FUMparFUM

FUMparFUM is a Lithuanian perfume house and creative studio founded in Vilnius in 2011 by the artist, actor and radio presenter Aistis Mickevičius, who remains its perfumer [2]. The company describes itself as a "very small niche perfume brand" working in art and conceptual perfumery, and it makes its fragrances by hand in limited editions [1].

Beyond its own perfume lines, the studio composes scents for businesses and builds scent installations for galleries and exhibitions. Its founder has also written a book on perfumery in Lithuanian and opened a gallery in Vilnius devoted to smell and visual art. The brand is active: it runs an online shop from its Vilnius studio and sells through a small network of independent stores in several European countries.

Aistis Mickevičius was already a familiar public figure in Lithuania before he turned to perfume. The brand's own pages introduce him as an artist, actor and radio DJ, and the Lithuanian version adds that he has hosted radio programmes and events and taken part in television projects. According to the company, he became interested in creating perfume and spent several years studying it before starting a project of his own.

That project became FUMparFUM. The studio was set up in Vilnius in 2011 as what the company calls "a creative platform and a brand of art and conceptual perfumery" [2]. The Lithuanian studio page dates the registration of the trademark to September 2011, and it describes FUMparFUM as the first niche author-perfumery trademark registered in Lithuania [4]. That claim comes from the company itself.

The name is a play on words. The company explains that it draws on the Latin per fumum, the Italian profumo and the French parfum. Mickevičius is still named as the house's "nose", the perfumer who composes its scents.

The first years of the brand are only lightly documented. The fragrance database Parfumo dates the earliest FUMparFUM perfume with a known release year to 2012, the year after the studio was founded [14].

In 2016 Mickevičius published Kvepalai ("Perfumes"), which the brand presents as the first book about perfumery written in Lithuanian [2]. A brand-supplied exhibitor profile on the Pitti Immagine site says the book was republished in 2021 [12]. The same year, 2016, also saw releases such as Blur, listed among the house's perfumes on Parfumo [13].

Output peaked around 2020. Parfumo records twelve FUMparFUM releases that year, more than in any other, among them The Pharmacist, White Horse, Pink Powder and Dreaming Ceylon. Later titles in the database include Gondolieri and Plague from 2021 and Sleeping Quechua and Spring Poetry from 2022.

At the end of 2023, according to the same exhibitor profile, Mickevičius opened Per Fumum in Vilnius. The profile describes it as the only gallery of olfactory and visual art in the Baltic region [12], a description supplied by the brand. The gallery's name repeats the Latin phrase behind the brand name.

The house says it takes part in international fairs for artistic perfumery, naming Pitti Fragranze in Florence, Esxence in Milan and Paris Perfume Week [12]. Its own events page lists Paris Perfume Week, held from 21 to 24 March 2024, as its most recent dated appearance [6].

FUMparFUM presents its work as closer to art than to mass-market fragrance. The company says every scent is handmade from selected natural and synthetic ingredients and released in very limited quantities. It describes its style as a meeting of old European perfume-making tradition and a modern approach, and it calls some of its smaller works "perfume sketches", meaning quick, expressive studies rather than finished commercial products.

According to the studio, its fragrances share a taste for theatre, unexpected pairings of botanical and molecular (synthetic) materials, and what it calls "a hint of modern vintage taste". The brand names its inspirations as travel, cities, personalities, botany, history, vintage, theatre, cinema, humour and contemporary art.

The perfume titles fit these themes. Some name places, such as Figueres and Dreaming Ceylon. Others name characters or types, such as The Pharmacist, The Priest, Clown and Cuir Dandy, while Old Piano and Golden Sawdust point to objects and materials. Trade-fair listings follow the same line: the Pitti Fragranze exhibitor directory files the brand under fragrances and home fragrances, with unisex, limited-edition, experimental and travel-inspired styles [11].

Commercial work sits alongside the art. The studio says it creates fragrance lines and scented products for other companies. Its exhibitor profile lists hotels, banks, shops, boutiques and other fragrance and fashion brands as clients. The company also offers fragrance products carrying a client's corporate branding.

Perfume is the core of the range. Parfumo lists 63 FUMparFUM perfumes, 57 of them with a known release year, and names Mickevičius as the house's perfumer [14]. On average that is about three new perfumes a year over the past decade. The notes Parfumo most often records in the house's perfumes are musk, amber, patchouli and bergamot, followed by jasmine, benzoin and leather.

The brand's own shop shows a smaller current selection of thirteen perfumes. Among its best sellers are several scents from the Alchemist Charlatan line, including L'Artiste, Dreaming Ceylon, Cuir Dandy and Figueres, and Mildažytė, which the shop credits to Mickevičius. Parfumo also lists Theatre Scent No° 4 – The Priest, an extrait de parfum version of The Priest.

The catalogue reaches beyond personal fragrance. The studio sells home fragrances, including scent diffusers and candles, as well as a car perfume, gift vouchers and a small bookstore. Mickevičius also creates scent installations for objects, galleries, cultural events and exhibitions, which places part of the studio's output outside retail altogether.

Production stays in-house. The Lithuanian studio page says the fragrances are made by hand in the FUMparFUM laboratory in Vilnius, following the recommendations of IFRA, the fragrance industry's international standards body, and Good Manufacturing Practice to EU standards [4]. No third-party certifications are documented.

FUMparFUM is an active, independent brand. No parent company or outside owner is documented. As of October 2026, the company runs an online shop from its studio at Bazilijonų street in Vilnius, which visitors can see by appointment. The shop ships within the EU and to the United Kingdom, Norway, Switzerland, Canada and the United States.

Besides selling directly, the brand lists stockists in Lithuania, France, Italy, the United Kingdom and Estonia [8]. They are mostly independent perfumeries and concept stores, along with a museum shop and a duty-free outlet at Vilnius airport. The most recent dated activity the company itself reports is its appearance at Paris Perfume Week in March 2024.