prizes Archives - The Perfume Society

The #smellfie sensation! Are YOU a winner?

On National Fragrance Day, March 21st, in a shower of #smellfie sharing, the world came together as perfume-lovers all over the planet expressed their joy for scents that gave the most comfort, strength and happiness in these troubling times.

This is the sixth year of our #smellfie campaign – sharing a selfie with a scent you love – and this time, we placed a special emphasis on those fragrances that make us smile, feel as though we’re wearing a suit of armour or as though we’re somehow standing taller. To be perfectly honest, we just weren’t sure – amidst a global pandemic – how many people would be able to, or actually feel like joining in on this occasion. But OH BOY, you didn’t disappoint!

We were moved to tears by some of the tender scent meories and photos you shared, and then whooping with laughter at some of the hilaious costumes you somehow got together! Overall, it was a fragrantly creative display of unity that helped us feel less isolated, reminded us all of how important fragrance can be to help lift our moods, and gosh, just gave us something nice to focus on for a little while.

Though in our hearts you are all winners, we promised to pick some of our all-time favourites, and we would love to share these with you below…

Our top choice, @harleyrider1883, will be receiving £300 worth of fragrance (though he might have to be a little patient as we figure out how to get it to him, while working remotely!) Five runners-up will either receive a VIP Subscription in the UK (with the joining box of their choice), or an International VIP Subscription – for a full year of fragrant reading!

OVERALL WINNER

@harleyrider1883 For embodying the power of perfume in his smile-making pic, captioned: ‘Wearing this makes me feel strong, confident and brave! (and happy because the wife likes it too)’

RUNNERS-UP

@mindmarrow Because we think everyone should go hiking with their fragrance. (We’re so doing that in future.) To quote: ‘Like a good scent soldier asked to do a smellfie, here it is. One of my favourites is Guerlain’s Plus Que Jamais. Besides having private and beautiful memories for me, it translates to “more than ever” and fittingly now more than ever we need connection, grace and kindness. More than ever we need courage, creativity and resilience. More than ever we need to breathe deeply. Sending love, support and solidarity to this community of passionate ’fumeheads.’

@bellempiretheheartoffeminity For the wonderfully dramatic photo with Guerlain L’Heure Bleue, and her caption: ‘Let us all honour the joy that spraying a beautiful scent can give us on National Fragrance Day in a time where small pleasures mean more than ever and a favourite perfume has the power to bring us back to happier and easier times… if only for a small moment.’

@lelatr85 As with many #smellfies for 2020, bare-faced but beautiful. (Lots of slap just doesn’t feel of-the-moment, right now, does it? And as we all know, you’re never naked with perfume.) ‘To celebrate #nationalfragranceday I choose to post a #smellfie with no make-up, just wearing #eaudemerveilles. A unique woody, salty, citrusy perfume – one of a kind.’

@thesniffwebsite For giving us the best laugh of the day. As the talented fragrance writer behind The Sniff, Nicola Thomis, says, ‘Sauvage by @dior done the #smellfie way for @theperfumesociety. Humour at times like this lifts us up, keeps us going and makes us feel like we’re wearing that suit of armour. I loved having an eyeliner beard and tattoos by the way. Things I have learned this weekend: felt tip eyeliner is a sod to get off arm skin!’

@perfumepuffery A scented sketch that we simply enjoyed. ‘I’m over here on #nationalfragranceday… wearing the very austere Iris Silver Mist. Is she uplifting? Probably not, but I’m always very moved by its abject greyness and enjoy being shrouded in icy glamour. Best iris and best Serge (in my opinion). Wishing you all the best in these very scary and uncertain times.’

Thank you SO much to every single one of you who took part. We spent the whole of Saturday (and much of Sunday) liking, commenting and loving as many of your posts as we possibly could. With so many great entries it was a really tough decision, but please know we adored seeing every single one!

By Suzy Nightingale (with thanks to Hettie Jones for curating all the #smellfies)

Show us your #smellfie & join in the celebrations for National Fragrance Day!

National Fragrance Day is on March 21st every year, and we want you to all join in by putting your best face – and fragrance – forward for a #smellfie, to have fun and be in with a chance to WIN amazing perfume prizes...

Five years ago, at The Perfume Society we came up with the idea of the #smellfie – a selfie with a scent you love – to highlight this special day.

Little did we know it would lead to thousands of fragrance fans all over the world sharing their photos, with celebrities (including Little Mix, Katy Perry, Charlotte Tilbury, and Richard E. Grant) joining in and, last year, the combined photos people posted getting over 41,000 likes!

This year we want you to help us make it even bigger, and to join in some of the great celebrations the Fragrance Foundation have planned, so scroll down to see how you can get involved.

How to post your #smellfie:

On Instagram: hashtag #smellfie and tag @theperfumesociety in your photo

On Facebook: hashtag #smellfie and tag @ThePerfumSociety in your photo

On Twitter: hashtag #smellfie and tag @Perfume_Society in your post/photo

After all the images are in, we’ll be choosing our top 5 favourites: the most inventive, the most artistic, the ones with the best captions! Every winner will receive a subscription to The Perfume Society’s VIP Club. The overall winner will receive a subscription and a fragrance bundle worth £300!

Overseas winners will receive an International Subscription to The Scented Letter, our online magazine dedicated to scent, so an entire year’s worth of fragrant reading.

Now you’ve set March 21 in your diary, we asked The Fragrance Foundation what they have planned. Head to their Calendar of Events for some fabulous scented happenings and giveaways spread over the entire week.

Written by Suzy Nightingale

The Mighty Nose Awards are open: calling all smell lovers aged 7-11!

Marty the Mighty Nose is a cartoon character created by The Fragrance Foundation to encourage children aged 7-11 to be inspired and engaged through their sense of smell. Offering a website aimed at teachers, full of ideas to extend their pupil’s learning by focusing on the smelly world around them, and a series of free workshops for schools; perhaps the most exciting activity for kids to get involved with is the annual Mighty Nose Awards…
Every year, The Fragrance Foundation invite pupils to submit smell-inspired creative writing for the chance to win fantastic prizes for themselves and for their schools. And entries for 2017 are now open!
The competition closes on December 16th 2016, so click here to download your entry pack and learn more.

As the Fragrance Foundation explain: ‘Marty the Mighty Nose is supported by a team of people including teachers, and developed by the Fragrance Foundation UK. We are a not-for-profit educational organisation and all our members are in the fragrance industry, supporting Marty as a philanthropic initiative.’
Winners will be whisked to the glittering awards ceremony held at BAFTA next year, as part of the Jasmine Awards, before an audience of writers, fragrance professionals and press, who always receive them with rapturous applause. Truly inspiring, it’s wonderful to see kids explore and develop their sense of smell – and along with it their creativity (and humour!)
We adored hearing last year’s winning poems being read, and to get a sense of how brilliant they were, here’s one of our favourites from 2016…

The Smells Inside My Brother’s Room

By Isaac Littlewood
St Mary’s CE Primary School, Year 3

The smells inside my brother’s room,
Just like his pants are deadly.
They lead me to my utter doom:
A very whiffy medley!

His slippers smell of nasty cheese
And the tang of onions (pickled).
Inside, his toes my nose displease
Especially when they’re tickled!

His bum smells like a rotten drum,
Full of ugly fleas.
It’s worse than getting badly stung
By a swarm of bees.

His armpits smell like cabbage leaves
Rotting at the dump.
Their pong you simply won’t believe
It’s like an evil trump.

Underneath his bed there lurks
A very hissy dragon
Who eats my brother’s hairy shirts
And smells enough to gag on!

So don’t go in that smellsome site
If you value your nose.
Your nostrils will be harmed for life.
His pongs are your greatest foes!

You can read all the winning entries and download the competition pack on Marty the Mighty Nose’s website.
We know so many of our readers enjoy sniffing our Discovery Boxes with their children, and at several of our How to Improve Your Sense of Smell Workshops, people have come along with their kids, who have wholeheartedly thrown themselves into finding creative ways of describing smells. So, if your children are budding ‘noses’ or simply brimming with whiffy words, we urge you to enter them into the competition!
Written by Suzy Nightingale