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The World Perfumery Congress returned to Cannes this year, home of the film festival, the movie stars, and now, the perfumers! The Congress itself was held in the Palais des Festivals, on Cannes sea front. One of our gifts upon registration was a serigraph of the painting of the WPC picture by the "Painter of Perfumes", Monsieur Guy Begin. It is a beautiful montage of lavender fields, Grasse town and Cannes sea front beyond. |
Tuesday evening was the first event of the Programme, held in the Marche Forville, or Farmer’s Market, a vast, partly open hall, which is filled with market stalls by day, but now there were a few stalls with local craftspeople, such as lavender from Provence, glass ornament making and pottery decorated in the Provence style. There were many different kinds of foods for us to taste, and a stunning display of fresh fruit, all beautifully cut and presented, and a delicious array of French cheeses and country breads. There was folk music playing in the background and some people dressed in costumes, some on stilts, and some folk dancers. There was a tremendous atmosphere! For desserts there were sweet canapés, Florentines and almond biscuits, little tubs of delicious ice creams and sorbets, and strawberries and cherries covered in white chocolate! It was a magical evening in a magical setting.
Serigraph - a print made by a silk-screen process;
Wednesday 30th May
Today was the beginning of the Congress proper, and the lectures took place in the Grand Auditorium of the Palais des Festivals. Jean-Pierre Subrenat, the Congress Chairman, officially opened the Congress, and welcomed all the delegates. The Vice-Chairman, Francis Thibaudeau, did the same in French. This was followed by addresses by the Mayor of Grasse, and the Mayor of Cannes. Then the lectures began - they were all quite short, some were only ten minutes, some were twenty minutes to half an hour. Some thoughts on some of them are below:
DOORS AND MASKS
Philippe Starck
Philippe Starck is a popular designer of many everyday objects. His talk was well received, and evidently people found it amusing. He spoke of creativity, and what he imagines when he is designing an object.
PERFUMERY: ENVIRONMENT FACTOR, FROM PROVENCE TO NEW YORK
Reinold Geiger, President, L’Occitane en Provence
Reinold described the company’s history, their philosophy of growing their business while striving to preserve the environment, and how this philosophy has ensured their success on both sides of the Atlantic.
COMITE FRANCAIS DU PARFUM: THE IMAGE OF PERFUMERY IN THE WORLD
Philippe Lentz, Comite Francais du Parfum
Philippe described to us the "travelling" Perfumery Exhibition, and showed some slides of some of the exhibits, which seemed familiar. He said the Exhibition had toured England during 1995 - so it was the same one the BSP visited in Brighton! He told us some of the other places the Exhibition has visited, and future destinations, including Canada, and a return to Europe, but not England, unfortunately!
EUROPEAN LEGISLATION AND REALITIES
David de Rijke, Manager Safety & Regulatory Affairs,
Quest International
David’s talk on legislation brought us up to date and he made a number of interesting points.
BRAZIL: A NEW AND POWERFUL FORCE IN THE PERFUMERY WORLD
Silvana Maria Martini Cassol, Marketing Vice President, O
Boticario
This was, in my opinion, the best presentation today. Although Silvana spoke in French, the translation (on headphones) was very good, and she began by explaining all about the Brazilian economy and market forces, and then about their company, O Boticario. O Boticario began as one little chemist’s shop, and they began making their own products, and they opened more shops by franchising, until they had opened many throughout Brazil, and then they turned their attention to the overseas markets, opening stores first in Portugal, and then other countries, and being very successful. Because of O Boticario, Brazil is a new force to be reckoned with in the perfumery industry. The people of Brazil prefer their fragrances to be very fresh, as the climate is so hot. Because they grow a lot of exotic tropical fruits, they prefer fragrances without fruity notes. Lavender is a popular note in products for babies and children, and women also like lavender. Silvana showed us some videos of TV advertising for their different product ranges, children, teenagers, women and men. Their very first fragrance, Aqua Fresca is still very popular. Their latest fragrance for women does, in fact, have a fruity note, and is proving to be quite successful.
THE CURRENT CHALLENGE WE ARE FACING IN OUR INDUSTRY
Richard Goldstein, Chairman and CEO, IFF
Richard described the philosophy and future aims of IFF.
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Aside from the lectures, our afternoons were spent in the Exhibition, where over sixty of our raw materials suppliers were displaying new naturals and aroma chemicals, in some very innovative settings. Quest were displaying two new musks, and their fruity nitrile, frutonile. Givaudan were exhibiting their latest sandalwood innovation - even stronger than ebanol. At Firmenich’ stand, each material they were showing related to a colour. There was an intriguing stand by a company called Aerome. They are into air fragrancing, but they had several video screens, each with a small device underneath which delivered a measured amount of a fragrance into the air on cue with several advertisements showing on the screen. There was a Coca-cola advert, where the smell of the drink was only released at the point when the liquid was pouring into the glass.
There were several stands with books and magazines on perfumery, and Guy Begin had his own stand with books of his paintings. Robertet had a very tranquil, Feng Shui inspired room. Aromas of olibanol, basmati rice, green tea and bamboo were displayed to their best advantage in the beautifully designed setting. Payan & Bertrand showed a sumptuous array of naturals, and Kao were displaying some of their specialities, pollenal, ambercore, poirenate and some extractions of labdanum, labdacore, more cistus like, and labdacuir, more leathery, animalic. Stort Chemicals showed us some water white citrus oils, which looked nothing like you would expect from their delicious zesty smells.
There was a stand by Cedarome of Canada, exhibiting a variety of coniferous tree extracts - some of these were really unusual and interesting, and very aromatic. Charabot chose a "Cannes Film Festival" Theme for their stand where we looked at some delicious new naturals including rose floraline and saffron. Nearby was Calchauvet, with a selection of naturals, some never seen before, such as pandanus. This is an aromatic grass, which is always planted next to basmati rice, and in fact, this is how the rice has such an aromatic flavour. How innovative, to think of extracting the grass - as these rice notes are so popular at the moment! There was also prune absolute - again this was very interesting - because there are so few natural fruity notes for use in perfumery.
On the I.F.F. stand there were a number of areas making use of the Aerome
technology - the first set were demonstrating a choice of floral aromas,
and while the smell came out of the air stream, there were headphones to
wear with some inspirational music and a video of the flower you were smelling
was shown. The second set was demonstrating individual I.F.F. materials,
again with visual and audio stimuli.
