ESXENCE 2015: Fragrances and the People Who Create Them

by: Serguey Borisov

It was a perfect perfume exhibition, the seventh Esxence: The Scent of Excellence,held in Milan March 26-29, 2015. By and large, it had only one drawback: gigantism.The exhibition was held for the first time in The Mall and even the huge floor was not enough. At the door, you are already greeted by the nearby fragrances inside.

Mark Buxton

Angela Ciampagna

For example, the brand La Folie à Plusiers, helping to supplement the cinematic story of fragrant reality (with perfumer Mark Buxton), was located at the entrance, even before the wardrobe. Two committees, Italian Comite Caterina  and French Comite Josephine, were created to protect the niche manufacturers. Porcelain manufacturer Limoges and ceramic blotter maker Les Parfumables' mini-exhibition of vintage Italian scents—all of them were driven outside the ribbon of the exhibition. Together with a black piano from C. Bechstein, symbolizing the musical theme of the exhibition (seven years - seven musical notes - fragrances are like music and play chords, a symphony of fragrances), it prepared you for the abundance inside.

Keiko Mecheri & Luciana Bigazzi

Francesca Gotti

Luca Gritti

Take La Folie à Plusiers, with his idea of Cinema Olfactif. In just one year the author of the idea of Kaya and perfumer Mark Buxton created for six films six "flavoredtunes" that create an emotional background, just as the theme of "Speak Softly Love" by Nino Rota accompanies the film The Godfather, as well as the different series ofJames Bond films that can recognized by the title tune. The sixth fragrance will appear in June 2015—for Antonioni's Blow-Up.

Delphine Thierry, perfumer

Elodie Pollet of Eutopie

Angelo Orazio Pregoni of O'Driu

Christian of Malbrum

Bertrand Duchaufour, perfumer

Abundance can be seen in many other brands. Immediately at the door the visitorswere greeted on the right by Dr. Gritti of Venice with nine new black bottles and fournew products, and on the left by Stephane Humbert Lucas 777 and Montale with theirimpressive-sized collection, which in gold seems even bigger and brighter.

Many noted the first Turkish brand, Nishane Istanbul, and cinematic perfume houseOlibere Paris (at the exhibition, these newcomers were side by side). Turkey has won against France 16-5 in the number of new products.

Anais Beguine

Alessandro Brun & Riccardo Tedeschi of Masque Milano

Atelier des Ors, Making of Cannes and The Spirit of Dubai brought a collection of fivefragrances. A continuation of Amouage in its rich Orientalism, Italian house Moresquebrought seven fragrances plus three kinds of spirits. Xerjoff introduced a new collection, Kemi—eau de parfums, perfumes and Attar. But the richness showed notonly in oriental brands for sale in the East.

Elena Knezhevich & Eugeniya Chudakova of Fragrantica

Zoran & Elena of The Vagabond Prince

Serguey Borisov of Fragrantica & Stephania Squeglia of Mendittorosa

Miguel Matos of Fragrantica & Francesca of Francesca Dell'Oro

Rossella Caputo of The Vagabond Prince

Frenchman Pierre Guillaume introduced just eight new fragrances with Parfumerie Generale La Collection Croisiere, in turquoise bottles. The same for the collection of European Fragrance Du Bois, dedicated to Aquilaria (oud), and for the collection of fragrances from Lise London, which came with instructions for use. CollectionPrudence Paris, accumulated over several years, has now passed 30 fragrances (men's novelty Alexis with its admiral's coat of arms combines the sea and the memory of the earth). Spaniard Ramón Béjar presented eight fragrances in the collection of the same name and 17 under the brand Cuarzo. [What a feast! I could stand at the booth of Ramon Bejar and spend my whole day, sniffing novelties!]

Santiago Burgas of Santi Burgas

Vincent & Vera of Ys-Uzac

Philippe Constantin & Virginie Roux

New brands presenting three fragrances (such as the Swedish Room 1015, NorwegianMalbrum or French Une Nuit A Bali), looked more modest—but attracted more attention from visitors! WIth these brands, after about every fragrance of the three, it was possible to talk with the creators in detail and learn the legend of the fragrance, the story of its creation. As opposed to Nishane Istanbul, for which I could only sniff all 16 blotters in the row and listen to the names of all the fragrances and music. Listen to the story? No. Surprisingly, even Le Galion, the recently revived Paris house with historical roots, introduced six new scents: Vetiver, Cuir and Aestete, plus three perfume variants: Sortilege Elixir, Essence Noble and Sovereign.

Only on the third day was I able to reach the end of the exposure of 150 brands, and I can not boast that I visited each booth and tried each new fragrance. Generally, the amount of fragrances in the collection of perfume houses and the number of new products annually produced are separate issues, which I want to bring into the discussion.

Sophie Chabaud

Prudence Kilgour of Prudence Paris

Miya Shinma

It is clear that a single fragrance, released as the start of a perfume brand, is too weak of a bid in modern conditions. I have heard from some distributors of brands that they, being interested in the success of a brand's offering, begin working on theirpromotion seriously only when the number of fragrances in the collection reaches fivefragrances. Like, before then it fails—shops just do not take two or three "frivolous"bottles for their shelves.

Madalena of Jul et Mad

Let's just remember that we love scents in general—not just niche, selective perfumes and artistic fragrances. For what we find in it is something different, a favorite, consonant with itself. Something that is not necessarily interesting to my neighbor's wife, nor my colleagues with their own hobbies, and even more so not to the masses.Based on this idea, each of us has to be in tune with a single fragrance, the Holy Grail, the search for which we are engaged in a lifetime. However, each time it turns out that our perfume bins are already full of the Holy Grail of past years, which we have forgotten or fallen out of love with. Therefore, we're looking for and we continue to look.

Castello di Ama

I met at the show a lot of new and interesting people, perfumes and art directors, owners and hired managers, met many friends and acquaintances. In addition, I was lucky enough to meet Silvio Levi, one of the founders and organizers Esxence, and had literally five minutes to talk. He said one simple thing: "I am pleased that our exhibition has become the largest event in the perfume world. We collect the best perfume brands of the world, if we take into account only the perfume art. At each exhibition there is an impressive number of new items. There is only one 'but': in the art of perfumery there still has not appeared a perfume genius, the equivalent of Apple's computer technology."

I do not know for sure. Maybe the "perfume Apple" has already appeared and I just did not have time to get acquainted with this brand.

Photos from the exhibition by Evgenya Chudakova