Humanity perfume is a joint collaboration between Anne McClain, a graduate of the Grasse Institute of Perfumery, and Trust Art:
All proceeds will benefit the production of the Humanity perfume fountain, which aims to inspire a new approach in creating and marketing a fragrance. The Humanity perfume fountain will emit a fragrance inspired by an act of humanity, transforming a small Brooklyn park into a place for communing, contemplation, and compassion.
You can read more about the perfume fountain here; it will be installed in Brooklyn's McGolrick Park for six months beginning summer 2010. The Humanity personal fragrance is...
...based around the Indian white lotus flower, a symbol of purity from ancient cultures. Rich with vanilla inflections with notes of maté tea and sustainable sandalwood from Australia, the scent is fresh, sheer, floral and woody.
Humanity is available in 12 ml Perfume Oil in a custom-designed glass sculpted bottle made by Alan Iwamura, $125, and can be purchased at the Humanity fragrance website. (via press release)
Huh? Wha..? A glass anatomical heart? Okay.
And I can just hear the screams emanating from “Multiple Chemical Sensitivity” activists already, 3000 miles away.
But I find the project interesting, in an abstract way.
I am assuming the actual fountain will not be heavily perfumed? And I’m glad they didn’t make the bottle look too much like a heart.
I can’t imagine that it would be so heavily perfumed that it could be smelled all over the park and even by the residents surrounding it. If that were the case, I don’t think that anybody would be able to get close to it, even those of us who LOVE perfume. I’m guessing that it will be a lesser concentration than even an EdC, otherwise, we would all be lined up with our empty bottles to take some home! Hmmm, if only Caron would open up a fountain of their urn scents….
Hey, its a little yellow embyro inside a crystal womb!! I dont really want a fragrance fountain that makes a whole park scented. Its enough with the abercrombie ventilation system that fouls up the whole mall.
Hopefully this will be better than A&F!
what, like it’s hard? 😛
Exactly!
OH, the Humanity! *unavoidable eyeroll* If it’s not *too* fresh and sheer, though, I have to say the notes sound appealing.
They do sound appealing! And that bottle is cool.
Didn’t we just get another “new approach in creating and marketing a fragrance” yesterday?
I don’t get the point though. What’s the fountain supposed to do to better things? I did a quick search of the website: seems like a charity without a real cause….
Forgot to say: I love the bottle. ;P
I wouldn’t call it a charity so much funding for a conceptual art piece. I used charity in the tags only because the fragrance is not being sold to make a monetary profit.
I like the bottle and the notes sound interesting. Sounds a bit like Omnia Crystalline, which I find a bit too sheer.
Oh, could be!
It’s interesting as an art project … less so as a fragrance, if only because of the name: “I like your perfume, what is it?” “Um, Humanity.” I could not say that with a straight face…
You can always make up a name!
It’s a cool concept, if a bit nebulous. And the perfume really sounds good, too.
It does sound nice.
I was going to say something snarky, then I checked out the website and looked at the pictures of the fountain and the inspiration trip. San Miguel de Allende is a beautiful place, an artist’s colony in the hills, and you can drive there from here. I love it and Zacatecas where my children visit every year because we have sister schools there. I love the heart imagery and find that many images of the Sagrado Corazon are more anatomical than not. I love the project. Maybe this installation will help people learn that perfume is art and though it may be challenging at times, it is worthy of the effort to understand and appreciate. I’m not sure I want to shell out $125 for 12mls of something that probably does smell a lot like Omnia as mountainear mentioned, but I like the idea of perfume supporting another art project. It is a neat idea, but I think my money would be better spent if I just sent it directly to the Casa de los Angeles orphanage because yo soy un angel tambien.
I love San Miguel de Allende too, wonderful town.
I’m with you two on San Miguel. A very good friend has a second home there and I really should spend money going there annually instead of on perfume!
OK, I’ll say it: I love the bottle, and I love the way the juice looks in it, and I love the photograph, the notes sound like something I’d try, and the fountain is an interesting idea. No snark, just spark.
Yay!
“What is the smell of Humanity?”
Looking at the metal heart sculpture that is to be the fountain, I got seriously creeped out picturing the fountain in operation–with the water spurting from what look like open aortas on top of the heart.
The scent itself seems pleasant if not terribly original, gauged to blend well with the grassy, outdoorsy smells in a park, and it could be very nice.
Hard to tell if something is original or not without smelling it, but you’re right that it doesn’t sound exciting. On the other hand, exciting might not work in an outdoor context.
Oh The Lotus! Never used enough in fragrance for my tastes, so this sparks genuine interest for me! Hopefully It smells as nice as it sounds… anyway about lotus… i dunno if i asked before… but if anyone here in the vast resources of perfume knowledge knows where online or store-wise i can score a bottle of an old L’Occitane Fragrance called “Lotus Blossom” i’d be forever grateful on bended knee to that person! it was ETHEREAL smelling and i fell deeply and madly in love with it and then it was discontinued before i could even snatch up a sample of it… been looking for years for a bottle of that (as well as a Crabtree and Evelyn Fragrance called “Song De Chine” which ALSO used Lotus in it! 🙂 ) thank you all! 😉
Kevin loves lotus too! I mostly associate it with aquatics.
Hi all,
I love the concept of the a gorgeous glass heart spurting, not into a vital body but beautifully, sadly, dreamlike into the air and pooling on the ground uselessly. It is a dark vision, richly rendered. The ambiguity of whether this is a ‘charity’, or a ‘fund raiser’ or consumers paying for a creative bit of marketing is well done. And the nebulous sentiment, captured in the name “Humanity”, is quite good (if not particularly creative). What does actual humanity smell like? I bet London to a Brick that it isn’t all that pleasant lol. I live not close to this beautiful park, this gift to the people of Brooklyn. I live more than 3,000 km away. To be precise I live 10,223 Miles away, in the metropolis of Melbourne, Australia. And I’m not screaming, yet you still hear me from over your horizon. I wish you would reconsider pumping perfume through your art piece. By putting perfume through the art piece you will be putting up a barrier that will deny access to a certain number of people who currently use the park. Those with Asthma, respiratory disorders, allergies to many of the chemicals used in fragrances, those with non-allergic chemical sensitivity and Multiple Chemical Sensitivities, will all have access to the park, their park, compromised. It is clear in recent scientific studies that at least 25% of the population has the potential to become disenfranchised by the artificial fragrancing of the public park. I urge you to abandon the plan to release fragrance in a public space. The planned fragrance release makes is a public health issue that would be covered under State and Federal Legislation and local by laws (and the project’s insurance I would hope). I ask and urge you to not release the fragrance into the park.
Harry Clark
MCS News Australia
There is no point in urging me to do anything, as I’m not involved with the project in any way.
I’ve never read such bull as:
“The Humanity perfume fountain will emit a fragrance inspired by an act of humanity, transforming a small Brooklyn park into a place for communing, contemplation, and compassion.”
I think you’ve been sniffing too many perfume bottles..
As the mother of a five-year-old with profound asthma – usually triggered by perfume or pesticide fumes – I object to you polluting the public domain with your fragrances – which I’m assuming are primarily synethic and petrochemical based.
More likely this small Brooklyn park will become a place where a percentage of the visitors will get headaches and asthma attacks. How unfortunate for the local residents and kids, mums and others who use use the park.
I think you shld keep your advertising and air pollution out of public space..
This is air pollution.
Again, this is not my project. You might be more sensible to contact the people involved.
LOL…do you seriously think this fountain will emit a fragrance…… i don’t think so, i believe that their message is a message of bringing humanity together through a beautiful piece of art work. And really, my daughter has asthma also and it is triggered by certain factors, but my child still does go out in public where she is exposed to all sorts of things that may trigger her Asthma. If you have a problem with this project i would suggest to contact the Trust Art Foundation and vent your frustration to them……maybe they can clear this up.
I’m always curious about the MCS sufferers who post here. This is a perfume appreciation site. As such, I expect they would take no interest in our discussions. We are consumers who enjoy sharing our passion for fragrance. That’s all. It isn’t political, we are not scent activists, and our opinions are just that. We are not out to influence anyone, except maybe fragrance houses, and that is best accomplished by voting with our dollars – not simply expressing our opinions. I just think that if I had MCS I wouldn’t waste my time reading a blog like this and looking for a chance to make people feel bad about enjoying perfume. It is ineffective at best and unlikely to change our desire to wear and enjoy fragrance. I think most people interested in perfumes are aware of the anti-public fragrance lobby’s stance and already know how much influence they have over the manufacture of perfumes and our ability to enjoy personal fragrance in public areas.
I love fragrances and therefor find this fragrance and its packaging and advertising beautiful, so beautiful in fact that i went ahead and ordered a bottle. The bottle itself is a piece of art which i am sure i will enjoy.
Hope you’ll love it!