Fischersund: Born of Fire, Ice and Memory
Born from Icelandic landscapes, family memories and artistic imagination, Fischersund turns perfume into a multisensory journey
Close your eyes. For a moment, let the noise of modern life fall away—the messages, screens, conversations and constant movement. What remains is something more instinctive: the sensation of simply being present.
“This is where I begin,” Fischersund says. “Not with perfume. Not with a bottle. With the senses.”
Smell, sound, touch, taste and sight form the foundation of Fischersund, an Icelandic fragrance house and creative collective that sees perfume as one part of a much larger sensory experience.
“Our first contact with life, inside and outside the body, is through the senses. We experience before we articulate. We feel before we explain.”
Born in Reykjavík in 2017 as a family-run perfumery and art collective, Fischersund has never been interested in fitting neatly into the traditional definition of a fragrance house. Music, photography, visual art, design, objects and performance exist alongside perfume, connected by a shared creative language.
“I am a family,” Fischersund says. “And I am a creative space. Perfume is one part of what we do.”
That philosophy comes to life at Fischersund’s Reykjavík home, part shop, gallery, venue and art installation. The space brings together its different creative disciplines, encouraging visitors to experience rather than simply browse.
“I do not want the space simply to display my fragrances. I want the architecture, objects, music and scent to communicate with one another.”
It is an approach that feels particularly fitting for Iceland, where landscape is inseparable from memory. Fire, sea, vegetation, wood, earth, leather, rain and smoke become more than physical elements; they become impressions that can be carried through scent.
But Fischersund is not interested in simply reproducing Iceland.
“I want to interpret it,” it says. “The smoke from a fire. The greenness of vegetation. Salt carried by the sea. Wood, earth, leather, rain. Not as decoration. As experience.”
That distinction is central to the fragrances. Handcrafted and hand-poured in Iceland, they embrace atmospheric compositions that can feel raw, unusual and deeply personal.
“I do not believe everything needs to be softened. Nature is not always polished. Why should perfume be?” No. 23 is a clear example. Inspired by memories of working alongside a father around Reykjavík’s old harbour, the fragrance brings together impressions of oil-stained hands, salty air, tobacco, smoke, tarred telephone poles and Icelandic spruce. “No. 23 taught me that beauty does not have to be obvious,” Fischersund says. “A fragrance can be rough around the edges. It can surprise you.”
No. 8 offers another side of the landscape. Rhubarb, citrus and pine create a fresher, greener impression, reflecting Iceland through brightness, youth and light.
Then there is No. 54, rooted in the atmosphere of a workshop. Wood, leather, vetiver and patchouli evoke tools, craftsmanship and the tactile experience of making something by hand.
“These are not simply ingredients,” Fischersund explains. “They are fragments of a world.” Even the bottles carry this idea forward. Illustrated cotton bandanas bring visual art into the packaging, turning each object into something with a life beyond its function.
“I believe objects should be experienced, not simply consumed.” The same philosophy extends into Fischersund’s music. Its creative collective develops compositions connected to the fragrances, while scented concerts combine perfume, sound and visual art to create immersive experiences.
“Music and perfume have more in common than people realise. They both unfold. They both have rhythm.
They both change with time.” In these experiences, fragrance becomes more than a scent worn on the skin. It becomes atmosphere—a way of connecting memory, place and emotion.
Perhaps this is also where Fischersund’s understanding of luxury begins. “To me, luxury is not necessarily about having more,” it says. “It is about noticing more—the material, the craftsmanship, the sound, the space, the sensation on your skin, and what remains after everything else disappears.”
There is no excess in that idea. Instead, there is attention: to materials, to craftsmanship, to surroundings and to the small details that are often lost in the pace of everyday life.
Fischersund was born from a family, a landscape and a collection of memories, but its fragrances are not intended to dictate how those memories should be experienced. “Bring your own world, your own senses, your own interpretation. That is when fragrance becomes personal.”
And perhaps that is the essence of Fischersund. More than an Icelandic fragrance house, it is a meeting point for perfume, music, art and design…a place that invites people to pause and experience rather than simply consume.
NO. 23
The Memory of the Harbour
“No. 23 is where roughness becomes beautiful.”
Smoke, salt, tobacco, wood and spruce create an atmospheric portrait of Reykjavík’s old harbour. Dark without feeling heavy, it carries the character of oil-stained hands, sea air and working materials, leaving behind something raw, intimate and quietly addictive.
NO. 8
A Brighter Iceland
“No. 8 shows you another Iceland.”
Rhubarb, citrus and crisp pine bring freshness, greenery and light to the composition. Brighter and more playful than expected, the fragrance captures a different side of the landscape—one filled with colour, movement and the fleeting warmth of sunlight.
FLOTHOLT
Hope on the Horizon
“Some fragrances are born from memory. Others are born from hope.” FLOTHOLT explores the feeling of being rescued, bringing together salt, seaweed, cold air, smoke, burnt driftwood and amber. The composition moves from the darkness of the sea and smoke towards something brighter—the moment when the horizon finally opens again.
NO. 54
Inside the Workshop
“No. 54 takes me somewhere familiar. To my father’s workshop.” Wood, leather, vetiver and patchouli evoke tools, craftsmanship and the atmosphere of things being made by hand. Warm and tactile, it celebrates the simple beauty of working with materials and the memories held within familiar spaces.
