The 2016 fragrance awards season is (mostly) over, and we have a winner: Christian Dior Sauvage, which took 9 awards — more than any other fragrance since I started keeping track in 2008.*
Marc Jacobs Decadence gets second place with 5 awards, and Alaïa Paris by Azzedine Alaïa takes the bronze with 4 awards.
A quick run down of past winners:
2015: Tom Ford Velvet Orchid, with 4 awards.
2014: Giorgio Armani Sì, with 5 awards.
2013: Viktor & Rolf Spicebomb, with 6 awards
2012: Gucci Guilty Pour Homme, with 5 awards
2011: Bleu de Chanel, with 8 awards
2010: Marc Jacobs Lola, with 7 awards
2009: Chloé Eau de Parfum, with 5 awards
2008: Marc Jacobs Daisy, with 7 awards
See also: the Perfume Awards page.
*This is my own (very) unofficial count, mind you, and only includes the award programs and categories I report on — I usually skip awards for things like advertising and packaging, and I generally skip consumer choice awards too. And Basenotes has not yet announced their winners for 2016, so they are not included this year.
No comment.
Exactly. But thank you for leaving a comment saying so.
I do not feel compelled to show any restraint. I made such a face when the SA at Macy’s sprayed the Sauvage on paper for me that the SA laughed. The Alaii is quite nice. I look at these awards like the NYT bestseller list. Mostly adequate books, occasionally great ones but most passionate readers will pick their reading material from another part of the bookstore…..
Good way to look at it.
(Although can’t resist adding that a better analogy would be if the National Book Award went to the bestselling paperback every year…)
E.g.: In 2011 – Fifty Shades of Grey wins everything as the publishing industry pats itself on the back.
Exactly. Imagine if it took the National Book Award and the Mann Booker, then the author eventually got the Nobel.
Stinker_kit, I thought there was something wrong with me because I have not found many NYT bestsellers that I really love! Now I know I’m not alone. 😉
I’m so sorry that the bison wasn’t awarded separately, deeply sorry 😉
To say nothing of the wolf!
I kept thinking what that remark reminded me of; it’s 3 “Men in a Boat” of course.
If you have read that and enjoyed it, I can’t recommend “The Ascent of Rum Doodle” highly enough, one of the silliest books ever written.
🙂
Maybe the car could file for defamation of character.
ROFL!
Bleu seems to strike a balance between quality and mass-market. I like it.
Alaïa is surprisngly masculine, I think. I like its musky-couch leather-pepper aspect.
I like Alaia too.
Wow, those results show the dire state of mass perfumery nowadays.
Sauvage is a big seller, so guessing the industry does not see it that way!
But I still wonder if it is actually a mass “wearer.” Maybe it is a akin to Bill Clinton’s biography that sits on countless shelves unread.
Nooooooo kidding.
Who votes in these things, exactly, and how do they evaluate? Do we know? Or is this a kind of self-congratulatory thing?
Most of these are from the various Fragrance Foundations or national equivalents. I also include the Marie Claire awards and Cosmetique Magazine, CEW (Cosmetic Executive Women, US & UK) and in Canada, the national awards are overseen by a beauty publication. So other than Basenotes, which I usually include but not this year, it’s essentially professionals in the industry. But so are the National Book Awards!
Thanks so much for explaining, Robin.
Just more confirmation that the industry’s concern isn’t on quality but sales.
Perhaps the publishing industry should take over mass perfumery?
Edit – the industry’s concern isn’t quality but sales.
Note that the Fragrance Foundation does have an award that is strictly for the juice — it’s called Perfume Extraordinaire, although they don’t exactly make a big deal of it. The judges test the perfume blind. This year it went to Armani Prive Sable d’Or.
Well that’s good! And now I’ll have to smell that one.
I think Sauvage IS OF A High quality. I truly LOVE the scent and I am sure the many others out there who like it (and Obviously have bought it because of it’s high sales) would disagree that it’s poor quality. Either they don’t read Fragrance Blogs or just aren’t influenced by others opinions, but someone out there is liking it! Me Included!
Well. I like Alaia and it does stand out in that crowd.
But…otherwise it’s not much to do the wave for.
(I have a deep respect for Tom Ford and think he has done a lot of interesting and great scents. But Velver orchid is, to me, plain bad)
Velvet orchid is hideous and cheap….TF used to be capable of making good perfumes but today I fear its all about the filthy lucre. Sad.
As the seeming Lone voice that Actually Fully And Completely loved Dior Sauvage… I feel a little bit of vindication that it won so much when it was slathered with such unrepentant hatred… Maybe not falling into line with everyone else sometimes isn’t all that bad! I mean everywhere I turned that scent was raked over the Coals (as was another one I Adored, Gucci Guilty) like it was in the Inquisition! I would have preferred Alaia to have won… it’s a much more intriguing and well developed scent, but I do love Sauvage and am happy for it!