Esxence

so many niches...

I’ve just spent a few hours at Esxence, the #1 niche perfumery show in Milan. I came armed with smelling strips, glassine envelopes for the strips and a sad, military green canvas bag to stuff samples in. Lesson #1 learned: don’t bother with your own smelling strips and glassine envelopes unless you have a sidekick to hand them to you and write the names, it’s just too awkward and slow. Get samples instead, or have them sent. Also, bring a big bag, because those fancy paper bags containing samples and literature are large. Lesson #2: Choose wisely when smelling: after ≈10 perfumes, you can’t smell anything, and you’d hardly notice a masterpiece if it were put under your nose. All you can do is nod wisely, say something trite about the top note, and move on.

So what’s niche like today? Well, huge, for a start. The exhibition hall was twice the size of the one I last visited, and included something like 400 exhibitors. The impression as you walk around is overwhelming. Very soon, I had to decide on a strategy to winnow down the stands where I would actually stop and ask. First, ignore all the new brands that have a lineup of 12 fragrances in different colors, because they are guaranteed to be routine crap. Second, ignore all the brands that refer to a place, the “Acqua di Firenze” or something-Paris types, they are trading on something they had no part in creating. Third, skip the brands that go heavy on the gold and super-fancy packaging. They’ve spent all the cash on things that don’t smell. Fourth, ignore all the brands that are trying to be edgy and fail miserably, the “I hate x” types (there were several, hating different things).

Those selection criteria eliminated maybe 80% of the exhibitors. When I did approach a stand, I would usually ask to smell their first perfume and their favorite one. This because often people start a brand with one fragrance they’ve wanted to do for a long time, and then feel the must have a line in short order. They do a line, maybe one out of 10 hits the spot, and they know which it is.

The overall impression was that there are still a lot of people who create a brand from a concept (astrology, music, the Elements, the sea), figure out image, packaging, and patter and then fill the bottles with some indifferent swill. Many of these outfits seem to be headed by online-MBA types who dream of an exit strategy, i.e. being bought by a big brand. All but a tiny number will fail, and I could not care less. However, there seemed to be more outfits than I expected doing high-quality fragrances, often with excellent natural materials, and interesting compositions. I will review some soon.

As always, the fun is in meeting people. I bumped into Tracy Tsefalas of Fumerie Parfumerie in Portland (a wonderful place, btw) and she recommended a couple of brands. The best moment for me was when the owner of MDCI approached me to tell me that our reviews of his fragrances had made the difference for him between success and failure. I had never met him, and as I write I realise I do not even know his name, which is not on their website. I was really touched by his words. There is no better feeling for a critic than knowing that he has helped an artist. I also finally met Marc-Antoine Corticchiato of Parfum d’Empire, whose work I have admired for a long time. I recorded a brief interview (in French) with him in French about an extraordinary fragrance of his called Mal-Aimé (Unloved). I will transcribe the interview and post it, as well as review the fragrances.