Art & Olfaction Awards: register to watch for free!

The Art & Olfaction Awards 2020 are to be live-streamed online this year (as with so many other scented events we’re sadly missing in person), but the good news is, this means they have flung open the virtual fragrant doors, and you can register to watch as a guest…

The scented award season really is in full swing – we’ve just had the Fragrance Foundation and Jasmine Awards, the Perfumed Plume Awards, and now: The Art & Olfaction Awards sashay forth to the spotlight.

Far more than an exercise in self-congratulation, The Art & Olfaction Awards are open to any independent perfumer who wishes to enter a submission, and the results are blind-sniffed by a panel of judges around the world. As well as the indie brands, they celebrate artisanal fragrance and installation artists who work with fragrance as a creative medium as part of their work.

Some of the names you may have heard of, but we guarantee there will be many you don’t (and need to get to know!)

These houses and artists represent some of the most interesting movements in perfumery right now, and it’s always fascinating to keep an eye (and, indeed, nose) on them by way of glimpsing to future trends for the fragrance industry as a whole…

 

 

The organisers of The Art & Olfaction Awards say: ‘Grab a bottle of bubbly, wear your fanciest outfit, and join us to celebrate this very strange year’s most excellent finalists in the artisan, independent and experimental categories. The ceremony will take place on September 17, 2020, from 2pm to 3:30pm PDT. Join us!’

To watch the event, you need to register for free tickets first.

Meanwhile, check out the list of 2020 finalists (always names worth knowing, as these awards are hotly contested…)

By Suzy Nightingale

BeauFort London fly the flag for British fragrance as Art and Olfaction Awards announced…

The fourth annual Art and Olfaction Awards were announced on May 6, and with a heady melange of strong candidates in the running as finalists, we were so thrilled and proud to see that BeauFort London won for their outstanding fragrance Fathom V in the Independent Category. In fact, though the awards ceremony were held in Berlin this year, we’re pretty sure you could have heard us whooping all the way from the UK!
Based in Los Angeles, the The Art and Olfaction Awards are designed to ‘…raise interest and awareness for independent and artisan perfumers – and experimental practitioners with scent – from all countries.’ More than simple recognition for the immense hours of hard work undertaken by these small and proudly independent fragrance houses, the award founders explain that, ‘by shining a spotlight on perfumery’s most outstanding creators, we hope to help generate support for independent practices in perfumery as a whole.’

We have long known and celebrated the importance of niche fragrance houses and the great influence they now carry for the designer brands and the trickle-down effect they have for the mainstream market. Those mega brands now showcasing “unisex” scents in paired-down bottles across the range, florals for men and unusual note combinations? All these trends began long ago in the niche world – think of them as catwalk couture influencing eventual high street styles.

Of course, before BeauFort London had even officially launched, we were championing the house based on love at first sniff of their historically inspired yet ultra contemporary scents, and you can read our interview with founder Leo Crabtree, here.
Read our page dedicated to the BeauFort London to find out more about their inspirations and our thoughts on some of the fragrances themselves, but for those of you who haven’t yet tried the (now award-winning!) Fathom V – get ready to have your senses beguiled. It’s one of the most incredible shared fragrances we’ve smelled for some time – a humongously green, tousled bouquet of flowers tossed into roiling waves as guns fire a salute, sinking in to salty, opaque waters cloaking hidden treasures in the shdowy depths… And you can try it for yourself at home in our Precious Perfumes Discovery Box.
We would like to extend our congratulations to all the finalists in this hotly contested year, and are busily reading up on some of the more artisinal houses we’ve not yet had the pleasure of exploring. So really, think of the entire list of finalists as your must-sniff guide to all that’s uber-cool right now in the perfume world.
And for 2017, the winners are…
ARTISAN CATEGORY WINNERS
Bruise Violet
by Sixteen92 (USA)
CD/ Perfumer: Claire Baxter
Presented by judge Luca Turin
Mélodie de l’Amour
by Parfums Dusita (France)
CD/ Perfumer: Pissara Umavijani
Presented by 2014 winner Tanja Bochnig
INDEPENDENT CATEGORY WINNERS
Altruist
by J.F. Schwarzlose Berlin (Germany)
CD: Lutz Herrmann / Perfumer: Véronique Nyberg
Presented by judge Matthias Janke
Fathom V
by BeauFort London (UK)
CD: Leo Crabtree / Perfumer: Julie Marlowe
Presented by judge Antonio Gardoni
SADAKICHI AWARD WINNER
Osmodrama Berlin / Smeller 2.0
by Wolfgang Georgsdorf (Germany)
Perfumer: Geza Schön
Presented by judge Ashraf Osman
CONTRIBUTION TO SCENT CULTURE AWARD WINNER
Christophe Laudamiel
Presented by founder Saskia Wilson-Brown
Written by Suzy Nightingale