There`s a grand tradition amongst my friends – we meet every September in Florence, courtesy of the Florentian organizers of that exclusive perfumery meeting at Pitti Fragranze!

Friends are perfumers, brand managers, buyers and owners of niche perfume boutiques, perfume journalists and bloggers. Our friendship has begun on the Web, on perfume-devoted forums and blogs, on Facebook and others social nets. We know each other’s nicknames better than our given names. Eventually we know each other better, share some info, impressions and inspirations; day by day we coming closer to meeting each other and say “hello!” in person at the beautiful Stazione Leopolda, where Pitti Fragranze takes place.

This time I was more than happy to greet ever-smiling Andy Tauer, Swiss perfumer, – he was presenting his special Zeta and three Pentachords: Verdant, White and Auburn. We spent a great half an hour discussing pros and contras of the idea. For me Andy`s Pentachords is the invitation to all perfume-devoted people – don`t be just an aficionado! Try to make something simple and pleasing to yourself! Not Mitsouko – but something that smells good!

And by the way – while I don`t like monomolecular perfumes – I liked White and don`t hate Auburn (Verdant is too aggressive`n`monotonous for me, but it sells great!)

It was a real pleasure to meet Francis Kurkdjian – previously I interviewed him via e-mail for a Russian magazine as Maison Francis Kurkdjian will be launched in Moscow this autumn. He is some slick elegant guy (jeans and white shirt) – he has been chosen as the anchor man of the Pitti Fragranze this year. He made an interesting lecture Etre a Parfumeur to reveal some personal views on perfumery and his job – for example, Francis is not happy when perfumers are called “noses”; his point of view is that perfumers works with their brains more than their nose – and that there are ideas, visions, souls, brains, backgrounds, all included in perfume creation!

The first evening was ended by fabulous olfactorial concert Luce Degli Innocenti held in the oldest orphanage of the world. Santa Maria Innocenti church. The square was lighted by 800 double-wicked scented candles, each representing a pair of innocent kid eyes. The scent is highly symbolic – ethyl maltol that stands for candy-floss (every kid`s delight) and orris that is the symbol of Florence. The magical atmosphere was complemented by a mirror-ball flashing myriads of lights onto the walls, and chaotic rings of small bells that reminded me of children’s laughter… Francis himself sat in a corner in a bloggers crowd and answered some questions till a huge round of applause had him standing up and taking a bow.

Bertrand Duchaufour has presented L`Artisan Parfumeur Mon Numero collection concept. He described Mon Numero 6, Italian exclusive perfume, and made every interested person know – what the pure ingredients of it are. Absolutes of incense and tuberose, Floralozone and Indole been passed on blotters before the Piece of Art #6 comes next. Needless to say – I bought a bottle of it, signed by Bertrand.

What else was new and intriguing?

New Italian natural perfume brand O`Driu was a real WOW (presentation, visuals, bottles, prices are very meaningful and Angelo Orazio Pregoni himself as a modern Druide-Perfumer is impressive).

Cuir Fetiche by Maitre Parfumer et Gantier – grrrreat flowery leather perfume in a red leather corseted bottle, I cannot help to call it soft and fruity feminine version of legendary masculine Knize Ten.

Francois Henin of Jovoy pre-premiered the new line of Jovoy Parfums made of 6 perfumes that will be presented next week in Paris – (I believe that Cafleurebon will cover this event in details and pictures). Now, for intrigue, I reveal their themes – the new perfumes are centered around amber, patchouli, figue leaves, oud, incense and flowers. I`d choose perfume named Private Label – oud is just like the oil I found in Indian town Kannauj some years ago.

As I`ve tried Pierre Guillaume`s Indochine before – my attention was on his new Myrrhiad perfume from Huitieme Arts Parfums (rarest black tea absolute plus myrrhe on vanilla bed smells divine!), and totally new French brand Phaedon. The last is consisted of 8 scents (Pierre created just two of them, dry woody with wine undertone Dzhari and minty tea Noir Marine, enormously long-lasting peppermint from Egypt) and 10 scented candles (my favourites are Pure Malt, The Rouge and Reglisse). I`d love to write some reviews of them as Pierre has explained to me a lot and the perfumes are just intoxicatingly beautiful!

Standing room only at Technique Indiscrete there was a huge crowsd– I wonder if Libertin Louison ever had time for coffee! His new colognes line (Neroli 555, Cedrat 752 and Lonicera are simply made but good as he found a different way of expression. I bought Neroli 555 for me, and this neroli with civet-like sillage lasted more than two days on my shirt. Others could love Lonicera as it means Honeysuckle – and it is quite a special note in eau de colognes!

Well, there are many more great people – I`m truly sorry that my text is not elastic enough – beautiful Mona di Orio, graceful Olivier Durbano, gorgeous Majda Bekkali and her partner Richard (Songes Lily des Reves), lovely Yosh Han, elegant Keiko Mecheri, fantastic Ineke Ruhland, glorious Gerald Ghislain, imposing Lorenzo Villoresi, superb Maria Candida Gentile and young Diletta Tonatto…. now I should admit that I’ve run out of my English adjectives – but the list of great friends and perfumers I have met at Pitti Fragranze is still not exhausted!!! I`m going to cover more about Pitti in further issues…

There were 194 brands and 2170 visitors at Pitti Fragranze recorded this year. The Universe of Pitti Fragranze is still expanding (numbers are more than 10% more than previous year). The more years it exists, the more new perfume stars and planets are attracted by its gravitation of perfumed beauty and business effectiveness . That`s why the second week of every September means Pitti Fragranze for everyone who is devoted to really good and extraordinary niche perfumes .

–Sergey Borisov, Contributor