HOW WE JUDGE
Our Judges
For the simple reason that thoughtful people make good decisions, the first step to a fair judging process is picking fair-minded people to judge. For this reason, we take pains to get to know our judges before inviting them to participate. When we start the judging process, we ask the judges to sign off on our code of ethics, which states the principles of how we run the awards.
Please respect our judges' time and privacy - and the integrity of the awards - and refrain from contacting the judges about your submission.
Judging the Artisan and Independent Categories
The artisan and independent categories are judged blindly, in two rounds. The first round takes place at the Institute for Art and Olfaction in Los Angeles, and the second round takes place remotely at the judges' homes and labs around the world.
Preliminary Round
In the preliminary round, the judges come into the Institute for Art and Olfaction, where we have the submissions all prepared for them, in blind vials, accompanied by their anonymized creative brief.
The judges have as many sessions as they need to adequately assess the samples, and are instructed to revisit each sample several times, including during the dry-down. It’s hard work, but each judge pays particular attention to fairness and to giving every submission a fair and impartial chance.
Once the judges have all assessed and scored the perfumes, we average the scores. The top twenty scoring perfumes in each category (artisan and indie) are pulled into the second round of scoring.
Secondary Round
For round two, we decant the 20 finalists in each category into blind vials, and send them, along with their creative briefs, to our second round judges, who are dotted around the world. The second round judges have approximately 4 to 6 weeks to make their assessments, and are asked to assign a score to each perfume.
As with round one, the scores are averaged to assess the ten finalists in each category, as well as the two winners.
Judging the Newcomers Award
The Newcomers Award has a separate jury. These judges are provided with the ten top qualifying fragrances in both the Artisan AND the Independent preliminary judging rounds (which means the top five qualifying submissions in artisan, and the top five in independent).
As with the preliminary and finals round, these submissions are sent to the judges in blind vials, identified only by a number and accompanied by the submission's anonymized creative brief.
Judging the Experimental Category
For the experimental category, the process is very similar, except that the judges are aware of the artist's name and work, and have the opportunity to view supporting materials which often include images, video, or sound.
As with the other categories, the Experimental Category judges are asked to score the submissions numerically. These scores are averaged to provide a list of semi-finalists.
The judges then convene for discussion about the semi-finalists, and are then asked to rescore. Those new scores are averaged to create the list of five finalists and the winner.