In The Beginning

Atropos Parfums is named after one of the Moriai from Greek mythology. Atropos is the cutter of the thread of life, the personification of the inevitability of death. It sounds pretty morose, but hear me out; I chose her as our patroness for a reason.

There is no better metaphor for time than perfume.

At Atropos Parfums, we draw inspiration from the cultures, literature, geography, and mythology of the Eastern Mediterranean. However, you won't find the typical 'Roman holiday' take here. My creative work is grounded in a lens I call Mediterranean Gothic, which asks a fundamental question: What does it do to people when raised to believe that their most significant accomplishments are now ruins, bleaching in the sun?

The past haunts these lands. Our true obsession here at Atropos lies in the concept of time—its rituals, passage, and ephemeral nature. There is no better metaphor for time than perfume. Time, like perfume, evolves, develops, and changes, revealing new depths and layers.

Both perfume and time are beautiful because they are impermanent. At Atropos, we wish to celebrate this delicious impermanence.

We aim to be a brand you are proud to purchase from and learn with.

Our mission is to help people connect to a more profound sense of beauty by embracing the brevity of time, the ephemeral nature of joy, and the immediacy of simple pleasures.

We achieve this by creating olfactive mementoes and dreamscapes, preserving trade history, and teaching the culture of fragrance.

We aim to be a brand you are proud to purchase from and learn with. I designed our products and workshops to be affordable indulgences that inspire you to embrace your life in all its wonder and madness. I named our company after the goddess of inevitable endings to remind us to enjoy the journey.

Omnia Mundi Fumus et Umbra,
Nuri

Our Founder

Nuri McBride, founder and perfumer at Atropos Parfums, fell in love with scent as a child and has been obsessively learning about it ever since. Nuri's career took her to many places before she ended at the atelier. Starting in humanitarian relief work, Nuri transitioned to academia before switching to community education and fragrance.

With a growing interest in the field of olfactive history, Nuri began applying her technical skills to the art, history, and culture of fragrance, with a focus on the Eastern Mediterranean and ancient Mesopotamia. In 2015, she launched the Death/Scent Project to explore the intersection of aromatics, culture, and death rituals. An apprenticeship soon followed, focusing on traditional Middle Eastern fragrance-making and distillation techniques.

Nuri is co-editor of the community-focus scent culture journal Alabastron. She has collaborated with the World Sensorium, UCLA, the Corning Museum, the British Society of Perfumers, the Institute for Art and Olfaction, Oderuropa, and many others.

In her free time, Nuri enjoys reading 19th-century Gothic literature, learning cuneiform, powerlifting, rugby, and historical needlework. You can learn more about Nuri here.