ESXENCE 2025
A foremost show
5 min.
02/23/2025
MASTERING A DREAM
The theme of Esxence 2025 was “Masters of Dreams” and it was bigger than ever, as was last year and each year before:
OFFICIAL FACTS & FIGURES OF ESXENCE 2025 by esxence.com
“This 15th edition has been the most successful ever“, says Maurizio Cavezzali, co-founder of Esxence and CEO of Equipe Exibit.
Look at this long line extending from the entrance to the metro on the other end of the pavilion. Some exhibitors were stuck in the line, too.
I turned back and went for an hour-long coffee. Finally, I entered the fair simultaneously as some who waited in the cold, utterly frustrated before the fair had even started.
Before I started writing, I thought the Esxence report would be finished after I highlighted the new perfumes and the parts of the program I liked. I did that, but I felt I was not done.
Instead of shedding some light, I was (also) mastering a dream:
I did pass the information, but not my oppinions, formed in a reality I experienced on the biggest art perfumery event in Europe.
Considering that the statistics are used for support, not illumination, I added a few more lines about what I saw with my eyes wide open.
PERFUME HIGHLIGHTS
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Idilios by Rubini Profumi
Cristiano Canali, 2025.
The newly launched Idilio is very different from the rest of the line.
Andrea follows the path of slow perfumery at its best – his perfumes are rounded, polished compositions deriving from the condensed idea.
I tested Idilios when the fluid was just produced and three hours old, but it smelled very promising. Look at the picture: blue sky, silky clouds, and pink inner glow. That’s Idilio — quietness, inner peace, and satisfaction.
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Neon Lights by Milano Fragranze
Nathalie Fiesthauer, 2025.
Milano Fragranze continues the collection!
Neon Lights, the newly launched perfume, was created by Nathalie Fiesthauer under the creative direction of Ermano Picco.
The new perfume draws inspiration from the electrifying atmosphere of Milan’s iconic discotheque in the 1980s and 1990s:
“Neon Lights discotheque was a place where you could be whatever you wanted to be, a place of freedom and personal expression.”, explains Ermano Picco.
I tested Neon Lights on Esxence 2025, and it is a vibrant and sophisticatedly extroverted creation: strawberries, tuberose, musks, a touch of hairspray and powder, mixed with some heat and sweat, all revived, and mingling and dancing in tune.
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Hakuna Matata by 27_87
Rodrigo Flores-Roux, 2025
The founder of 27_87 Romy Kowalevski, grabbed the attention with a single message: “Bananas are taking the stage – vanilla is over!” and presented a memorable fruity-floral-amber: Hakuna Matata is a blend of banana and white florals, supported by musk over radiant and warm amber-vanilla base.
MORE FROM STANDS …
Cristiano Cavagna, Dusita, Frassai, Francesca Bianchi, Source Adage, Free Yourself, Coreterno, Eau de Boujees, Vallense, Blackcliff, Sarah Baker, Hiram Green, Borntostandout, Fugazzi, Double Dragon, Emil Elise, ELDO, Filippo Sorcinelli
Off-pavillon highlits
Angelos Balamis offered me to smell the beautiful narcissus he was about to launch, and that creation instantly ended up on my skin. It was still the middle of the day, lunchtime, but I occupied my skin and called it for a day.
I also got the precious insight into the collections of the two Thai brands:
Prin Lomros’ (Strangers Parfumerie) and Nutt Wesshasartar’s (Siam 1928 and Voyager) PERFUMES
A fascinating discovery
Prin Lomros of Strangers Parfumerie, a prolific independent perfumer and Art and Olfaction finalist, introduced me also to a colleague, Nutt Wesshasar, a perfumer and the founder of the brand Siam 1928, whom I knew nothing about.
Thai origins and inspiration, similar generation, same independent and art-oriented approach to perfumery and such a different handwritings!
I am about to explore further and in detail the perfumes created by both because they are fascinating:
Smelling their collections took almost an hour and a half, and then it passed in a second. It was undoubtedly my greatest discovery on Esxence 2025!
FROM THE PROGRAM
CALABRIAN BERGAMOT – MATERIALS AND THE EARLY HISTORY OF CULTIVATION AND PRODUCTION
A project by Accademia del Profumo
Academia dei Profumo, the Cosmetic Italia initiative (Milano), offered a sensory journey into the Calabrian bergamot by exhibiting the fruit, the four exquisite materials, and the early history of cultivation and production.
I took the journey to explore the different olfactive profiles of the bergamot essential oils from Calabria and the Central Ionian Region, produced with modern techniques but grown on different terroirs and harvested at different times.
I also smelled the bergamot petitgrain oil (produced by distilling bergamot leaves) and the bergamot essential oil produced using the sponge technique, the oldest extraction method dating back to before 1700.
L’OSMOTHEQUE – THE ROARING 1920s
A selection of 15 perfumes (1921 – 1929)
I can not be more grateful to Anne-Cécile Pouant and Antonella Fontana for the guidance through the selection of perfumes from Roaring Twenties:
On L’Osmotheque’s stand there is no apparent pressure to stand out.
L’Osmotheque stands out like a lighthouse built to spread a different set of values. It keeps shedding light on the olfactive and cultural aspects of the perfume trade and market, both in the past and the present.
THE LIGHTHOUSES
Sarah Colton, the journalist and the author of the book Bad Girls Perfume Tips and Tales, and Sebastijan Jarra / The Perfume Guy, the influential perfume reviewer, hosted a panel talk that brought together a distributor, the brand founders and creative directors to answer the currently hottest question:
How to stand out?
In the measured 5-minute talk, each panellist gave their best to answer the unanswered question.
“We need a lighthouse to show us the right direction,” said Francoise Henin at the very beginning of the panel.
While listening to the sentence of the successful, long-standing business insider, distributor, brand owner, and perfume connoisseur, I immediately thought none of the existing lighthouses were mentioned—and it’s not that there were none.
I could only half-agree with Mr Henin because the brands swim and drown in the sea, which is already overcrowded with lighthouses of all kinds.
Surely, there are various types of lighthouses and various types of lights.
It is also true that, once the light is cast, it is impossible to unsee, and unreasonable to close the eyes.
Esxence 2025 also showed that lighthouses work more than ever – only the light they spread has changed.
A new path is needed, instead of just having another lighthouse to shed more light on the current routes.
That first requires a willingness to find a solution, and then the courage to take a risk.
Until then, God help too small or quiet brands, and good luck to all new brands who believe they arrived at the show just in time.
Also in the same picture:
One perfumer (no Esxence categorisation so far), one owner of a non-influencing brand, one owner of an independent, non-influencing self-hosted web platform (press), and one author (also a content creator on social media).
The two visitors (also) and the two fragrance lovers (also).
