Marissa Zappas

Marissa Zappas

Marissa Zappas is a perfumer, scent designer, and poet based in New York City. Her approach to perfumery merges her background in anthropology with her admiration for avant-garde perfumes of the early twentieth century. Her fragrances are often personal, but she is also known for her collaborations with New York City artists and writers. Her ethereal and deeply nostalgic perfumes blend the fantasy and the real with the gothic and the modern.

Marissa believes creating and wearing perfume is a way of invoking future (as well as present and past) selves. Her academic work explores the history of perfumery as it relates to attitudes towards death and the history of cemetery construction. While completing her MA, Marissa worked at Givaudan as part of her ethnographic training. There, she decided to dive fully into the art of perfumery and began working as a lab apprentice to Master Perfumer, Olivier Gillotin. She trained in perfumery under his mentorship until 2017, when she left to start freelancing. She lives in New York.

  • Petrichor

    Marissa Zappas

    Petrichor

    Petrichor is reminiscent of cold, wet dirt, while at the same time feeling luminescent. It’s main note is orris, the bulb of an iris flower. There is a rooty, shimmering effect that is undeniably like the scent of fresh rain on dirt and cold st…

    $7.00 - $150.00
  • Honey Rose

    Marissa Zappas

    Honey Rose

    An old-fashioned rose accord combined with a photo realistic honey note. Nostalgic, pervasive yet light, an easy to wear rose fragrance with depth. Notes: Bergamot, Tea Rose, Honeycomb, Amber, Musk, Patchouli

    $7.00 - $150.00
  • Lilac Dream

    Marissa Zappas

    Lilac Dream

    The god Pan crafts a flute from a lilac branch, playing a song of lilac dreams: the notes are pale purple, milky, and sweet. A ribbon of vanilla and musk rises from the sound of his pipe. Your ears perk at this enchanting tune: a seduction from Pan w…

    $7.00 - $150.00
  • Smoked Jasmine Black Tea

    Marissa Zappas

    Smoked Jasmine Black Tea

    Inspired by the scent of black tea spilled over an old book, Smoked Jasmine Black Tea harkens back to Emily Dickinson, her dried flowers and poetry. This is a quietly smokey and pervasively jasminic fragrance, with undertones of indole...

    $7.00 - $150.00
  • The Sun Card

    Marissa Zappas

    The Sun Card

    Pull back the silk curtains and the fragrance of a frangipani bouquet on the tarot reader’s table invites you in. As she reveals cards, scent memories of fresh hay, amber and sweet orange come to the fore. Heliotrope and spices perfume the air …

    $7.00 - $150.00
  • Annabel's Birthday Cake

    Marissa Zappas

    Annabel's Birthday Cake

    Designed in collaboration with Anabel Gat, this whimsical and otherworldly scent is meant to be enjoyed in celebration of sweetness, years gone by and birthdays! Rich tuberose frosting combined with candied rose petals on a bed of fluffy white c…

    $7.00 - $150.00
  • Flaming Creature

    Marissa Zappas

    Flaming Creature

    Created in collaboration with poet M. Elizabeth Scott, Flaming Creature is a narcotic, hazy evocation of – and ode to – American filmmaker Jack Smith (1932 - 1989)’s best-known work, the entrancingly disjointed Flaming Creatures. Fe…

    $7.00 - $150.00
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