There were no losers at the Fragrance Foundation’s annual awards finalist luncheon on Thursday — just finalists, and a few winners.
The event took place as the category continues to see traction (it grew 12 percent last year in the prestige market), and spirits were high at the Cipriani 42nd street fete.
“With an amazing array of new fragrance launches, exploring a variety of innovative concepts and olfactory territories, our consumers appeared to be very willing to experiment with newness like never before, and they don’t want to smell like everyone else,” said Jerry Vittoria, chairman of the Fragrance Foundation, during his opening remarks.
“Innovation is the name of the game with quality, creative ingredients, creative originality, long-lastingness along with sustainable ingredients that consumers feel good about,” Vittoria continued.
The event, hosted by Fragrance Foundation president Linda Levy, unveiled the finalists in all of the awards categories, in addition to winners in five of them. Those included Packaging of the Year across several price points, Indie Fragrance of the Year, Media Campaign of the Year and Fragrance Editorial of the Year.
When introducing the awards, Levy underscored the significance of indie brands to the foundation and the fragrance industry writ large. “We are nurturing talent. We’ve always had a great indie setup, but those who created the brands could use the help of the whole community,” she said. “You really want to make their dreams come true.”
Carlos Huber, founder of Arquiste, saw his entire table — which included fellow indie founders Teri Johnson of Harlem Perfume Co., Chris Collins of World of Chris Collins, Giancarlo and Bernardo Möller of House of Bo, Tai Beauchamp and Malaika Jones of Brown Girl Jane, among others — erupt with applause when Arquiste took home Indie Fragrance of the Year.
“You work so hard on a fragrance, on a story, on a marketing plan, on a distribution strategy…and then you come to something like this,” Huber said. “I don’t necessarily have to be a finalist to celebrate the work, but when it does and, even moreso, when you win, it’s a feeling you can’t deny.”
