INDEPENDENT FINALISTS, 2022

A'MMARE
by Carthusia I Profumi di Capri
Perfumer: Luca Maffei (Atelier Fragranze Milano)
Creative Director: Virginia Ruocco

A fragrance imbibed with the sea. Imagining and drawing the soul of the Island of Capri through its blossoming, the life and the scents of the blue that surrounds it now takes on an even more intense value, and celebrates a rebirth that starts from the beauty of a fertile and spontaneous garden that overlooks the sea. An authentic, almost secret garden, which opens up among the alleys of Capri and intertwines under the veil of the waves, brings to shore coral branches and vegetable compositions, together with shells and unexpected explosions of a natural heritage highlighted by a sunny day. It is a contemporary viridarium that recalls the classic one of the patrician houses of ancient Rome. A lush, flowery, colorful garden where vegetation and water features draw a fragrant perimeter rich in details that symbolize, as a whole, life and harmony.
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AGED TEA
by Pan Seven International
Perfumer: Pan Yu Ching, Huang Chien Shun
Creative Director: Pan Yu Ching

The aura of time condensed, the quiet and mellow charm of aged Taiwanese tea. A cup of fragrance condensing time. One leaf, one universe. Time is a quiet poem. The aged tea has been stored for years or even decades. It contains the information of the seasons and the land, and is a kind of distant memory of the past. I want to turn the time that people are constantly chasing into a bottle of fragrance in our hands, so that the fragrance, through the time and the past reflected by the power of nature, picks up our long-buried passions; it is a smile, but also a tear. Everyone can more or less interpret this aged tea fragrance in their own way. Perhaps the scent tested by time is a dreamy candy rain for you, or a cold spring in the ancient desert, or, more likely, a beautiful scenery in front of you at the moment.
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BASILICA
by Milano Fragranze
Perfumer: Violaine Collas (Mane)
Creative Director: Alessandro Brun

In the desert Basilica, a cappella singing from the choir, echoed by the sheer stone walls. By the side altar, tiny lights of many a candle warm up the heart. The Fragrance celebrates the silent and intimist atmosphere of the Romanic Basilica of St. Ambrogio in Milan. The aromatic opening of Rosemary and Thyme reminds of the cold stone walls, while the warm milk accord reminds of the molten wax of the tea light candles on a side altar. Incense is there - in the back - just like the echo of the Gregorian chant coming from the far-away choir. 
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BETON BRUT
by Atelier Oblique
Perfumer: Serge de Oliveira (Robertet)
Creative Director: Mario Lombardo

Concrete and poetry. Raw beauty. Beton Brut is a scent like a bed of clouds that nestles against wide windows. The fragrance picture – wide spaces filled with the sound of green, velvet flowers and cool marble. A fresh wind of bamboo and bergamot surrounds a space made of bronze surfaces and green natural stone. In the depths, the composition consists of spicy saffron notes and fine woods that make a stylish statement with a dream of cool materials. A modern perfume. Elegant, striking and perfectly formed.
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LIBERTALIA
by House of Wanderers
Perfumer: Paul Kiler
Creative Director: Charlie Romano

For Libertalia, our goal was to bring fantasy to life by creating a fragrant experience that delivers you to a historic pirate colony where indulgence was a way of life. From notes of precious wood to exotic botanicals to sweet spices and tobacco, we know that the flavors and aromas of this fragrance channels the exotic, mysterious cargo of pirate lore. Partaking in this scent transports you to a forbidden time and legendary destination. We hope that you find this treasure to be sweet, indulgent, sophisticated, and bountiful for those fortunate enough to be around you.
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LIGHTFALLS
by Atelier Oblique
Perfumer: Serge de Oliveira (Robertet)
Creative Director: Mario Lombardo

The composition of LIGHTFALLS resembles a full colour palette that shines in notes from woody and warm to fruity and fresh. The top note is dominated by spicy, fizzy chords of various kinds of pepper and grapefruit. Composed of spicy and aromatic saffron and vetiver, the heart note shares some likeness with a ray of light pushing through the clouds. Sandalwood, the resinous oil of cistus, and a chord of woody ambery come together in the base note to form a woody-dry, sweet balsamic scent. Light and scent fuse into a fragrant body of light that characterises this Eau de Parfum.
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NAPLES
by Gallivant
Perfumer: Luca Maffei (Atelier Fragranze Milano)
Creative Director: Nick Steward

A place with a raucous pulsating spirit, a working port city with a noble and glorious past. Salty sea air. The lingering warmth of late afternoon sun. Church candles, smoke, incense. The darkness of narrow, winding backstreets. Faded grandeur, a whiff of decadence. The pleasures of people-watching: locals dressed in gorgeous tailored clothes. Sartorial sharpness, old-school glamour … And il dolce far niente - the sweetness of doing nothing. Naples is a citrus, woody, incense fragrance. Fresh and spicy in the opening, with ginger, pink pepper CO2, bergamot from neighbouring Calabria, sea salts and airy ozonic notes. A smoky heart with incense resinoid, fumencens (a material which has a marked burnt note, and which reinforces the light-dark contrast of the fragrance), cardamom, nutmeg, and labdanum. And a woody base of guaiac wood, ‘green molecule’ clearwood (in combination with natural patchouli), birch, vetiver and amber.
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OMEN
by Manos Gerakinis Parfums
Perfumer: Miguel Matos
Creative Director: Manos Gerakinis

This fragrance is inspired by Delphi, Greece, the site where resides a major temple dedicated to the God of sun and light, Apollo, and the greatest prehistoric oracle. There, the Delphic sibyl professed her enigmatic double-entendres for pilgrims from all over the known world, who were willing to know the best path into their future in times of need and turbulence, from war decisions to family affairs. Three phrases were carved into the temple: “Know thyself”, “Nothing in excess”, and “Make a pledge and mischief is nigh". Know thyself — such a meaningful phrase, such a powerful concept — was as such at the core of the concept of this fragrance. The unfolding of one’s self is a mystery unveiled through time. The bay leaf is of paramount importance as the oracle munched on bay leaves and inhaled smoky air to get the prophecies through. This is a fragrance that brings together two worlds: the creative direction with the perfumer, the light with the darkness, the ancient and modern world.
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PARK OF THE MONSTERS
by In Fieri
Perfumer: Enrico Buccella
Creative Director: Maria Teresa Venezia

Infused with notes of ambergris, lily, guaiac wood, incense and musk, Park of the Monsters takes inspiration from the Garden of Bomarzio, an enchanting and surreal place that I used to visit when I was little. A soft and calming spicy opening with uplifting green notes and a dark hidden side, an evocative journey among the monstrous yet comforting creatures of the garden: “The park reminded us of a place we saw in a dream, an unknown but familiar place. We were greeted by Hannibal’s elephants and met Ceres. She was sitting on colossal fruits guarded by lions and bears. A tortoise was carrying a winged woman on its back. We met Pegasus, the winged horse, and rode him to the elusive sea, where Proteus was sailing a whale and Triton was listening to the sirens’ enchanting music in his golden palace at the bottom of the sea.”
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SASKIA
by Grandiflora
Perfumer: Christophe Laudamiel, with Ugo Charron
Creative Director: Saskia Havekes

The intention was to create the literal and spiritual essence of a tiny room and a half where, for more than a quarter of a century, flowers and things that grow have been worked. Try to catch not only all those scents born of sunlight and of shadow, but also the heavy timber table strewn with blossom, leaf and branch, imperfectly mirrored in the wet of ageing concrete floor. And maybe somehow find a ghost of the passion, in its widest sense, that makes a flower shop endure. Such a simple brief. Or simply impossible.
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