FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

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Submissions for the 12th annual awards opened October 6, 2025. 

The online submission form closes Dec. 1, 2025. 

The deadline for receipt of scent samples is Dec. 15, 2025. 

Do not delay sending your samples in. 

There is an easy  process for submissions: Fill out the online application form, and then send a sample of the perfume in the mail.

Once you fill out the online application form, we send instructions on how to submit the physical package within 24 hours.

With great care! Judging is an incredibly complex process, that takes up to five months. 

As the awards have expanded, we've had to rethink judging several times. For the 12th awards, we wrote a breakdown of how we do it, at the link below. 

The main thing to note is that all submissions are treated the same, and all submissions are judged blindly (except for in the experimental category). 

For the 12th annual awards, we will accept submissions from all countries that are released to market for the first time between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2025.

We accept submissions from companies that are independently owned, or owned by a parent company with no more than five perfume companies in its holdings.

We limit the amount of submissions to three per perfume brand (or individual creative entity, in the case of the experimentali category).

To submit for the Newcomers Award, fill out the artisan or independent category submission form (as appropriate for your perfume) and select the fee add-on that says "Also submit this to the Newcomer Award".

Note that your submission will be in the running in the independent or artisan category, and the top scoring qualifying submissions will then go to a secondary jury for the Newcomers Award. 

The idea here is to shed some light about the process and inspiration for the scent. Perhaps, for instance, there's a story your perfume is meant to elucidate. Perhaps your intention was simply to create something that inspires a certain reaction, or to pay homage to a style or a genre... Or, perhaps you're working intuitively in the age-old quest for beauty, meaning, shock, or connection... Whatever it is that motivates you, we'd love to know about it. Bear in mind that the judges are asked to consider each statement only in relation to the scent, not as a piece of writing. In other words, we are hoping for information, not style.

We ask for 25ml of your submission because we have to send the perfume around to various judges, and people are often judging in vastly different places at the same time. It's a colossal amount of organization, and having a little extra perfume on hand makes it possible to get the judging done in a timely manner. We also keep a portion of the perfume at the IAO as a backup just in case a package gets lost in the mail.

We are cognizant of the value of your work, and apologize for any inconvenience the quantity that we ask for might present. However, less than 25ml means that we might not have enough for the judges to adequately assess your work.

Yes. We do not track whether the perfumer used pre-made bases when they created their formula, or how they came up with their formula. 

We used the art world for our model in this: When Andy Warhol painted a Campbell Soup can (an object which he didn't originally design) he was still is able to contextualize it in his own way, thereby creating enough distance from the original soup can to warrant him being called the author of the new image. 

Don't worry, you're not alone! Email us and we'll work out an alternative for your situation.

Nope. Please choose artisan, independent, or experimental. Save yourself an extra submission fee and email us first: We can probably help you decide the most appropriate fit.

(You can, however, submit to both artisan category and newcomer award, or both independent category and newcomer award.)

You cannot submit more than three scents to each individual category. 

However, you can submit three scents each to the three categories, meaning that a very busy perfumer could theoretically submit three to artisan (released under their own brand), three to independent (if they worked as a perfumer-for-hire for an external brand) and three to experimental (if they also work in an experimental capacity).

Unfortunately, no. We do not accept reformulations or re-releases of perfumes first released under the same name by the same company before January 1, 2025.

Yes. If the perfume name or company name is different, we consider it a new perfume. However, we urge you to email us first.

By reformulation, we mean any perfume that was tweaked and re-released under the same name, by the same company, in the same form (e.g. liquid perfume).

By re-release, we mean a second (or third!) public release of an existing product, released under the same name, by the same company, in the same form.

The only exception to this rule is when the new release comes in a clearly different form – e.g. you released a candle, soap or body lotion before 2025, but then took that formula and adapted it to make a perfume which was released in 2025. 

We consider this new product to be in such a different form that there could be no confusion in the market as to their being different products.

With pleasure! If you are releasing a tweaked perfume in 2025 (that was originally released before January 1, 2025) under the same name by the same company, we cannot accept it as a new perfume – even if you reformulated it. 

If you re-formulated and re-released it in the current submission year under a different name, under a different company or in a different physical form (e.g. perfume vs. soap, body lotion or candle), it would qualify.

By public release, we mean any instance or engagement that allows people to purchase the perfume, in any country. 

This could include making the perfume available for sale on the internet, making it available for sale in or to third party entities such as a store, gallery, or craft show, exhibiting it at a  perfume exhibition where direct or industry sales are allowed (eg Esxence, Pitti, Tranoï, one of the global perfume weeks, etc), or placing it any other environment where  a financial transaction may occur. 

Note that we do not consider pre-launch marketing as a public release (e.g. social media posts, coming soon notices or announcements, etc).

If you wrote the original formula, and you own or co-own (minimum 35% ownership) the company releasing the perfume, you should submit in the artisan category.

As long as the company's main perfumer both wrote the original formula and owns or co-owns the perfume company releasing the scent, it qualifies as artisan.

Submit in the independent category. 

Note that our rules are rules ONLY for the awards, not for the world at large. We do not pretend to define the market. So go forth with your artisan marketing plan in the wider world (but, if you used an external perfumer who does not own or co-own the band, please submit to us as independent).

If after reviewing the category descriptions and the answers above you still are not clear on whether your submission should be in the artisan, independent, or Sadakichi Award categories, then email us and we will be happy to help. We can assess your situation individually, and recommend the appropriate category for your work.

Email us right away if you think you may have submitted to the wrong category, and we'll get you in the right place.

If you anticipate any troubles in this vein, email us right away. We'll do our best to accommodate late arrivals, where possible, but we're on a tight schedule so be kind and send early!

A simple question with a simple answer. The awards cost us a lot to operate, and as a non-profit we rely on several sources of income to run them: Sponsorships, and submission fees. Without submission fees, we wouldn't be able to hold the awards. 

No way! We ask you to please respect the integrity of our judging, and our judges' privacy  by refraining from contacting them directly about a submission.  

For any issues or queries related to our judges, please email the IAO team, and we can help.

So nice! But, for ethical reasons, we cannot accept it. Here's why: anything sent to the IAO beyond what is required for the submission itself could be considered a gift, and could therefore potentially impede the impartiality of the mechanism. Please do not send us anything beyond what is asked for in the submission confirmation email. 

Email us at hello@artandolfaction.com, and we will be happy to answer any and all questions you may have, including the meaning of life.