EC Magazine – Perfume Culture isn’t the problem. The Industry is.
Author: Huyla / original content by Elevated Classics Magazine, published on 15.5.2025.
“We don’t need less interest in perfume—we need more intelligent interest.
Because let’s be clear: perfume culture isn’t stinking up the room. The corporations are. (…)
That means cutting through the noise, calling out what’s lazy, and standing up for the people who actually care about what they’re making.”
Series by Essencional – SOVIET PERFUME
Author: Karen Marin. The original content published by ESSENCIONAL.
The series presents the history of Russian perfumery in three chapters: The first two deal with fragrances in imperial Russia, the pioneers of the Russian perfumery and the development of perfume entrepreneurship before the Revolution. The last presents the transformation of perfumery and the perception of perfume in the Soviet era.
Bergamotto di Reggio Calabria
Materials, cultivation, production
Sensory Journey into the Olfactory Treasure of Made in Italy – a project by Accademia del Profumo, presented on Esxence 2025
In the review mirror: The 1920 – L’Osmotheqe exhibition
On Esxence 2025 L’Osmotheque presented a selection of 15 perfumes from the Roaring Twenties
NEZ – Oakmoss: an exemplary case of IFRA’s role
Author: Jessica Mignot / original content by NEZ published on 19.12.2022.
Certain iconic ingredients had to receive use restrictions – by IFRA Standards, government regulations or both – such as oakmoss. What problems do this ingredients poses? How has it been regulated? Matthias Vey, IFRA Vice President of Scientific Affairs, looks at the history of their IFRA Standards.
In love with patchouli – history and trends of an iconic raw material
A Givaudan’s presentation held by Eugenie Briot and Arnaud Guggenbuhl
The “All things patchouli” presentation was informative and enriching. Still, I wish Givaudan had opened the door to its patchouli materials a bit more and enriched our olfactive experience with a slightly wider palette of patchouli materials.
L’Osmotheque’s exhibition – “Tribute to Italy, land of perfumes”
15 perfumes from L’Osmotheque’s conservatory
The exhibition about Italian olfactive heritage included perfumes made in Italy and/or created by Italians, or connected to Italy by the recognisable Italian spirit or emotion, such as “dolce vita”.
Read the informative catalogue, published thanks to L’Osmotheque.
NEZ – Secrets and lies in perfumery
Author: Clement Paradis / original text published by NEZ on 6.1.2023.
“Abandon all hope of hearing the truth, ye who enter here”: words we might well be tempted to say to the novice taking an interest in perfumery. There is no denying that inventions, secrets and lies are legion in the fragrance universe.
From open secrets to copycat lies, lies of omission to workshop secrets, here is a brief overview of the deceptive discourse employed. Because, on the one hand, we have to laugh. And, on the other hand, the cult of mystery occasionally has its reasons, and it can be interesting to explore them.
NEZ – Woody ambers: the nasal invaders
Authors: Jeanne Doré, Jessica Mignot / original content by NEZ published on 17.11.2022.
While rose and jasmine are media darlings, there is an entire family of aroma compounds whose inclusion in perfume messaging is inversely proportional to its presence in bottles and sillages. You smell them everywhere without knowing it, these mystery compounds. When, how and why did woody ambers invade perfumery? Here is our attempt at an answer for you: some facts, some history, and a healthy dose of subjectivity!
The Rose: Reinventing Iconics / RAW by Mane
Three different roses, 10 materials, 5 rose accords and the perfume!
One by one, I got to smell essences, absolutes and the biotech derivations coming from very different, but well-known roses: rose centifolia, grown in Southern France/Grasse and rose Damascena, grown in Bulgaria, Turkey, and the Middle East. Mane exclusively presented brand-new materials derived from the Crimean rose, a different sort, from the fields of Moldova.
01/08/2022
NEZ – Perfumery disoriented – Ambery or Oriental?
Part 1 and 2. Author: Clement Paradis / The original articles published in NEZ, 28.7.2022.
“What’s to be done with Oriental fragrances? For a few months now, the perfume world has been reflecting and taking a stand on the use of the adjective “Oriental,” perceived as potentially offensive to certain populations. It is therefore time to take stock of what we smell and what we dream through this disputed term, first by studying its birth and its olfactory meaning, then by digging into its anchoring in a colonial context.”
The Plum Girl – Interview with Gabe Oppenheim, the author of “The Ghost Perfumer”
Author: Elena Cvjetković / the original content by THE PLUM GIRL, published on 20.2.2022.
“The Ghost Perfumer” is the true story of a seductive clothing empire heir – Olivier Creed – who brainwashed perhaps the world’s best perfumer into becoming his secret scent-creator for decades, nicking his byline for nothing but a few custom suits and turning that fragrant output into a company sold 2020 for about $ 1 billion to the world’s lagrest asset manager – all of it amounting perhaps to the greatest con in luxury retail history” – Gabe Oppenheim.
Gabe wrote a fascinating and breathtaking true story about the people of the perfume and art, relationships in the perfume industry, profit, fame, love, deceit….
Ralf Schwieger – the Retrospective (1999-2021) and the Talk
The heart of Pitti Fragranze event, at least for me, is Chandler Burr’s Retrospective and Conversation with Ralf Schwieger, a perfumer whose art of creation has changed the face of today’s perfumery.