2014 Award Winners Calling all independent, niche and artisan perfumers. Submissions for the 2015 Art and Olfaction Awards are now open. This new awards programs was launched last year by Saskia Wilson-Brown of the Institute for Art and Olfaction, to showcase the tremendous fragrant works of art crafted by small producers around the world. These noses work independently, are not funded by big perfume house conglomerates and are mostly self-funded, small businesses where everything is done by hand by the person creating the scents. If you’re at all familiar with the the fragrance industry, you might say that the Art and Olfaction Awards are akin to the movie industry’s Spirit Awards for indie films, as compared to the established Fifi awards (now called the Fragrance Foundation Awards), considered the Oscars of the perfume world. Winners receive a Golden Pear. It’s a unique symbol for an awards statue. Saskia says they came…
Scent “Concert” Takes You On A Trip To Japan Via Your Nose
Perfume is an emotional thing. One spritz and you’re transported back to childhood, a first love or a special place you’ve visited. Scent is evocative and primal, with the power to revive a memory in an instant. Perfume is also an art form, created by olfactory artists who blend sophisticated compositions worthy of display in a museum or contemporary art gallery. Saskia Wilson-Brown understands all this. She’s the founder of the Institute for Art and Olfaction (IAO), a Los Angeles-based non-profit devoted to providing accessible education on perfume in all its aspects. IAO’s mission is to create initiatives where artists and perfumers collaborate and even innovate projects where scent plays a major role. In January 2014 one of these collaborations debuts as a scent concert. Yes, that’s right, a concert as in a performance. How can scent make a concert? After all, there’s no audio in a perfume bottle. A…