FEATURE: ESXENCE MILAN

Esxence Returns to Milan

June saw the welcomed return of Esxence in Italy after a two-year hiatus brought on by the pandemic and global travel restrictions. This was the 12th edition of the Milanese exhibition, which always provides an important platform for promoting artistic perfumery.

By Clayton Ilolahia – Evaluation & Communications Manager, Fragrances of the World

This year had a record-breaking turnout. During the fourday event, more than 280 brands were presented, and 9200 attendees visited from around the world.

The concept chosen for this year’s Esxence was Through The Mirror, “which translates into beauty, singularity, awareness, intimacy and conscience. That mirror was the characteristic feature this year, enabling us all to see the many different facets of reality and offering us a pathway through, to go exploring new worlds, such as the world of artistic perfumery and of art.” – www.esxence.com

Esxence was started in 2009 and has grown year on year. This year’s venue was the MiCo Milano Convention Centre, a larger space than in previous years, which helped cater for the booming growth of niche fragrances. The event was a confluence of fragrance and beauty brands, retailers, distributors and consumers. Exhibitors came from 31 countries and made up 70 per cent of the presenting brands. Several brand owners commented on the diversity of retailers they met over the four days. They saw visitors from countries outside the European Union they had not seen at past exhibitions.

For a brand to present at Esxence, an application is submitted and must be approved by Esxence’s technical committee. The highly curated event divides the floorplan into a main section for regular presenters at Esxence and a spotlight section, where new and emerging brands gain important exposure to retailers, distributors and the public. This year’s event included the Experience Lab for a second time; Italy’s first event that is dedicated to niche beauty.

Twenty-five conferences and meetings were attended by some of the most authoritative names in the industry. Michael Edwards is an Esxence veteran. While he did not attend in person this year, he gave a virtual masterclass on his Fragrance Wheel, using examples from Esxence to illustrate each of his fragrance families. Other speakers gave insightful presentations on the overlap of fragrance with digital and new technology and overviews of emerging markets outside the EU such as China and Africa.

Michael Edwards says niche perfumery is the industry’s nursery. It is often the place where new ideas are forged and tested before being adopted by larger brands with bigger commercial imperatives. Seeing so many niche brands in a short period of time and in the same space, new niche trends were much easier to spot. The trend of creating comfort scents in the wake of a global pandemic continued.

These fragrances used soft, powdery notes like ambrette seed, modern musks, aldehydes and iris butter to provide a cocooning effect. Neela Vermeire’s new Fragments Collection is all about “regeneration, mystic warmth” and “tender comfort.” In contrast, rebellious Etienne de Swardt’s latest fragrance for Etat Libre d’Orange is simply called Frustration. Familiarity also creates comfort and the perpetually reinvented Fougère or Fern accord proved to be popular amongst this year’s new launches at the exhibition. Some notable ones were Berlin brand J.F. Schwarzlose’s Fougair, Masque Milano’s Slight of Fern and Mark Buxton’s Why Not a Fougère.

Ingredients often play a key role in niche fragrance storytelling and this continued. Southern Italy produces remarkable citrus essences, and they were the focus of Laboratorio Olfattivo’s Viaggio in Italia collection, created with cult perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena, former in-house Nez at Hermès. Each fragrance paid tribute to a single citrus essence: Bergamot, lime, lemon, and blood orange. The result is a lively collection of fragrances evoking a Southern Mediterranean lifestyle.

Niche fragrance veteran Nicolas Chabot launched a new brand called Headspace Parfums. A fan of molecular perfumery, Chabot developed seven fragrances with the leading oil house International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF). He asked some of the most creative noses in the industry to incorporate IFF’s Headspace technology into their creations. Headspace is a technique where the air surrounding an object is analysed for odour.

Chemists and perfumers use the analytical data to recreate the scent in a laboratory. This technique is invaluable for capturing the true-to-life scent of flowers, especially rare or endangered ones where cultivation for perfumery is unsustainable. Headspace Parfums “captures the uncapturable” with Tubereuse Headspace, a fragrance that uses notes of tuberose, tobacco, galbanum and vanilla to recount the scent of cigarettes in bed after the act of lovemaking.

Sustainability was another big topic of conversation. Brands were not only talking about environmental sustainability, but they were also talking about operational sustainability. Niche brands can be nimble due to their size, but they were not immune to multiple geopolitical events that impacted business. Paper and glass shortages, as well as some ingredient shortages, challenged business continuity. Brands owners and managers spoke about their experience managing through Covid-19. Many needed to simplify operations during the various lockdown periods to reduce operational costs. Then there was the challenge of transitioning from a walk to a sprint once business returned to full speed. Businesses without the necessary acumen struggled in this volatile environment.

Despite so many challenges, the mood at Esxence was extremely upbeat. The niche community was visibly moved by the reunion and although many aspects of operating a niche fragrance brand continue with challenges, many of the brands I spoke with reported positive sales figures for the year to date. This mood was promising.

Esxence will return to Milan in 2023, from March 30 until April 2.