A few days ago, on the 28th of April in Montreal marked the 6th annual celebration of the Canadian Fragrance Awards. The annual gala event celebrates, and enthusiastically promotes new (mainstream) fragrance in the Canadian marketplace. Besides the various categories for fragrances, there are two categories dedicated to Print and Web articles in the Perfume genre. This year there were two finalists in the running. In the Print category, an article (telling my story) called The Sweet Smell of Success by Doris Montanera as published in Best Health magazine. In the Web/Broadcast category was Eau Canada (an interview of myself and Montreal perfumer Isabelle Michaud) by Canadian Fragrance Expert, Marian Bendeth.
Happily, both authors won their categories and took home a Fragrance Award! So needless to say, this was incredible exposure for myself and 1000 Flowers, as well as for putting Canadian perfumers on the map in general. My hope is that eventually, there will be enough fragrances produced by Canadian perfumers to warrant a category of our own! Slowly but surely this will happen as more of us become known in this very specialized artistic field.
In the meantime, I send a big thank you to Marian Bendeth and Doris Montanera for their support and encouragement as I forge ahead on this fragranced path!
A Perfumed Pilgrimage 
Congratulations! I’m sure an award is the best kind of inspiring nudge 🙂
Thank you Liam…Encouragement like this definitely gives me fuel on those days when I feel burned out… which inevitably happens now and then 🙂
Aw you wouldn’t be a creative soul if burning out didn’t happen from time to time 😉
Aha so that’s what it is! lol good point… the occasional wall and the occasional burn out… then the joy of finding wellsprings of creative juice… what a process! 🙂
Hehe I’ve been there myself on some occasions – feeling that spark reignite is what it’s all about… Still, would love to experience that with fragrance making.
It’s a lot like writing… so much time spent contemplating, dreaming, and conceptualizing before actually arriving at decisions and then formulating, to see if is like I have imagined… so much to learn! Have you taken any courses? Or even get a small kit of raw materials and just play…
That’s kind of how I imagine the processes involved to be like truth be told. A lot time defining the fragrance, coming to conclusions, drawing ideas and possible directions to transform that idea into something odourific!
I’ve bought a few oils and tinkered around, but nothing I’d consider overly great – neither am I deluded and setting out and make a successor to No 5, but I need creative direction and some solid ways to learn.
On a side note, could you mail me your email address? I have a question to ask, http://www.personalodour.wordpress.com/contact
Training is really crucial, in my opinion… as you probably know, there are comprehensive week long courses at my school in Grasse….even this will provide some basics. (http://www.prodarom.com/anglais/gip/actu_gip.php)