The Art and Olfaction Award for Independent perfumery

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The independent category is for perfume brands that employ an external perfumer or fragrance house to create their perfume formulas, with creative direction from the perfume brand. The final perfume is then released under the brand's name.

An independent submission will meet one or more of these points:

• The company that released the perfume commissioned or employed an external perfumer or fragrance house to write the perfume formula and in all other respects create the perfume, which was then released under the company name.
• The company that released the perfume had creative control over the creative decisions related to the scent, including creative direction, branding and marketing.
• If the company is owned or co-owned by a perfumer, this perfumer acts primarily as a business person and/or creative director, overseeing creative but leaving the writing of the formula to external hires, commissions, or fragrance houses.
• The company producing the perfume is either privately-owned, or owned by another privately-owned company with no more than five fine fragrance holdings in its brand portfolio.

The definition of independent varies widely depending on who you ask. We came to our definition through our direct experience of various practices around the world.

We define an independent perfume, in short, as a scent where the perfumer who wrote the initial formula:  

• Does not have ownership or co-ownership in the brand that is releasing the perfume, and
• Wrote the formula in collaboration with - but independently from - the brand releasing the perfume.

All submitters to the independent category should be prepared to provide the information and names of their external collaborators, including the creative director responsible for the brief, and the name of the submission's primary perfumer.