ESXENCE – THE ART PERFUMERY EVENT
Artistic perfumery meets at Esxence
The international exhibition dedicated to artistic perfumery opens today
and celebrates its fourteenth edition

6-9 March 2024
Allianz MiCo Milano Convention Centre | Gate 5 – Hall 4, Viale Scarampo

Milan, 6 March 2024 – Esxence – The Art Perfumery Event, the world’s reference appointment for artistic perfumery, opens its fourteenth edition scheduled from 6 to 9 March 2024 at Allianz MiCo, Milano Convention Centre, within the CityLife District. The event unveils to the community of industry insiders and fragrance lovers the excellence of artistic perfumery: a selection of national and international brands representing the most refined and fascinating olfactory culture.

Esxence features a line-up of 360 brands from 30 different countries, including new entries such as Australia, Korea, Netherlands, Estonia as well as brands from Italy (121), France, Spain, Greece, Austria, Czech Republic, Sweden, Switzerland, USA, UK, UAE, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong, to name a few.

“The success of Esxence confirms the timeless interest in the beauty sector, which finds in Milan an important exhibition reference, able to attract national and international operators, as well as thousands of visitors (for a total of 10.000 in the last edition),” says Barbara Mazzali, Councillor for Tourism, Fashion and Territorial Marketing of the Lombardy Region. “Artistic perfumery is part of the fashion and luxury sector, which are the pride of our region and which, thanks to Esxence, offers a source of inspiration for so many industry insiders. Fragrances bearing the signature of many Made in Italy designers or expressing the essence of a place are frequently showcased in the famous shopping streets. Our cities of art and our lakes are often portrayed through fragrances, which inspire dreams, offering a valuable contribution to our touristic image as well. Generally speaking – the Councillor says – cosmetics finds in Lombardy a very important production site. In fact, more than half of the Italian cosmetic companies are based in our region, between Milan, Bergamo, Crema and Monza Brianza. Districts of beauty, which contribute to 2% of the world’s cosmetics production”.

“Esxence portrays and enhances a sector of excellence and an important supply chain of Made in Italy, that generates occupation, promotes innovation and has a strong reputation on an international level,” says Alessia Cappello, Councillor for Labour and Economic Development of the Municipality of Milan. “Hosting an event like Esxence is an honour for our city and confirms Milan’s mission to be an important capital for artistic fragrances and for the beauty world in general”.

Together with the Main brands, the audience of distributors, buyers, professionals and fragrance lovers have the opportunity to discover the Spotlight brands, emerging and innovative. Most of them (about 70%) come from abroad; this trend confirms Esxence as a valuable platform to showcase on the international scene.

The concept guiding visitors to discover this new edition is METAMORPHOSIS. Perfume is conceived as metamorphosis and natural evolution, from the raw materials that compose the fragrance and change over time, to the sense of smell that gives the opportunity to enjoy new sensory emotions, while all around everything is ever changing. The metamorphosis reflects also the contemporary consumer’s search for new values, where respect for people, environment and nature have become essential. Esxence aims to adopt sustainable thinking in its future path, a new journey to embrace conscious choices and move ahead through the changing times.

Esxence is a place of excellence, insights networking and business. On a worldwide level, the data confirms that the share of artistic perfumery on the global beauty market is close to 2%, but its incidence on the alcohol-based perfumery is steadily increasing, touching points that average around 10% in many countries. In the Italian market, it has reached important levels: in 2023 the turnover volume of artistic perfumery was estimated at more than €310 million euro, corresponding to 2.7% of the Italian beauty business on the domestic market, more than 14% of the turnover of the perfumery channel and just over 30% of fragrance sales. Niche perfumery is pursuing its rapid transformation.

“Esxence celebrates the essence of high-quality olfactory culture and serves as a stage for the most promising brands, thus increasing the olfactory awareness and creating a real new olfactory lexicon. We strive to enhance the whole industry by shaping new trends, offering the best of the world’s artistic perfumery”, says Maurizio Cavezzali, co-founder of Esxence and CEO of Equipe Exibit.

“Moving forward, we aim to consolidate the process of the international expansion in strategic countries, which started in 2022 thanks to the collaboration with ITA – Italian Trade Agency. On occasion of the fourteen edition of Esxence, 39 foreign operators from 14 countries (Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Korea, United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, France, Japan, India, Kenya, Morocco, Mexico, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Qatar, and USA) will be attending. Milan, which in recent years has become the leading capital of artistic perfumery, is the heart of the event. The city also brings the entire national cosmetics and perfumery supply chain into the spotlight through Milano Beauty Week, an initiative that Esxence is pleased to support together with Cosmoprof”, adds Maurizio Cavezzali.

“Since its first edition in 2009, Esxence has become a distinctive international benchmark within the perfumery sector and has contributed to enhance of quality perfumery consumption. Many new companies and activities were created as a result of international connections and we are proud to have offered these opportunities”, says Silvio Levi, co-founder of Esxence and founder of Essencional. “Esxence is a bridge between cultures, stories and creativity: after the successful and well-established collaboration with the American Art&Olfaction Awards, we are proud to host the Minoritè Chinese Artistic Perfumery Awards. With the Essencional Study Centre, we carefully monitor the sector year-round, collaborating with Equipe to coordinate workshops and talks that enrich our editions. These sessions involve analyses and comparisons, featuring opinion leaders and key figures from the industry who actively participate in shaping and influencing the future of this dynamic sector”, adds Silvio Levi.

EXPERIENCE LAB
The Allianz MiCo, Milano Convention Centre also hosts Experience Lab, the event dedicated to beauty research and excellence that connects distinctive brands with professionals in the international perfumery and beauty sector.

THE EVENTS CALENDAR
Esxence strives to foster the highest level of olfactory culture, presenting an engaging schedule of meetings, workshops, and sensory journeys accessible to both professionals and enthusiasts. These events, led by esteemed international experts, scholars, and researchers, feature notable figures such as Annick Le Guérér, Calice Becker, Martina Bianchini and Isabelle Chazot to name a few.

The initiatives delve into contemporary topics, including the perception and diffusion of research perfumery in Eastern markets, with a specific emphasis on the Middle East and China, Artificial Intelligence, sustainability, olfactory education, emerging young perfumers, and sophisticated raw materials. A remarkable talk is the one endorsed and supported by ITA – Italian Trade Agency dedicated to trends and insights in America’s niche fragrance market.

CFF Creative Flavours & Fragrances participates with its own experiential workshop aimed at exploring olfactory accords and unique raw materials.

Once more, Esxence is proud to collaborate with important partners, including: Osmothèque (the International Conservatory of Perfumes), Mouillettes & Co., (specialized in olfaction-related training and consultancy), Accademia del Profumo (which will curate the exhibition Il Profumo Del Cinema @ Esxence 2024 highlighting the connections between perfume and cinema) and Milano Beauty Week, the beauty and well-being culture week.

Esxence express its gratitude to ITA – Italian Trade Agency for its valuable support in facilitating the internationalization process of the event. Additionally, special thanks go to Business France, the French national agency dedicated to fostering the internationalization of the French economy, for its longstanding collaboration with the event.

With the patronage of: Region of Lombardy, Municipality of Milan
With the support of: Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, ITA – Italian Trade Agency
Sponsors: CFF Creative Flavour Fragrances, Les Parfumables
Partner: Business France

Strategic Partner:  Essencional
The Essencional Study Centre was founded by Silvio Levi in 2019 for the purpose of contributing to research and development in the sector of Artistic Perfumery and as the natural evolution of the workshops held at Esxence. In 2019, the Study Centre published “Whispers about Artistic Perfumery”, a study of the online perception of Artistic Perfumery. Essencional launched its own website www.essencional.com in 2020, to publish original content such as interviews with brands, noses and other leading figures and in-depth articles exploring issues of artistic perfumery. Essencional is assisted by an advisory board of Italian and international professionals. Since 2019, Essencional has partnered with Esxence in defining the agenda of events taking place during the exhibition.

The press material of brands participating to Esxence is available here

A selection of Esxence images is available here

Entry free of charge, subject to registration on www.esxence.com

Entrance for operators on the four days of the event. Non-operator entrance on Saturday.
Hours: Wednesday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 6.30 p.m. – (last admission 6 p.m.)
Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. – (last admission 4 p.m.)

Press registration

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