The Art and Olfaction Awards are an annual prize created in Los Angeles to recognize independent and artisan perfumery, as well as experimental work with scent. What sets them apart is the judging: jurors smell every perfume blind, without knowing the brand or the perfumer. Four fragrances in our catalog have been finalists or winners, or were composed by an award-winning perfumer.
An award founded in Los Angeles in 2013
The Art and Olfaction Awards are a program of the Institute for Art and Olfaction, a nonprofit founded in Los Angeles in 2012 by Saskia Wilson-Brown. The institute runs workshops and exhibitions about scent. The awards were launched in 2013, following a conversation between Saskia Wilson-Brown and perfumer Bruno Fazzolari.
The first ceremony took place in April 2014 at the Goethe-Institut in Los Angeles. There were two categories at the time: Independent and Artisan. A third one, for experimental uses of scent, was added in 2015. Saskia Wilson-Brown came from the film festival world, and she borrowed its model: unbiased judging and modest entry fees, so that small houses can afford to compete.
The ceremony moves from city to city. In 2022, it was held in Miami during the World Perfumery Congress. In 2023 and 2025, it returned to Los Angeles. The 2024 edition took place in Lisbon. Winners receive a statuette shaped like a golden pear, the Golden Pear, which has become the award's nickname.
How blind judging works
Each entrant sends its perfume in several vials. The organizers remove the labels and replace them with a tracking number. The only thing that travels with the perfume is an anonymized statement of intent, with the brand and perfumer names blacked out. The bottle and the reputation of the house play no part.
Selection happens in several rounds. A first panel sorts the entries and draws up a list of finalists, usually ten per category. A second panel, separate from the first, then smells the finalists in small numbered vials and picks the winners. Recent editions describe the process as three stages. According to the organizers, jurors include perfumers, critics, artists and scientists, sometimes from several countries.
The point of the method is simple. In perfumery, a famous name and a beautiful bottle shape opinions. When the jury only sees a number, all that is left is the scent and the statement of intent. That is rare in an industry where presentation often counts as much as the juice.
The categories: Artisan, Independent, Newcomer, Experimental
The categories rest on one precise question: who composed the formula? The rules have changed over the years, but the logic has stayed the same.
- Artisan: the house is owned, at least in part, by the perfumer, who created the formula in house.
- Independent: the house hired an outside perfumer or fragrance company to compose the formula, then released it under its own name. The house must stay independent and cannot belong to a large group.
- Newcomer: added for the 2024 edition, it honors a house that launched its first fragrance the previous year.
- Sadakichi Award: the experimental category, open to artists and practitioners who use scent in unconventional ways, for example in an installation.
Alongside these juried categories, the institute gives discretionary awards with no submissions. The Septimus Piesse Visionary Award honors a person for their vision of how scent is used. The Aftel Award has recognized a perfume made entirely by hand, with no outsourced production.
The split between Artisan and Independent helps you read a house. An Artisan finalist comes from a perfumer who owns the brand. An Independent finalist comes from a house that chose a perfumer and handed over a brief. Both models coexist in niche perfumery, and our article on the perfumer's profession explains how they differ.
What a nomination tells you about a perfume, and what it does not
Being a finalist means a panel of professionals singled out the perfume among the entries in its category, without knowing where it came from. For a small house, that is real recognition, because it owes nothing to advertising or connections.
Keep the limits in mind, though. Only houses that submitted are judged, and many excellent houses never enter. The jury assesses a perfume from a vial and a statement of intent, not on your skin over a full day of wear. An award winner may not suit you, and a perfume that was never entered may become your favorite. Finally, the awards often reward an original idea, which can produce perfumes that are hard to wear every day.
So treat the award as a pointer. It flags a perfume worth smelling, and testing it yourself is still essential. The same reasoning applies to the niche label itself, which we cover in niche versus designer perfume.
Art and Olfaction honorees at Passion Parfum
Here are the fragrances in our catalog connected to the awards, with their notes as listed on our product pages.
Mansa by Pernoire, 2023 finalist
Mansa was a 2023 finalist in the Independent category. The Swiss house Pernoire entrusts all its compositions to perfumer Andreas Wilhelm, which fits that category. It is an extrait de parfum at 25%. Top notes: blackberry, pink pepper and orris root. Heart notes: oud, rose, amber, blackcurrant and saffron. Base notes: patchouli, heliotrope, moss and musk. Oud and rose is one of the most common pairings in oriental perfumery. Standing out in a blind test on such a familiar structure shows the jury rewarded the quality of the execution. Our product page lists longevity of more than 12 hours.
Gentle King by Voice From The Sky, 2022 finalist
Gentle King was a 2022 finalist in the Artisan category. Its perfumer, Tianle Feng, also founded Voice From The Sky: he owns the house and composes himself, hence the category. It is an eau de parfum released in 2021. Top notes: aldehydes, black pepper, Sichuan pepper and blackcurrant bud. Heart notes: hay, hinoki, cypress, violet leaf and iris. Base notes: incense, labdanum, tonka bean, leather, oud, amber and white musk. The hay and leather make it a rather dry spicy woody scent. Availability of the bottle and sample is shown on the product page.
Principalities by Cæleste, 2025 finalist and winner
Principalities was a 2025 finalist in the Independent category, and the same year it received the Newcomer Award. It was composed by David-Lev Jipa-Slivinschi for the Romanian house Cæleste, whose first perfumes came out in 2024. It is an extrait at 25%. Top notes: hyssop, black tea, rose thorn, violet and ylang-ylang. Heart notes: mineral notes, petrichor, assafi oud, galbanum, leather and immortelle. Base notes: ash, elemi resin, saffron, incense and sandalwood. The mineral notes, ash and petrichor give a dry, abstract perfume. It divides people, so try it before buying a full bottle.
Virtues by Cæleste, by a 2025 award-winning perfumer
Virtues has not competed itself, since it came out in 2026. Its perfumer, Michael Nordstrand, won the 2025 Independent award with Bad Lily, composed for another house. Virtues is an extrait de parfum. Top notes: bergamot, star anise, cinnamon and clove. Heart notes: jasmine, iris, honey and cocoa absolute. Base notes: Mysore sandalwood, vetiver, cypriol, patchouli, incense, benzoin, vanilla, labdanum and musk. It is a spicy woody amber, more classic and warmer than Principalities. Our product page lists longevity of 8 hours and more. Comparing the two lets you smell how two perfumers honored in the same year approached the world of the same house.
All four are orientals or dense woody scents. You will find more in our oriental fragrance collection and in the Cæleste collection.
Frequently asked questions
Who runs the Art and Olfaction Awards?
The awards are run by the Institute for Art and Olfaction, a Los Angeles nonprofit founded in 2012 by Saskia Wilson-Brown. The first ceremony took place in 2014.
Are the perfumes really judged blind?
Yes. Labels are replaced with a tracking number and the statement of intent is anonymized. Jurors know neither the house nor the perfumer when they smell.
What is the difference between the Artisan and Independent categories?
In the Artisan category, the perfumer owns the house and composed the formula. In the Independent category, an independent house hired an outside perfumer. Both are judged the same way.
Is an award-winning perfume always better?
No. The awards only judge the perfumes that were entered, from a vial and without your skin in the equation. A nomination tells you professionals were convinced, but only a test will tell you if it suits you.
Can I try these perfumes before buying a bottle?
Yes. Every perfume we carry comes as a 2 ml sample, enough for several days of wear. That is especially useful for a perfume like Principalities, which smells like nothing else.
To discover more independent houses and their stories, browse our niche perfumery guide. To smell these finalists on your own skin before choosing, all of them are available as samples on our samples page.