Reckless Baby

The pear is not pretending to be a pear.

A synthetic pear, and it behaves like one: sparkly, a little too clean, sitting over a cereal accord that is fruity and lactonic without committing to either. Bright pink pepper announces itself immediately and is abrasive enough to keep it awake.

Then the sugar drains out, milk goes woody, and pencil shavings and suede come up underneath. Saturday morning cartoons, colored pencils, a suede sofa. What began as photorealistic cereal milk ends up playful, unexpected, and dressed in more adult clothing than the childhood smell it came from.

Escapist advertising promises far-flung places, and Domestica has no argument with the fun of that. In lieu of it, this house treats a bottle as a vessel for taking the domestic world along, and builds its fragrances out of ordinary rooms and back gardens. The artist and writer Jenny Odell suggests escaping laterally, towards each other, and that is the escape on offer here.

Marty Schissler and Alvaro Lozano co-founded the project, which is formulated, designed and packaged in Chicago. Schissler is self-taught and makes the fragrances; Lozano is a visual artist and shapes the material world of Domestica. The name was Björk's working title for Vespertine, and the debut collection is named for confabulation, the memory error in which a brain honestly fills its own blanks. Honest lying, and the trio explores letting smell do it.