Fragrance house

Thin Wild Mercury

Thin Wild Mercury was co-founded in 2017 by perfumer Cathleen Cardinali and musician-designer Anthony Polcino. Its fragrances were imagined and created in Los Feliz Village, Los Angeles, where the brand’s California LLC was filed on April 19, 2017. Cardinali moved from luxury retail into perfumery through the Institute for Art and Olfaction, while Polcino brought a musician’s background to the brand’s visual design. The creative identity of Thin Wild Mercury centers on narrative, place, and time, interpreting cultural eras, neighborhoods, and historical scenes in Los Angeles and New York. Its name references Bob Dylan’s description of the sound of Blonde on Blonde in a 1978 Playboy interview and adapts that reference into fragrance storytelling about coastal American cities. The initial body of work focused on Los Angeles’s 1960s and 1970s rock-music milieu, with four scents forming the Los Angeles collection by 2021. Laurel Canyon, 1966 was the brand’s best-selling scent, while Whisky, 1969 was the first formula Cardinali finalized after nine months of formulation. By June 2024, the duo were discussing a distinct New York collection.