Elements

View original article and images at CaFleureBon.

Mark Behnke, Managing Editor
February 8, 2012

The Elements Showcase turned one-year old but this January 2012 edition was its third edition. This bi-annual perfume event is trying to be a North American alternative to the European perfume expositions. With this third outing organizers Frederick Bouchardy, Ulrich Lang, andJeffrey Lawson have evolved Elements Showcase into something which has its own vibe. Besides all of the exhibitors there were three very special events. A panel sponsored by Six Scents on Multidisciplinary Collaborations with Fragrance. Another panel sponsored by W Magazine about the Selling of Perfume. The high point of the two days in New York was the awarding of the first Indie FiFi Award at the end of day one. All of this activity was surrounded by a multi-national group of perfumers and perfumes along with those of us who cover this corner of the blogosphere. Here are my impressions of this latest version of Elements Showcase.

Multidisciplinary collaboration was evident right from the first moment I entered the exhibition space as Artist Andrea Maack introduced me to her two new fragrances Dark and Silk in front of a large drawing cut up into strips. After trying the fragrances with her I chose one strip which she sprayed Dark on and then gave it to me to take away. Watching the drawing slowly come apart strip by strip over the two days was a fascinating intersection of art and perfume.

From there it was time to walk around and see old friends like Ineke Ruhland and make new friends like Arquiste’s architect Carlos Huber. Here is a list of my “Best of Show” awards:

Favorite New Discovery: The ten Di Ser Eau de Parfums collection. I never heard of them ten days ago and now I just hope they struck a US distribution deal so everyone can get a chance to try these fragrances.

Favorite Moment: The announcement of Odin 06 Amanu as the winner of the inaugural Indie FiFi Award. The process that led to this may not have been perfect but the ceremony itself was pretty darn close to perfect as a slow, but not too slow build-up, led to a very happy group holding an oversized $10,000 check courtesy of Givaudan and a FiFi Award. I hope this begins a long happy collaboration between the Elements Showcase and The Fragrance Foundation.

Most Realistic Fragrance I’m Not Sure I Want To Wear: The collaboration between Brooklyn perfumers D.S. & Durga with pop-up retailers BKLYN Dry Goods called Spent Musket Oil. It smells exactly like rifle oil and cordite and the strip I brought home with me continually makes me think gunfire has just broken out in my office.

Most Beautiful New Bottle: M. Micallef’s Ylang In Gold has real gold dust in the bottle and when you shake it up it is sort of hypnotizing watching the gold swirl around. The fragrance also more than holds its own to the visual.

Best Innovation: Gerald Ghislain’s Scent of Departure Collection based on different airports as the inspiration. These will be low-priced entry level scents to the Histoires de Parfums line. After trying quite a few of them, they smell amazing especially for the price.

Best Barber: Garrett of Martial Vivot gave me the Caron Pour Un Homme straight edge shave in a barber chair sponsored by Caron. The great majority of special things are usually for the women it was nice to have something for the guys for a change.

Best Bath Products: Strange Invisible Perfumes has a new collection of bath and body products. The same care that Alexandra Balahoutis uses with her perfumes is used for this new line. Every morning since the exhibition has been a new experience in the shower. My only problem is going to be deciding on only a couple to own.

The Why Don’t You Have A Booth Award: There were three very talented perfumers who were schmoozing at the show; Vero Kern, Dawn Spencer Hurwitz, and Sarah Barton-King. While they didn’t have an official presence their attendance added a lot of extra fun to everything. Plus I got a sneak sniff of the next one from Ms. Barton-King. This time she is taking us to a place full of spice and tobacco, more to come as details slowly come out.

Best Book: MJ Rose’s The Book of Lost Fragrances which also has a fragrance designed by Joya to go with the book. Did I mention Multidisciplinary Collaboration was a theme this time?

Favorite Line From The Panels: Chandler Burr of The Department of Olfactory Art at the Museum of Art and Design on the Multidisciplinary Collaboration panel was talking about how materials grown and harvested all over the world eventually make it to the perfumers palette to be used to make a perfume and that entire process leads to his line, “The entire world is in every bottle of perfume.”

Don’t I Know You? Award: Victoria Jent of the EauMG blog serendipitously managed to be in New York from her normal Pacific Northwest home base. It was a pleasure to meet the intelligent person behind the equally intelligent words on her blog.

That’s a wrap for this edition. I can’t wait for this summer’s event to bring the best smelling group of people together in New York City, again.

View the original article and images at CaFleureBon.

January 31, 2012
Mark Behnke, Managing Editor

Day 2 of the Elements Showcase will find me starting my day in the Caron barber chair, with Garrett, as I get a straight razor shave. There is a panel sponsored by W Magazine on The Influences Behind the Purchase of Fragrance. I’ll also be concentrating on the other floor of exhibitors which include Neela Vermeire, Martine Micallef, Joya, Arquiste, and many more. Keep checking back as I’ll be updating until I have to catch my bus home.

10:00AM My shave has been delayed until after the W Magazine panel but I’ve spent some time ogling the new Histoires de Parfums Scent of Departure Collection. As you can see each has an airport code to go with it. I tried a couple MIA (Miami) for my hometown is a blood orange composition and IST (Istanbul) which I expected to be spicy is instead rose-based. I’m actually looking forward to my fragrant trip to the airport courtesy of Gerald Ghislain.

10:30AM Usually when someone asks me “What’sYour Sign?” I run away. At the Strange Invisible Perfumes booth I’m glad I stayed. I tried all five of the all-natural botanical fragrances by Alexandra Balahoutis. While Scorpio isn’t out yet I think I’m going to have to become a temporary Aries for the spicy kick the astrological ram possesses. Plus Strange Invisible Perfumes now has body and bath products. I’ve got a little box to try in my new state of the art shower back home. Can’t wait to combine the body products with the fragrances.

1:00 PM: Been a very busy couple of hours for yours truly. The W Magazine panel on What Makes Fragrance Sell was outstanding. Jane Larkworthy of W expertly moderated by asking great questions of the panel. One very interesting thought courtesy of MJ Rose author of The Book of Lost Fragrances is that while the internet has made information readily available has it at the same time reduced the mystique of fragrance by making it too available? I’m not sure what I think about that but it is an interesting thesis to think upon.

I then got my delayed straight blade shave courtesy of Caron and Garret of Martial Vivot Barbier. I am smooth as a baby’s butt and smelling of Caron Pour Un Homme, does it get any better? I don’t think so!

The rest of my time was spent with Martine Micallef and Geoffrey Nejman of M. Micallef. Their latest is as visually striking as it is olfactorally striking. Ylang in Gold has real bits of gold in the juice. The close-up above gives you a good idea but nothing will replace seeing it live. The bottle and the juice will arrive in the US late spring but those of you in Europe you can get it now.

2:30PM I was finally able to get co-founder of the Elements Showcase Frederick Bouchardy to talk about his perfume line Joya. The past year has seen a number of well-thought out collaborations between Joya and a number of different artists. The latest one is a fragrance to go with author MJ Rose’s mystery novel The Book of Lost Fragrances. There is an oil that will accompany the early buyers of the book. The truly special version of that oil, not supplied with the purchase of a book, is pictured above. Frederick worked with a number of special artisans to create this very limited edition ceramic pot holding the solid perfume. My picture does not do it justice but if the book is as good as this piece of art it will be a bestseller for sure.

4:15PM Well it is time to catch that magic bus back to DC. Time for one last bit of news. I spent some time with Carlos Huber of Arquiste. He told me he is working on a seventh fragrance with Rodrigo Flores-Roux and that the line will expand at its own pace. One special bit of news is there is going to be an Arquiste designed candle coming sooner rather than later. Details are still being finalized but it should be quite special when it arrives.

That’s it from the Elements Showcase as this third edition has grown exponentially over the last two. This is rapidly becoming the equivalent to the European fragrance expos and I couldn’t be happier to see this level of success.

View the original article and images at CaFleureBon.

Mark Behnke, Managing Editor
January 30, 2012

It is a busy Day 1 of the Elements Showcase in New York City. Starting with a sponsored panel by Six Scents on Multidisciplinary Collaboration and ending in the evening with the first ever Fragrance Foundation Fifi Award for best Indie Fragrance of 2011. I’ll be checking in all day from the opening panel right through to the award so keep checking back for the latest news direct from the Elements Showcase expo floor.

12:30PM The panel on Multidisciplinary Collaboration sponsored by Six Scents just finished. Levi Pharoah hosted the panel and there were a number of interesting views put out over the hour. The one that is going to stay with me came from Chandler Burr The Curator of Olfactive Art at the Museum of Art and Design. He said that the collaboration really begins in some farmer’s field where the raw ingredient which eventually finds its way into a perfume bottle is grown and harvested. He said when you view it that way “The entire world is in every bottle of perfume.”

2:00PM Was just downstairs experiencing Andrea Maack’s collaboration multidisciplinary installation of her art posted on a board in giant strips. After you experience all five, yes I said five, of her fragrances you choose which one you want sprayed on one of the strips and she removes it and gives it to you in an envelope. Best. Scent. Strip. Ever! Now to the fragrances there are two new ones Dark and Silk. Which one is on my artistic scent strip? That would be telling.

4:00 PM Just did the rounds with a very pregnant Dawn Spencer Hurwitz and her Gemini-to-be work in progress. We both enjoyed the new Asian inspired line Di Ser. The whole line has an amazing Japanese clean architecture that is almost palate cleansing in its quality.  I also spoke with Tony Perez from Belle Fleur and he surprised me and told me to expect a fine fragrance line before the end of the year to accompany the room sprays and candles. I hear Ralf Schweiger might be the nose…Shhh! it’s a secret.

5:30 PM In a short time we will know who the first winner of the Indie FiFi award will be. While waiting for the ceremony I am having a huge amount of fun meeting some of my colleagues in the blogging community. Victoria Jent of EauMG, and DJ Ron of Notable Scents were two of the many I have spent time talking to today. Ineke pressed me into service behind her booth while she heeded the call of nature. In exchange I found out her next alphabet fragrance will be called Hothouse Flower and the flower in question will be…..gardenia. We also found out the next Juliette Has A Gun fragrance by Romano Ricci is going to be a non-rose floral.

7:30PM The winner of the first ever Indie FiFi Award which carries a $10,000 prize from Givaudan is……..Odin 06 Amanu! A very awesome ceremony and hopefully the beginning of a tradition for the Elements Showcase.

That’s it for me tonight. I’ll be back tomorrow with more news from the floor of the Elements Showcase in New York City.

Good night.

View original article at CaFleurebon.com

November 17, 2010

Premiering January 30 and 31, 2011, the Elements showcase unites emerging and established visionaries in fragrance in fine fragrance and new concepts concepts in bath, body, and home fragrance. The event takes place at the Skylight West loft in Manhattan—in a space transformed by renowned New York-based architects Steven Learner Studio.

Elements is an integrative showcase organized by designers for designers, a significant point of difference from a typical “tradeshow.” Conceived by three New York-based entrepreneurs—fragrance and home ambiance innovator Frederick Bouchardy, Jeff Lawson of Jeff Lawson Inc., an exclusive art fair production company, and Ulrich Lang of Ulrich Lang New York—Elements offers fragrance pioneers, innovators, and devotees a place to inspire and be inspired, to converge and collaborate.

“Jeff, Uli and I joined forces to create Elements because this sort of experience really doesn’t exist in the States—or perhaps anywhere in the world, for that matter,” says Bouchardy. “Designers in the fragrance field don’t have an opportunity to exhibit in an environment that reflects the ambiance and beauty their work seeks to impart. The Elements organization and event space will do just that.

The Elements exhibitor list includes a diverse, curated group of brands including classics such as Lubin, Santa Maria Novella, Lorenzo Villoresi and Eau d’Italie, cutting edge fine fragrance brands Strange Invisible Perfumes and Carner Barcelona, home fragrance trendsetters Anthousa and DayNa Decker, and specialty grooming brands such as Baxter of California.

-  Michelyn Camen, Editor in Chief

View original article and images on Ca FleureBon

AUGUST 20, 2011
-Mark Behnke, Managing Editor