Well, here’s some good news! Last night The Fragrance Foundation UK held the annual Fragrance Foundation Awards and they announced the winners of the Jasmine Awards (the Oscars of fragrance writing). I was nominated in three categories and was thrilled to be awarded the Jasmine for Best Practical Guide for my article Material Focus: Cashmeran. This is my sixth (!!!) Jasmine Award and it’s still a complete surprise that anything I write is worthy. Thanks to all that continue to read this blog and for those who have supported me along the way.
I am so thrilled to be a finalist in this year’s Fragrance Foundation UK Jasmine Awards (the Oscar’s of perfume writing), with two of my articles nominated across three categories, and an episode of Fume Chat (the fragrance podcast I co-host with Nick Gilbert) in another. I’m especially pleased to see my article ‘Trapped in a Scent Memory’ nominated for the Literary Award. This was an intensely personal (and deeply emotional) piece about how I have come to terms with a difficult scent memory (or maybe, how I’m still coming to terms with it). Congrats to all of the finalists! Such wonderful company to be in.
Well, well, well, yesterday was quite the day! As you may have read the Jasmine Awards were held yesterday at BAFTA and I am completely thrilled to tell you that I picked up not only one, but two awards at the ceremony. I was lucky enough to walk away with the Best Digital Experience award for my piece ‘Six Scents to Put Hairs on Your Chest’ and the Independent Soundbite Aware for my article ‘Eau so Masc’. I am still in shock, if I’m being entirely honest, but I am so thankful to all of the judges for celebraating my work and incredibly grateful to have been nominated amongst some of the best perfume writers in the business, many of which I am lucky enough to call my friends.
Yesterday at a ceremony held at BAFTA in London the winners of the 2016 Jasmine Awards were announced. As the longest standing awards within the fragrance industry, the Jasmines, hosted by The Fragrance Foundation, celebrate excellence in fragrance writing for pieces both in mainstream press or independent titles. This year’s winners were an eclectic group and are as follows:
The shortlist for the Jasmine Awards 2016 is out and I am very pleased to announce that The Candy Perfume Boy has been nominated for four articles across three categories this year for work on this blog and Escentual.com. When I first started this blog in 2011, I never imagined that anyone would read it, let alone the fact that it would go on to be nominated for and win awards. Five years on and I’m completely stunned to have been nominated for the Jasmine Awards (the awards offered by the Fragrance Foundation to celebrate excellent in fragrance journalism) for the third year in a row. What’s more, it’s absolutely wonderful to see such a huge collection of talent amongst the shortlist, with an array of fabulous writers (many of whom I’m lucky enough to call my friends) receiving nominations. It’s enough to make this boy’s heart burst.
I must say a massive congratulations to all who have been nominated this year, especially Chelsea Edmunds and Ceryn Lawless at Escentual, who have both been shortlisted for their amazing work in the Rising Star category. Go Team Escentual!
In this new series, I put together a quarterly overview of five of my favourite fragrant subjects that have been piquing my interest over the last three months. These items can be individual perfumes, brands or houses, genres or even themes that have been taking my fancy. They can even include other books, bottles and other blogs that have been keeping me entertained. There are no rules. Well, there are three rules with this series; 1) the subjects must be linked to fragrance somehow (a rule that I’m allowed to bend); and 2) the hitlist is to be published towards the end of each quarter; and 3) the list must include my favourite things, as if I were a fragrant sort-of Oprah.
So, now we’re heading towards the end of March what’s topping my hitlist for quarter one of 2015?
I absolutely cannot believe my luck! After receiving four nominations (for five articles) in the 2014 Jasmine Awards, I am completely extremely excited to announce that at the ceremony yesterday, I was lucky enough to win the ‘Digital Award’ for the second year in a row. I took the award home for my Escentual article ‘M is for Mugler‘ – an instalment in my Escentual A-Z of fragrance that was dedicated entirely to my favourite perfume brand, Thierry Mugler. To say I’m chuffed, would be an understatement and I absolutely must send a massive thank you to the team at Escentual, especially Emma, for all of their support and hard work.
I wasn’t the only one to pick up an award though and congratulations must also go out to Persolaise, who took home the ‘Blogger Award’ for his Basenotes piece, ‘Guardians Of The Past – A Trip To The Osmotheque‘. I’d also like to congratulate Lee Kynaston, who won the ‘Digital Experience’ award for his article, ‘How to Get the Most Out of Your Fragrance’ for fashionbeans.com, and I mustn’t also forget Liam Moore of ODOU Magazine and Dana El Masri for taking home the ‘Literary Award’ for the piece, ‘Reflection Eterna’l. This is the second year in a row that ODOU has won the much-coveted Literary Award, so massive congrats are due!
Perfume Pic of the Week No. 17: Judging for the Fragrance Foundation Awards
A few weeks ago, following my recent Jasmine Award win (I promise to stop banging on about it eventually, honestly), I was afforded the luxury of being able to judge in not one, but two categories for this year’s Fragrance Awards, which are set to be hosted by The Fragrance Foundation on May 15th 2014. All-in-all this was an incredibly fun process that I found interesting and challenging in equal measure, but it also afforded me the luxury of thinking about how a perfume can be approached in so many different ways.
The first category that my fellow Jasmine Award winners and I were asked to judge was ‘Perfume Extraordinaire’. The perfumes in this selection are submitted blind by the big fragrance houses and the judges are required to test these without knowing the name, brand, perfumer or any details in fact, making for a completely impartial landscape where all that matters is the smell. Personally, I found approaching these perfumes without the knowledge of any bells, whistles or marketing guff, rather refreshing and it made the whole task of selecting the more creative and well-executed perfumes in the pack really quite easy. It’s so easy to get distracted by all of the ‘noise’ surrounding a perfume, but when relying simply on one’s nose the task becomes almost effortless.
Following the Perfume Extraordinaire blind-sniff, the judges were invited to test and score the fragrances selected for the category of ‘Best New Independent Fragrance’, which sees perfumes launched by the smaller, more bespoke houses. Unlike the other category, this one wasn’t a blind sniff and the judges had the opportunity to appreciate the perfumes, some of which were familiar and others that were first-time sniffs, in their entirety with a lively discussion from all sides. Whether blind-sniffing or just simple straightforward-sniffing, this blogger has to admit that the whole process was eyeopening, great fun and an absolute honour to be involved with.
Well, yesterday was an absolute of whirlwind of a day! After the joy of being shortlisted in the 2013 Jasmine Digital Award category for my Guide to Violet (in very esteemed company I must add) I am thrilled to announce that I was lucky enough to win the prize at yesterday’s ceremony held at BAFTA. I am of course, incredibly chuffed to have been bestowed with such an award and am very thankful to the Jasmine judges and the Fragrance Foundation for considering me – it truly is an honour.
I wasn’t the only one to pick up an award though and congratulations must go out to Liam Moore whose magazine ‘ODOU‘ received three nominations and was awarded the coveted Literary Award (Magazine) prize for Neil Chapman’s (he of The Black Narcissus) piece ‘Perfume Haters‘. A hearty well done, congratulations and hooray for both Neil, Liam and all of the other winners – a full list of which can be found at the Jasmine Awards website.
The Candy Perfume Boy 