Scent of shamelessness

It has been a little over a year since the honorable perfume school, Grasse Institute of Perfumery, confirmed that Tomislav Vrbanec usurped GIP Grasse diploma and lied in an interview to Fragrantica and to domestic, especially local media, and the same scent of a scam is once again released from the same source.

A few months ago a new untruth began to creep into the public space, as Tomislav Vrbanec, a self-proclaimed perfumer, “continued his professional education” at the oldest perfume school in the world – Institut supérieur international du parfum, de la cosmétique et de l ‘aromatique allimentaire – ISIPCA!

Once again Mirisna decided not to ignore possibly the false claim that might be harmful to those who tend to take for granted any and all claims published in any official biography.

I again decided to ask the reputable school for a fact-check, but this time Mirisna joined the efforts with the author of the internationally awarded perfume blog The Plum Girl, Mrs. Elena Cvjetkovic, who co-signed the fact-check request. 

ISIPCA, the oldest perfumery school in the World, replied and provided us facts that were not protected: 

Tomislav Vrbanec is not professionally educated at ISIPCA. 

So, let’s take one step back first, and do the timeline of the published untruth: 

A piece of information about Mr. Vrbanec’s connection with ISIPCA was first published by Tomislav Vrbanec himself on his official Instagram profile on May 11th, 2021. (link: here). 

Here is what Mr. Vrbanec published below the ISIPCA’s logo and a paragraph that is identical to the text published on ISIPCA’s LinkedIn profile: 

The information began to take shape and spread in August: 

The private company that markets Mr. Vrbanec’s masterclasses – Abeceda ljepote (meaning: Alphabet of Beauty) – published the “Biography” of the self-proclaimed perfumer on their official web, along with the claim that he:

Here is the path from the official web page selling masterclasses held by Mr. Vrbanec to the source – his Biography, published as an attached PDF document :

In late September of 2021, the Biography of Tomislav Vrbanac became part of an online public database, Wikipedia, and its main purpose is to be the resource of knowledge!

The text published on Abeceda ljepote became publicly available in Croatian language, under the Wikipedia title Draft: Tomislav Vrbanec. Images of this Wikipedia page are published in the Croatian edition of this article: here. 

By the time I managed to finish this article for the English edition, the content published on Croatian Wikipedia was translated in English and published under the same title on MDpedia, a much less transparent offspring of Wikipedia, targeting users with various medical interests. 

The word is spreading fast – that’s the Internet! 

The text on MDpedia, which seems to be an automatically translated version of the Croatian Wikipedia page, also contains the claim that Mr. Vrbanec: 

Here is the complete text of Mr. Tomislav Vrbanec’s Biography, published on MDpedia:

In late September, or in the first days of October 2021, Mr. Vrbanec’s Biography was also published on his official site “Tomislav Vrbanec” – The Croatian perfumer. The link to the Biography page is placed in the footer, and by opening it the reader can also learn that the perfumer/owner of the site…

As the admission requirements for Technical and Scientific MD at ISIPCA minimally include Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry, Biochemistry, Biology, Biotechnology, Pharmacy (delivering 180 ECTS) or any other relevant Science Diploma recognized by The University of Versailles and the University of Padua (Italy), and an English proficiency test, and Mr. Vrbanec is a high-school graduate with no higher education diploma, Elena and I found this repeated claim highly improbable and thus alarming. 

The link to ISIPCA’s programs is here: if you go to the “entry-level” and select “high school”, the page will notify you that “no course matches your criteria”. 

We decided to explore the possibility that might seem inconceivable to everyone who runs their business ethically: 

We decided to check if Mr. Vrbanec has untruthfully connected his educational path with famous schools for the second time. 

We contacted ISIPCA Versailles and kindly asked for a formal fact check and the confirmation that Mr. Tomislav Vrbanec was actually attending/has finished any of ISIPCA training courses or programs In Versailles/Grasse, online or live, in the period of 2007. – 2021. 

Here is ISIPCA’s reply, signed by Mr. Martin Ferré: 

The reply made me blush, but not in a good way:

Though Mr. Vrbanec could not have been admitted to graduate training programs, he could have attended ISIPCA’s Summer School programs, as well as Continuing education programs, regardless of the entry-level of education, as these are open to anyone. 

Although ISIPCA’s fact check, due to GDPR confidentiality, could not provide more details, after the case was discussed internally the school decided to be very exact in fact-checking the amount of time Tomislav Vrbanec spent attending one online course at ISIPCA: 

The rest is answered by ISIPCA’s official web, as the school founded by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Ile de France very precisely communicates all programs offered on the market. 

Until the last year, ISIPCA’s educational programs were not offered online at all, and now, in new normal, the shortest online course provided by ISIPCA lasts 21 hours during the 3-days time! 

According to the fact check, “six hours” Mr. Vrbanec spent registered at ISIPCA is 3,5 times shorter than the shortest educational program! 

Whatever online content/course Mr. Vrbanec participated in – that was not a professional program. 

It is also possible that ISIPCA’s reply did not refer to any educational program at all: a few times a year ISIPCA organizes online introduction to its educational programs in a form of webinars or presentations that last for a few hours. 

These informational webinars – ISIPCA’s courses about ISIPCA’s programs – are open to anyone interested and free of charge: you just have to register and attend the course about the program you are interested in. In 2021. ISIPCA organized this type of online course twice: 

First time in March, during the International Open Day, ISIPCA presented Summer Schools and short programs open to professionals and enthusiasts. 

On May 6th, exactly 5 days before Mr. Vrbanec posted on his Instagram that he is “so happy to be part of ISIPCA’s training program”, the respectable school held a webinar on graduate training programs!

By concentrating on the wording in the Biography (even in the automatic translation!), you might be able to grasp a subtle, but essential difference in meaning between “finding out/knowing as much information as possible” and “gaining/learning as much knowledge as possible” – or not. 

Masterclass by Abecede ljepote

If Mrs. Draženka Pleško, the owner of Abeceda ljepote, had just visited ISIPCA’s official pages and looked around before she added the button with the link to Biography on her official pages, right between the description of Mr. Vrbanec’s masterclass the bank account number, the honorable school would have signaled her to rethink. 

But, this is not the first time that Abeceda ljepote published false claims about Mr. Vrbanec professional and educational path in order to sell his masterclasses:

Up to the beginning of August 2020, Abeceda ljepote claimed that Mr. Vrbanec’s is the winner of Perfume Extraordinaire FIFI France Award!

Before this quite unbelievable and ridiculous lie was published and marketed, Mrs. Pleško also did not visit FIFI France’s official web. The harmful lie was removed after Mirisna documented it and published it here.

Even after Mr. Vrbanec’s public lie about having the GIP Grasse diploma was debunked and flagged, and blamage went viral – both internationally and locally, Mr. Pleško did not find the cooperation with Mr. Vrbanec in any way less desirable. 

Since the owner of Abeceda ljepote has previously shown a surprisingly high level of tolerance to untruths, Mirisna has a problem in believing that the Biography containing the claim that Mr. Vrbanec “continued his professional education at the prestigious French University ISPICA” landed the Abeceda ljepote’s official web by accident. 

Abeceda ljepote also organizes Festival estetike / The Festival of Aesthetics, a manifestation that heavily relies on the credibility of its exhibitors and presenters: the medical specialists, the representatives of the respectable cosmetic companies and the colleagues, such as the owners of beauty salons – all who are by the nature of their business scrupulous about their public appearance. However, during the official events, Mrs. Pleško placed the perfumer with a proven history of lying side by side with medical specialists and cosmetic experts! 

Mirisna also assumes that sponsors of the 5th Festival of Aesthetics agreed to have links behind the logos of their respectable brands, placed on Abeceda ljepote’s home page, all (except one) leading to the same place – the web page of Mr. Vrbanec’s brand – Croatian Perfume House! 

Finally, the man who “continued his professional education at the prestigious French University ISPICA” for whole 6 hours was chosen for the cover page of Abeceda Ljepote’s Magazine, dedicated to the 5th Festival of Aesthetics. 

Here’s the explanation Abeceda ljepote published – CAPS LOCK included:

If this is not a strong statement that Abeceda ljepote fully supports its expert – I don’t know what is. 

To Mirisna, however, it seems like Mrs. Pleško’s anosmia to the scent of a scam has an exact price: 1750 HRK (230 Euros) for the Masterclass, cashed from each trusting, but misled head. Tax included. 

For three hours in total. 

When the line is drawn and the prices of online courses compared per hour, Abeceda ljepote and its “Master Parfumer”, “FIFI France Award Winner”, “GIP Grasse alumni” and, the latest, “ISIPCA’s trainee”, charge more for their Masterclass than the honorable, and the oldest perfumery school in the world. 

Speaking about Mr. Tomislav Vrbanec, “European experts who have been involved in production for decades perfumes” have said about his case all that is to be said. 

Twice. 

You can read the fact-check of all the other claims published in the Biography of Mr. Tomislav Vrbanec, that he started to spread on the internet, here.

SPECIAL THANKS

Mirisna thanks the ISIPCA – without the fact check this text could not have been published: Merci beaucoup pour votre temps et votre compréhension! 

I also thank Elena, The Plum Girl, for the plentifulness of professional and personal support and help. 

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ATRIBUTION AND LICENCING

Featured image:

Photo collage by Mirisna, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0> , including:

Image 1:

File: Parfumer Tomislav Vrbanec.jpg <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Parfumer_Tomislav_Vrbanec.jpg>, the author: Koko Smithh, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

Changes made by Mirisna: color change (color > BW) and format change (square > round).

Image 2:

housesitmatch via Pixabay

NOTE

A day before the English text was published all links leading to Abeceda ljepote (https://abecedaljepote.hr) official web started to return the same notice from the hosting provider that the account has been suspended. This might be temporary, and the screenshot video of the Abeceda ljepote web is available for review because it is published in the text.