The Elements Showcase turned one-year old but this January 2012 edition was its third edition. This bi-annual perfume event is trying to be a North American alternative to the European perfume expositions. With this third outing organizers Frederick Bouchardy, Ulrich Lang, and Jeffrey Lawson have evolved Elements Showcase into something which has its own vibe. Besides all of the exhibitors there were three very special events. A panel sponsored by Six Scents on Multidisciplinary Collaborations with Fragrance. Another panel sponsored by W Magazine about the Selling of Perfume. The high point of the two days in New York was the awarding of the first Indie FiFi Award at the end of day one. All of this activity was surrounded by a multi-national group of perfumers and perfumes along with those of us who cover this corner of the blogosphere. Here are my impressions of this latest version of Elements Showcase.

Multidisciplinary collaboration was evident right from the first moment I entered the exhibition space as Artist Andrea Maack introduced me to her two new fragrances Dark and Silk in front of a large drawing cut up into strips. After trying the fragrances with her I chose one strip which she sprayed Dark on and then gave it to me to take away. Watching the drawing slowly come apart strip by strip over the two days was a fascinating intersection of art and perfume.

From there it was time to walk around and see old friends like Ineke Ruhland and make new friends like Arquiste’s architect Carlos Huber. Here is a list of my “Best of Show” awards:

Favorite New Discovery: The ten Di Ser Eau de Parfums collection. I never heard of them ten days ago and now I just hope they struck a US distribution deal so everyone can get a chance to try these fragrances.

Favorite Moment: The announcement of Odin 06 Amanu as the winner of the inaugural Indie FiFi Award. The process that led to this may not have been perfect but the ceremony itself was pretty darn close to perfect as a slow, but not too slow build-up, led to a very happy group holding an oversized $10,000 check courtesy of Givaudan and a FiFi Award. I hope this begins a long happy collaboration between the Elements Showcase and The Fragrance Foundation.

Most Realistic Fragrance I’m Not Sure I Want To Wear: The collaboration between Brooklyn perfumers D.S. & Durga with pop-up retailers BKLYN Dry Goods called Spent Musket Oil. It smells exactly like rifle oil and cordite and the strip I brought home with me continually makes me think gunfire has just broken out in my office.

Most Beautiful New Bottle: M. Micallef’s Ylang In Gold has real gold dust in the bottle and when you shake it up it is sort of hypnotizing watching the gold swirl around. The fragrance also more than holds its own to the visual.

Best Innovation: Gerald Ghislain’s Scent of Departure Collection based on different airports as the inspiration. These will be low-priced entry level scents to the Histoires de Parfums line. After trying quite a few of them, they smell amazing especially for the price.

Best Barber: Garrett of Martial Vivot gave me the Caron Pour Un Homme straight edge shave in a barber chair sponsored by Caron. The great majority of special things are usually for the women it was nice to have something for the guys for a change.

Best Bath Products: Strange Invisible Perfumes has a new collection of bath and body products. The same care that Alexandra Balahoutis uses with her perfumes is used for this new line. Every morning since the exhibition has been a new experience in the shower. My only problem is going to be deciding on only a couple to own.

The Why Don’t You Have A Booth Award: There were three very talented perfumers who were schmoozing at the show; Vero Kern, Dawn Spencer Hurwitz, and Sarah Barton-King. While they didn’t have an official presence their attendance added a lot of extra fun to everything. Plus I got a sneak sniff of the next one from Ms. Barton-King. This time she is taking us to a place full of spice and tobacco, more to come as details slowly come out.

Best Book: MJ Rose’s The Book of Lost Fragrances which also has a fragrance designed by Joya to go with the book. Did I mention Multidisciplinary Collaboration was a theme this time?

Favorite Line From The Panels: Chandler Burr of The Department of Olfactory Art at the Museum of Art and Design on the Multidisciplinary Collaboration panel was talking about how materials grown and harvested all over the world eventually make it to the perfumers palette to be used to make a perfume and that entire process leads to his line, “The entire world is in every bottle of perfume.”

Don’t I Know You? Award: Victoria Jent of the EauMG blog serendipitously managed to be in New York from her normal Pacific Northwest home base. It was a pleasure to meet the intelligent person behind the equally intelligent words on her blog.

That’s a wrap for this edition. I can’t wait for this summer’s event to bring the best smelling group of people together in New York City, again.

–Mark Behnke, Managing Editor