France announces Perfume Winners 2012

My perfume collection

I absolutely LOVE perfume and fragrances!

What is a Nose?

A nose is someone who develops new perfume blends, ranging from the blends used in personalized perfumes to scents which will be added to things like soaps and shampoos. At any given time, there are thousands of noses in the world, but only around 50 are truly talented individuals, some of whom are famous in their own right. The best perfume companies employ several noses to work on their scents, with others choosing to work independently, forming their own companies for the production and sale of fragrances.

The technical name for a nose is "perfumer," with "nose" being more like a friendly slang term. In order to become a perfumer, someone has to have a natural aptitude for scent, combined with an extensive period of training. The best noses train in Grasse, France, a region which has been renowned for its perfume production for centuries, and it can take seven or more years to complete perfumery training.

Traditionally, a nose would have trained as an apprentice, working with another perfumer, often a family member, to learn the tricks of the trade. In addition to being able to identify and blend scents, a nose must also think about issues like the cost of production, the stability of a scent after bottling, and how a scent will interact with other substances. Modern noses typically pursue advanced degrees in chemistry in addition to training in the scent industry, and many also study psychology, since psychology is a very important aspect of the perfume industry. Source

FiFi Awards

The Fragrance Foundation of France has announced the winners of Les Parfums 2012, the French version of the Fifi Awards. 

And the winners are:

Best women’s fragrance: Elie Saab Le Parfum 

I have this fragrance and really like it

Best men’s fragrance: Jean Paul Gaultier Kokorico

Prix des Experts (panel of bloggers, evaluators & journalists): Atelier Cologne Orange Sanguine

Prix spécial anniversaire (chosen from award winners of the past 20 years): Terre d’Hermès and Narciso Rodriguez for Her

here are more winners