Odin New York 06 Amanu received the first FiFi Award of the Year for Best Indie Fragrance.

Elements Showcase

First 2012 FiFi Winner Honored

The Fragrance Foundation partnered with Elements Showcase to reveal the winner of this year’s FiFi Indie Fragrance Award.

By Jamie Matusow, Editor

Elements Showcase, a contemporary exhibit hall setting filled with niche fragrances from around the world, proved the ideal venue for The Fragrance Foundation to announce its first FiFi Award winner of the year.

A special FiFi Award ceremony was held on the opening night of Elements Showcase in Manhattan on January 30 to name this year’s winner of the 2012 FiFi Indie Fragrance Award. Mary Ellen Lapsansky, vice president of the Fragrance Foundation announced that the recipient of the coveted crystal award was Odin New York 06 Amanu. While this FiFi category focuses on the juice, packaging was also an important component in the judging, said Lapsansky. (For more on Lapsansky’s comments and on Elements Showcase, please go to nitesh_bp.rodpub.com.)

The contemporary setting of Elements Showcase provided the ideal stage for announcing the FiFi Award for 2012 Best Indie Fragrance.

Thanks to Givaudan, Odin also received a $10,000 cash prize.

The Odin series of unisex fragrances features stark matte black packaging, with cartons that are meant to resemble books lined up on a shelf. Each carton is detailed with a simple “volume” number. The brand uses a black raven as its signature and a tiny image of the bird is subtly embossed on both the lower corner of the bottle and on the box. All features harken toward an Edgar Allan Poe reference.

(L-R): Odin Fragrances New York co-creators Larry Paul and Kelly Kovack and drom perfumer Kevin Verspoor

The other four 2012 FiFi Indie Fragrance finalists, which were selected from dozens of entries, were Carner Barcelona “Cuirs,” Come L’Amore Bois 1920, Miller Harris La Fumee, and Siberian Snow by D.S. & Durga.


A Buyers’ Market

The third bi-annual edition of Elements Showcase ran through January 31 at Skylight West (500 West 36th Street in Manhattan), and drew hundreds of attendees, including

The FiFi winner was presented with a check for $10,000, courtesy of Givaudan.

media and buyers searching for niche, premium fragrance and skin care brands to offer at retail. Most of the hundred or so brand selections presented featured products geared toward boutiques and high-end department stores. Both the fragrance vendors and the crowd comprised an international flavor and a widespread enthusiasm for the category in general.

Di Ser eau de parfum, from Japan, was making its first appearance in the U.S.The booth representative demonstrated the subtle

Portland General Store featured a number of high-end men’s products in distinguished, eco-friendly packaging.

aroma, noting, “Asian people like light scents.” One series from the 12-year-old manufacturer, took its names from the elements, while another relied on goddesses for inspiration.

Lubin Paris, one of a number of French brands, featured “artisanal packaging” with handmade wood caps and interesting multidimensional metallic layers on some of the fragrance bottles; all components are handmade in Paris. The contemporary line features leather-lined cartons while the vintage line exudes luxury with silk lining. One of the brand’s original scents dates back centuries—it was created for Marie Antoinette while she was in jail.

Di Ser eau de parfum, from Japan, made its first appearance in the U.S. at Elements.

Straight from Maine was Portland General Store, where proprietor Troy Tyler told Beauty Packaging how he had arrived at the masculine look evident in his range of men’s products. He explained that he had started out with general handwritten vintage apothecary labels, but “there were already too many out there.” So he spent a lot of time redoing the labels using a Smith & Wesson-like roll mark and whiskey-esque names. There’s even a gift set that comes in a cigar box.

Bond No. 9 from right here in New York displayed the many transformations of its iconic bottles with fragrances named after neighborhoods throughout the boroughs and beyond, including its latest, Central Park West, which “wears” a fashionable necklace just beneath the cap.

Ulrich Lang, one of the three co-founders of Elements Showcase, stated: “The response from both buyers and sellers has been great, and definitely shows there’s an international marketplace for niche brands.”

For more on the Indie FiFi Award and Elements Showcase, see Beauty Packaging’s videos at nitesh_bp.rodpub.com.