Alex Lee of Mane Webinose

If you read our reports or attended the previous editions of Esxence,   you know that the  leading Artistic Perfume Fair  is always ahead of the curve with new announcements, panels and workshops that spread the culture of artistic perfumery. The 11th edition of Esxence in Milan, takes place April 25-28, 2019 and aims to go beyond that with even more innovation. Enter Alex Lee of Mane the “webinose”.

Esxence Inspiration Flow

Partnering with Les Parfumables, Esxence gives 60 attendees live plus 300 participants worldwide the opportunity to remotely join FragranceXperience, an interactive webinar with a nose, a.k.a. webinose with perfumer Alex Lee. Working at Mane, in a few years Alex has already gained  attention for his original creations for Penhaligon’s, SIllages Paris, Maison Lancôme, the smart-design brand Marc Stern and last but not least the Premio Accademia del Profumo (the Italian FiFi Awards) finalist stunning white floral Ferragamo Rinascimento.

Ferragamo Rinascimento: a gorgeous white floral brightened by a green pepper special infusion

At ÇaFleureBon we have a nose for spotting budding talents and Alex Lee is an old friend of ours, as our Editor in Chief Michelyn Camen interviewed him in 2010 while he was still attending ISIPCA.  I remember my first chats with Alex talking about fragrances, exchanging raw materials and fostering a young chemistry student to pursue his future career into perfumery in 2005!

Marc Stern Perfumes launched at Cosmoprof 2019 in Bologna (pic by Ermano)

Wanting to learn more I had a brief interview with Alex where for our readers he answers few in-depth questions about this exciting FragranceXperience that will take place on April 27th 2019 at 4.00PM at Esxence.

Can you tell me more about this "webinose", who came up with the Idea? I heard that you are going to talk about Etoilegance, the fragrance that in 2013 won the contest dedicated to young perfumers for the 5th anniversary of Esxence.

Alex Lee of Mane: Esxence came to me wanting to tell my whole creative process of Etoilegance in an innovative way. The audience will be able to follow the webinar, listening and smelling from home thanks to Les Parfumable’s CeraScent ceramic technology which will encapsulate the fragrances that I want to share.

What’s the thing you would like mostly people to understand from this experience?

Alex Lee of Mane: I think it is not every day that someone gets to understand what goes on in a perfumer’s mind when he gets a perfume project and smell the intermediate steps of the creation.

Definitely it's no ordinary experience. Please tell  us more…

Alex Lee: I will explain my thought process when I received the “brief” which challenged me to tell a fragrance story about the stars… to ask: How am I going to tell this story using raw materials at my disposition? How will I have to create differently to win this competition against other talented young perfumers?

The Etoilegance flacon designed by Radis Nikzad

And how the ceramics from Les Parfumables will be used?

Alex Lee of Mane:The Cerascent olfactive kit will be sent to all of the participants before the webinar. During the actual webinar, everyone will open their kits containing the ceramics and off we go.
So, if I well understood you’re going to let people smell some raw materials and explain how they fit the inspiration in your creative process, right?

Alex Lee of Mane: Yes! One will be able to smell the key ingredient in Etoilegance: the bushman’s candle resinoid, a very unique raw material in our perfumer’s palette at MANE, a few accords, and of course the final result, Etoilegance.

Alex Lee Potrait by Matthew Doortomb

Is it the first webinar of this type for you or you had similar experiences before?

Alex Lee of Mane: This will be my first time giving a webinar.

What’s your feeling about this, giving such direct connection with perfumers?

Alex Lee of Mane: I think it has to be done more! 

 Les Parfumables Cerascent olfactive kit       

Thank you again Alex for your answers and of course we can’t wait to learn more at Esxence 2019. To learn more on FragranceXperience and how to join it, check out Les Parfumables website

Ermano Picco, Editor and contributions by Michelyn Camen, Editor-in-Chief

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