Jasmine Awards 2021 – The finalists are announced (and we’re overjoyed!)

The Jasmine Awards 2021 finalists have been announced, and we’ve news of all those shortlisted… (including *blush* *squeal* *scream* The Perfume Society!)

These annual awards ‘recognised as the most prestigious journalistic awards in the beauty industry,’ were begun in the UK by The Fragrance Foundation in 1990. They present the Jasmines in order to ‘…recognise and reward the talents of journalists & visualisers whose difficult task it is to translate the complex art of perfumery into words and pictures.’

With a new panel of judges recruited each year, for 2021 the mammoth task of reading all the entries fell to Catherine Mitchell, (also acting as Chairman of the Judging Panel) of IFF; Beth Horn – Facebook’s Head of Industry for Retail & Ecommerce; Brix Smith – songwriter and guitarist best known for her work with The Fall (and an avid fragrance lover); Sali Hughes – author, journalist and broadcaster (and a previous Jasmine Award winner, whose fragrance collection rivals our own) and Sarah Jossel – the award-winning journalist, writer and TV presenter.

 

The Jasmine Awards 2021

LITERARY

Cosmopolitan – Kate Pasola – When did we all start smelling the same

Financial Times – How to Spend It – Nicola Moulton – Which scents made sense in the year of no scent?

thegloss.ie – Sarah Halliwell – Where the Wild Roses Grow

The Scented Letter Magazine – Suzy Nightingale – Don’t Stand So Close To Me

The Scented Letter Magazine – Suzy Nightingale – Note Perfect

The Candy Perfume Boy – Thomas Dunckley – Trapped in a Scent Memory

 

CREATIVITY

YouTube – Luca Turin – The Secret of Scent Lectures

instagram.com/RoseGallagher – Rose Gallagher – Various submission

Stylist Magazine – Shannon Peter – Good Clean Fun

The Perfume Society Instgram – The Perfume Society Team – Smelfie Campaign 2020

Fume Chat (Podcast) – Thomas Dunckley & Nick Gilbert – Fume Chat S3 EP06 Bon Anniversaire, Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle!

The Candy Perfume Boy – Thomas Dunkley – Material Focus: Cashmeran

 

PRACTICAL GUIDE

Glamour Magazine – Alice du Parcq – The 5:2 Fragrance Plan

We Wear Perfume – Amanda Carr & Tamara Fulton – The Long Read: why the future of buying fragrance is online

The Scented Letter Magazine – Suzy Nightingale – Modern Florals

The Scented Letter Magazine – Suzy Nightingale – Straight to the (Pulse) Point

The Candy Perfume Boy – Thomas Dunckley – Material Focus: Cashmeran

 

SHORT PIECE

marieclaire.co.uk – Fiona Embleton – Perfume became the soundtrack to my lockdown

marieclaire.co.uk – Fiona Embleton – Where are all the black perfumers…?

The Scented Letter – Nafia Guljar – It takes me right back – Night blooming jasmine

How To Spend It, The Financial Times – Rosanna Dodds – It’s a real headturner

The Scented Letter – Suzy Nightingale – Petrichor & Pluviophiles

The Scented Letter – Suzy Nightingale – Vellichor: Capturing the Scent Memories of Old Books

 

The Jasmine Awards 2021 shortlist announcement is now part of the seven-day scent-fest of The Fragrance Foundation National Fragrance Week celebrations. You can join in the fragrant fun and see the other olfactory events occuring by cheking out their website, here.

The award ceremony itself is due to be held in September, with all winners being announced during the glam-filled affair, when the scent of success (and oodles of perfume, obvs) fills the air.

Until then, we raise a glass to ALL the worthy finalists, in what must have been very difficult decisions for the judges to make. We’re utterly thrilled to have SO many nominations, and are especially honoured to be among such great names. Cheers!

 

Brooklyn Fragrance Lover – R.I.P.

It was with heavy hearts we learned of Brooklyn Fragrance Lover having passed away last week. Carlos was a hugely popular YouTube reviewer  (he was fast heading toward 70k followers and often got recognised and stopped on the street), and a long-time supporter and friend of The Perfume Society.

There’s no doubt his loss will leave a huge gap in the fragrance community at large.

Carlos hadn’t been in the best of health, posting online about a trip to hospital in October last year. But he’d been on the mend, it seemed, so the upset rippled through Instagram. Within a matter of hours thousands of fragrance fans had flocked to his last post there, leaving shocked messages, saying goodbye. Among perfumers and famous fragrance houses who’d already left their own tributes – broken heart emojis, purple hearts (Carlos’ favourite colour), disbelief and condolences to his family and friends – what shone through were the number of messages from his followers. People who’d ‘found perfume’ as they put it, thanks to his easy-going, down-to-earth video reviews.

‘Thank you for teaching me everything about fragrances,’ one mourner wrote, while another movingly recounted: ‘I didn’t know you but your videos brought me closer to a happiness I share with my friends and family. Your videos seem so genuine and personable, this hurts like no other. Thank you for your contribution to this wonderful community even though you are gone too soon…’

And there are many, many more messages, all similarly moved, mostly people who, like us, had sadly never met Carlos in person but had been touched by his affable, open personality that grounded his very knowledgeable and understandable reviews.

Carlos was a generous man who passionately gave everything he could – and most of his free time – to the world of fragrance; sharing the joy that can be had from a single spritz of something fabulous, celebrating launches from big names and indie brands alike. He also shared family photos on his Facebook page, along with his ‘fur babies’ (as he lovingly called them) ‘Jean & Claude’.

Scrolling through the thousands of personal tributes online, those words are repeated time and again: ‘genuine’, ‘passionate’, ‘honest’, ‘warm hearted’, ‘kind’. Would that we could all be remembered that way, let alone his legacy of many hundreds of excellent, informative and fun fragrance video reviews. We urge you to watch these, if you’ve not already enjoyed them, or to watch again, if you’re already a fan, and share them with others.

One of Carlos’ friends set up a GoFundMe page to help his family members with the cost of his funeral. ‘In addition to the funeral arrangements, some funds will be allocated for the caring of his cats.’ The target had been set at $10,000 – an amount that had been achieved within mere hours of the page being set up, and now stands at $34,367. Testament, indeed, of how well loved he was by perfume people around the world.

Among the many comments left by those donating, one simply says: ‘Carlos was a beautiful man who reached me and many more people with with his love for the world and joy for fragrances. May God be with his friends and family in this time of despair.’

Goodnight, Carlos. We know you loved amber perfumes best of all, and we’re sure Heaven smells all the sweeter now you’re scenting the clouds…

Brooklyn Fragrance Lover, R.I.P.

By Suzy Nightingale