Family. Tradition. Heritage. These are words that describe very few businesses today, and even fewer fragrance houses. I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Ramon Monegal, scion to one of Spain’s most renowned fragrance dynasties. While he recounted with great passion the history of the family, the origins of the business, and the creation of his own eponymous brand, his deep-rooted love for fragrance, ingredients, and craft was ever present, leaving their own sillage as we spoke.

A Swiss ambassador in London or a British diplomat in Geneva. Possibly both. Thanks to John-Paul Welton, diplomacy only consists of pleasant, scented encounters. Our gentleman secret is his passion for New York City. Damn it! He is an American agent. One with the cover of creating beautiful scents.

What does it take to create a multi-sensory event? How is it conceived and what considerations need to be taken into account? Later this year the Mauritshuis museum in the Hague will be hosting a unique exhibit entitled Fleeting – Scents in Colour in which fragrance will enhance the visitors experience. Intrigued by this meeting of art and scent, I contacted the curators and their fragrance partner at IFF to get the full story.

Almost 4 years ago I started working with a team of passionate experts on a portal project dedicated to Artistic Perfumery. After many meetings, exchanges of ideas, evaluations on the complexity of the project and the resources that needed to be put in place, we came to the conclusion that it was time to take an extra step: add to our web listening and survey activities to monitor the sector in support of the educational and analytical activities that we managed for Esxence (and which in 2018 gave birth to the "whispers about artistic perfumery" survey), the website www.essencional.com which was born a year ago when the pandemic exploded.