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Handmade fragrances from Brooklyn, NY. www.mcmcfragrances.com

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freesamplessamplesRemember the two scents we launched exclusively at Anthropologie last Fall, AMARA and SAVANN? (They were inspired by a volunteer trip to Cambodia and you can see and read more here.) We were doing a little New Year’s cleaning of the studio and realized we had a bit of extra perfume so we put together these samples for you, and for a limited time, every time you place an order on our site, we’ll send you two free samples!

AMARA and SAVANN are available for purchase on the Anthropologie website, and the Special Edition Glass Heart is available here. Humanity_AmaraSavannEditorial_Humanity

I am beyond excited today to finally share with you a project I’ve been working on with Anthropologie for the last year. Remember that trip to Cambodia and all of those photos? (You can check them out here, here, here and here.) Well, that trip was the inspiration for SAVANN and AMARA, two new scents exclusive to Anthropologie. They can be found at all of their stores nationwide, as well as on their website.

Two years ago I created the Humanity Fragrance with public arts organization Trust Art, a fragrance inspired by a volunteer trip to the Casa de los Angeles in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. The idea was to create a fragrance inspired by the feeling of compassion, and see if that sentiment could be carried to the wearer. When Anthropologie approached me about a collaboration, I jumped at the chance to renew the Humanity Fragrance Project with a second edition. Anthropologie was so kindly open to that, and supported me when I embarked on a trip to rural Cambodia, where I volunteered with six friends at the Working for Children Rainbow Orphanage, then visited the awe-inspiring Angkor Wat temples.

One friend who came with me was photographer Harry Fellows, whose wonderful photos below became the inspiration for the packaging. Designer Paul Wagenblast worked with illustrator Aidan Koch to interpret the varying things we saw into a playful moodboard of our trip. SAVANN, named after one of the 37 beautiful kids at Rainbow, reflects the playful nature of the kids, with notes of mango, pink lotus and soft sandalwood. AMARA, an ancient Hindi word for roots, draws more from the mysterious spiritual nature of Angkor Wat and the amazing sight of trees overtaking ancient temples. AMARA is a darker, woodier scent with regional black pepper, cinnamon, spider lily, jasmine, and Kambodi Oud.

Each fragrance contains a stamped postcard addressed back to the MCMC Fragrances studio, encouraging wearers to tell us about any moments of compassion one may feel while wearing the fragrance. We’ll post the messages here on the blog as they roll in. A portion of the proceeds from the fragrance will go back to the Rainbow Orphanage, to build a new boys dormitory.

Thanks again to Anthropologie for their tremendous support, and if you fancy, please shop the fragrance here!

This weekend Trust Art had their Triennial exhibition in McCarren Park. Trust Art is a  crowd-funding site for public art projects. It’s a progressive use of the term “public art” that encompasses not just what one traditionally thinks of as public art (like sculptures in a park) but works that contribute to the common good in some way. The Humanity Fragrance Project started as a Trust Art project and when they launched three years ago I raised money through the site to go on a volunteer trip to the Casa de los Angeles in Mexico and create a perfumed fountain inspired the scent of compassion.

For the Triennial, I exhibited ephemera from the process of my project. I showed all of the drafts of the original Humanity Fragrance framed along with notes from my journal. I was proud to have my work next to the Dreamers photographs (for which I travelled to Mexico City, Tokyo, and Berlin to be part of!), Bamboo Bike Project, and the Bushwick Art Park, which is lobbying to have an underused street in Bushwick turned into a public art park. It was also just an awesome two days of hanging out in the park barbeque-ing and talking to other Brooklyn artists about the projects they want to make happen in the community.

A few photos from our week volunteering at the Working for Children Rainbow Orphanage.

It’s hard to put into words exactly how awesome the kids and staff are there. They treated us so kindly, and are extremely hard working, to an extent unheard of in the first world. The 33 kids wake up at 5am and have chores ranging from preparing breakfast (complete with stoking a fire) to feeding the hundreds of fish in their fish farm, to harvesting veggies. At 7am they’re off to school for the morning, returning for more work on their sustainable permaculture eco-farm. In the evenings we hung out – dancing the bungalow, makeover night, movies, and just chatting about life.

Photo by Meili taken on instagram (@meiliautumn)

We just arrived home from Cambodia yesterday. It was an epic + amazing + life-altering trip. We had a beautiful time.

I’ll be sharing lots more photos and thoughts over the coming weeks. For now I thought I’d post the image above, of some floral inspiration: jasmine sambac bracelets for entering the temple, a folded lotus flower, and a Spider Lily.

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