attention to the beauty all around you and inside you. To make everything feel lighter and somehow possible.

Domestica is a perfume project co-founded by Marty Schissler and Alvaro Lozano. It was also the working title for Björk’s lush, intimate masterpiece Vespertine (and the name of a really good b-side). Our project similarly explores the intimacy of the domestic world.

Marty is a self-taught perfumer. Alvaro is a visual artist who shapes the material world of Domestica. They live in Chicago with their dog, Missy.