ESXENCE – THE SCENT OF EXCELLENCE, the eleventh edition with a wealth of new ideas
Milan april 25-28 2019
The Mall, Piazza Lina Bo Bardi | Porta Nuova
Milan, 12 February 2019 – Esxence – The Scent of Excellence, the international appointment with Artistic Perfumery, is now preparing its eleventh edition, due to take place again in Milan from 25 to 28 April 2019 in the location at The Mall, in the throbbing heart of the Milan skyline. After celebrating its tenth anniversary last year, the event is now gearing up to face new challenges and welcome the international community of business operatives and aficionados in the name of the most authentic, refined olfactory culture. Once again this year, the excellence of Artistic Perfumery will be represented by the perfumery houses, both the well-established names and newcomers. The brands are selected by a Technical Committee made up of experts of international renown, who decide on the basis of the quality of the proposals they receive, of criteria of distribution and of the coherence of their concepts. This ensures that Esxence is in a position to offer its audience only the best of original production, confirming Milan’s place as world capital in this sector. In the more than 5,000 square metres of The Mall, together with the Main Brands (45% of the brand list), the public of operatives, distributors, buyers and fans will also find the Spotlights, the sector’s up-and-coming new names (55% of the total). The majority of these (about 80%) come from abroad, primarily Europe, but also the United States and the Middle East, a trend that confirms the role played by Esxence as a prestigious setting for launching a name on the international scene.
The concept chosen for this edition is Inspiration Flow, a title that expresses the essence of the event and of Artistic Perfumery. Linked together by the intimate similarity of the two terms in the Italian language (inspirare and ispirare), inhaling and inspiring are two principles that also have a strong active bond when we relate to a perfume, plunging us into a flow of emotions, thoughts and memories. Inspiration Flow is the impulse that enables mind and body to conceive and achieve something new: it is the instant when thoughts are clear and flow smoothly in the right direction; it is the moment when we experience pleasure at what we do. Different manifestations of creative excellence come together, driven by the same passion and involved in the same activity, focused on the present and at the same time projected towards a shared sense of growth. Esxence is the place where artistic perfumery shares its energy and its inspirations.
Esxence is the place for meeting together and exchanging ideas, but it is also the place of business. At world level, the share of the alcohol-based perfumery market enjoyed by Artistic Perfumery as a whole is approximately 10%. In Italy, the total turnover for artistic perfumery passed the threshold of €250 million in 2017, corresponding to 12% of the turnover in alcohol-based perfumery and 2.5% of the total Italian beauty business. As this sector has the potential reach 2% of the beauty business turnover in every country, it has a real chance to develop several billion euros of turnover and give a stimulus to brands that keep faith with their original mission and/or are extremely innovative and committed to research.
“We believe that the most important role played by this event is that of providing visibility and audience to everything that for decades has in practice stood for the forge of innovation and research of both style and aesthetics in perfumery and, in recent years, also in cosmetics”, states Silvio Levi, co-founder of Esxence and President of the Technical Committee. “The numbers of brands that recognise Esxence as the sole viable launchpad in this sector are growing all the time and our waiting list grows longer with every passing year. The next ten years will be an important challenge for us: we have created some very high expectations, but we are not afraid of the consequences, because we are aware of our diversity and of the fact that keeping that diversity alive can only bring in positive results for us and for the entire sector in the future”.
“Every year, as a result of a painstaking process of research and selection, we are in a position to offer our audience only the finest examples of artistic perfumery production”, states Maurizio Cavezzali, co-founder of Esxence and President of Equipe International. “Esxence is the benchmark event at world level: this is where the sector’s most important players meet; this is where trends are decided and here is where the up-and-coming brands destined for success make their débuts. In one edition after another, we concentrate our efforts on renewal and innovation, investing in and building on our past experiences and analysing future trends. This is demonstrated by the major new features we are introducing this year: the Experience Lab and the Milano Fragrance Week are two important projects we have focused on and driven energetically. I am sure that this year’s edition will be hugely successful and bring us new stimuli for growth.”
MILANO FRAGRANCE WEEK
The first edition of the Milano Fragrance Week is also set to be launched from 22 to 28 April, to coincide with the eleventh edition of Esxence. The aim of this event is to promote olfactory culture and interest in perfume as an art form, while also exploring fertile terrains in such fields as art, music, technology, design and fashion. The ambition of the Fragrance Week is to create a cultural opportunity for the entire city of Milan. In fact, the city has Esxence to thank for having started the spontaneous production of perfumed events and new retail outlets. As of this year, all this can be channelled into the agenda of the Milano Fragrance Week, whose purpose is to make the city an active participant in every single initiative. The week will be the opportunity and set the stage for encouraging meetings and facilitating sharing between many different artistic, figurative, sound and olfactory expressions. The events will take place throughout the city, with special nerve centres in the districts of Porta Nuova, Garibaldi and Brera, and will focus on the leitmotiv of Inspiration Flow, the flow of creativity and inspiration that spreads out from Esxence to encompass the whole city. So get ready for exhibitions, installations, travelling workshops, concerts and interactive events where the city’s beautiful features and artistic talents will mingle with olfactory culture, generating new creative and multisensory experiences to discover Milan and reawaken our senses.
THE AGENDA OF EVENTS
As in every year, Esxence continues pursuing its aim to promote olfactory culture, offering its audience of professionals and aficionados a rich agenda of meetings, round tables, workshops, presentations and olfactory itineraries, featuring the presence of international experts, scholars and researchers. This year, these will include some milestones of artistic perfumery, such as Michael Edwards and Annick Le Guérer, while the main issues to be tackled in the meetings will be the analysis of foreign markets, such as the USA and Germany, the effects of artificial intelligence on the market for niche perfumery and the role played by social media. One important new feature this year will be a webinar organised in partnership with Les Parfumables and the young perfumier Alex Lee: a virtual interactive workshop that can be attended both in the Esxence conference hall and by 300 people on web links all over the world.
Once again, this eleventh edition of Esxence will be able to count on several high-level partnerships, such as the Osmothèque, the world’s only and exclusive International Conservatory of perfumes; Mouillettes & Co., a well-known Italian organisation that provides training courses and consultancy related to the olfactory sense, and Business France, the French national agency whose remit is to internationalise the French economy.
For the fifth year running, Esxence will host the announcement of the finalists in the Art & Olfaction Awards, the prestigious acknowledgement reserved for independent artistic perfumery. Every date in this events calendar is completely free of charge and the conference hall will be open to the public throughout the event’s four days.
For further information, go to: www.esxence.com Entry free of charge, subject to registration on www.esxence.com Open to business operatives all four days of the event Open to non-business visitors on Saturday and Sunday (conference hall all four days) Opening hours: from Thursday to Saturday from 10.30 a.m. to 6.30 p.m. (last admission at 6.00 p.m.) Sunday from 10.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. (last admission at 4.00 p.m.)
With the patronage of: Region of Lombardy and Municipality of Milan Sponsors: CFF Creative Flavour Fragrances | Grafiche Edicta | Les Parfumables | We Bulk Partner: Business France Content Partner: Osmothèque | Mouillettes & Co.
EQUIPE INTERNATIONAL PRESS OFFICE – Tel. +39 0234538354
Giuditta Amisano giuditta.amisano@equipemilano.com
Marta Cominetti giuditta.amisano@equipemilano.com
