An exclusive journey through the world’s artistic perfumery.
Esxence – The Art Perfumery Event, the world’s leading event for artistic perfumery, has unveiled the events calendar scheduled for its 15th edition, which will take place from 19 to 22 February 2025 at the Allianz MiCo, Milano Convention Centre. For this edition, Excellence Magazine will once again be among the event’s media partners. The event, a showcase for the best national and international fine art perfumery brands (which for this edition will be 384, including 107 main and 277 spotlights, from 38 countries), will be a tribute to the talent and creativity of master perfumers, who allow us to tap into the world of dreams and poetry every day with our sense of smell.
Esxence, which aims to promote the most exquisite olfactory culture, will offer the public of professionals and fragrance lovers an interesting and comprehensive agenda of workshops, presentations and round tables, held by international experts, academics and researchers and produced in collaboration with Essencional, the strategic partner of the event. The conference room will be open to the public for all four days and will provide simultaneous translation in three languages.
The presentations will focus on topics of contemporary relevance, such as: the value of human connections and sensory experiences in a digital-first era (in a presentation by Chiara Bonucci, Beautystreams), the psychology of olfaction (in a presentation by Marta Siembab), the sense of smell as a sense of the future (in a lecture given by Annick Le Guérér and Mariateresa Marsi), to name a few. Givaudan will offer a retrospective on haute perfumery, while Alireza Khazal will talk about the Iranian market. Isabelle Sadoux will introduce one hundred years of modern perfumery and Circana will analyse the topic of niche fragrances in Europe.
Furthermore, there will be an interesting debate on the motivations for a perfumer to work independently or in-house and a presentation on 2025 niche fragrance trends by Fragrances of The World. Within the schedule there will be a panel dedicated to the South-East Asian market and two workshops that will respectively deal with how to position a brand in a very crowded market and how to make it attractive in the sector. Other highly appreciated talks will focus on the development of technologies to measure the emotional impact of fragrances as well as the presentation of Essencional’s survey results on the evolution of artistic perfumery. Discussions about the fifteen years of Esxence and the perfect combination of fashion and perfumes will then be staged.
There will also be the world premiere of ScentDia – a project on olfactory stimuli and robotic presence by the creator Mari Velonaki, in collaboration with the philosopher of science Luisa Damiano. During the event, there will be book presentations (including ‘Olfatti non parole’, written by Maurizio Cavezzali, with a foreword by Silvio Levi and published by Maurizio Sangineto), which will enable the audience to explore themes related to the world of perfume. The Italian Perfumery Institute, a school for advanced training in perfume culture, will illustrate details of its new courses, and Milano Beauty Week – the event organised by Cosmetica Italia, in partnership with Cosmoprof and Esxence – will talk about beauty and wellbeing, as well as being present within the exhibition parterre with its own space. The mAPA Artistic Perfumery Awards will be taking participants on a journey towards China.
For this special edition, visitors will have the opportunity to immerse in unique experiences: in addition to discovering the exhibition dedicated to Bergamot of Calabria curated by Accademia del Profumo and the exhibition on the iconic fragrances of the 1920s curated by L’Osmothèque, they will be able to admire the exhibition ‘È tutta questione di segni’, curated by type artist Stefano Epis. Here, art meets astrology in a unique sensory journey and the signs of the zodiac come to life through the artist’s distinctive language. Twelve works reveal the deepest essence of the zodiac, where each sign is accompanied by a dialogue between image and narration that describes it through elements, scents and spices that capture its soul. Visitors will also be able to attend the perfumed concert entitled Maison Sentire, performed on the piano by maestro Laurent Assoulen, scheduled for Friday 21 February at 2.30 p.m. and Saturday 22 February at 11 a.m.
Last but not least, it will be possible to participate, prior to registration at communication@equipemilano.com in Nose Trip, an outdoor olfactory experience to travel with the nose, guided by Ernesto Collado. As part of Fuori Esxence – a collective, citywide event showcasing initiatives dedicated to the world of perfume – the first edition of Olfactory Signals will take place from February 20 to 22, 2025, in partnership with 10 Corso Como in Milan. This immersive experience explores perfume as an art form, featuring installations where art, design, and creativity converge. In collaboration with artists Illya Goldman Gubin and Sissel Tolaas, the event will present a multisensory installation that invites the public into a dynamic olfactory dialogue. Olfactory Signals will also bring together pioneering brands that uniquely blend fragrance and design, offering a fresh perspective on scent as a creative medium.
