The Art and Olfaction Awards are an awards mechanism celebrating excellence in independent, artisan, and experimental work with scent. The annual public event - the awarding of the Golden Pears - takes place in a different location around the world and London was the host this year for the 5th Art and Olfaction Awards.

The ceremony took place at The Tabernacle and the awards given included 2 Artisan Awards, for brands that are owned or co-owned by the perfumer who created the perfume, 2 Independent Awards for brands that employed an external perfumer or fragrance house to create the perfume, the new Mandy Aftel Award for Handmade Perfume (a.k.a. the award for the small batch perfume made at home with or without the presence of said perfumer's cats) the Sadakichi Award for Experimental Work with Scent and the Contribution to Scent Culture Award.

The evening kicked off with Samba music by Samba Do Chapeau and a warm welcome by Miguel Matos.

A brief introduction followed by Saskia Wilson Brown

and special thanks to all the sponsors by Kendra Gaeta.

Sarah McCartney presented the finalists for the Artisan awards before the winners were announced.

The 2 perfumes that won the award were:

Chienoir by BedeauX CD/ Perfumer: Amanda Beadle

Brand Website: here

Club Design by The Zoo CD/ Perfumer: Christophe Laudamiel (wearing the sparkliest trousers ever!)

Brand Website: here

Andy Tauer went on stage shorty after a lovely samba interlude and resented the finalists of the Independent Awards

The first award went to:

Eau de Virginie by Au Pays de la Fleur d'Oranger Perfumer: Jean-Claude Gigodot CD: Virginie Roux

Brand Website: here

And the second to:

Nuit de Bakélite By Naomi Goodsir Perfumer: Isabelle Doyen CD: Naomi Goodsir, Renaud Coutaudier

Brand Website: here

The AFTEL AWARD FOR HANDMADE PERFUME was awarded to:

Pays Dogon By Monsillage (Canada) Perfumer: Isabelle Michaud (who actually makes her perfumes home in the company of her dog)

Brand website: here

The SADAKICHI AWARD was awarded to Under the Horizon by Oswaldo Macia ( the liveliest award winner!)

Perfume: Ricardo Moya (IFF)

Learn more: here

And finally the CONTRIBUTION TO SCENT CULTURE was awarded to Peter de Cupere (Belgium)

Learn more about his work here

*i didn't take a photo of my own so I borrowed one from Peter de Cupere's website.

The evening was a great success with a venue filled with the loveliest bunch of perfume people who celebrated creativity and imagination in the best way!

Off to Amsterdam next year!