The Fragrance Foundation of the United States has announced the finalists for the 2009 Fifi Awards, known as the “Oscars of the fragrance industry”. For each category, the original list of 10 semi-finalists is now whittled down to 5 (or more, in the case of a tie). Consumer voting begins on April 27; the final awards will be presented on May 27. And the finalists are:
Women’s Luxe (sold in over 250 doors)
Givenchy Absolutely Irrésistible
Burberry The Beat
Chanel No. 5 Eau Premiere
Gwen Stefani Harajuku Lovers
Estee Lauder Sensuous
Juicy Couture Viva La Juicy
Men’s Luxe
Dior Homme Sport
Dolce & Gabbana The One for Men
Gucci by Gucci Pour Homme
Guerlain Homme
Sean John I Am King
Women's Nouveau Niche (sold in 51 to 250 doors)
Bond No. 9 Andy Warhol Union Square
Chloé Eau de Parfum
Jo Malone Dark Amber & Ginger Lily
David Yurman Eau de Parfum
Ralph Lauren Love, Ralph Lauren
Men's Nouveau Niche
Brooks Brothers New York Gentlemen
Burberry The Beat for Men
Cartier Roadster
Jo Malone Sweet Lime & Cedar
The Essence by Porsche Design
Unique Boutique (Men's & Women's; sold in 50 or fewer doors)
Acqua di Parma Profumo
Karl Lagerfeld Kapsule Floriental, Woody, Light
Chanel Les Exclusifs de Chanel Beige
Lisa Hoffman Japanese Agarwood, Madagascar Orchid
Tom Ford Private Blend Champaca Absolute
You can see the other categories at the Fifi Awards page at MySpace.
US residents can enter a contest to win the best perfumes by becoming a Facebook friend of the Fifi awards before 4 pm on 4/29. Two Fifi Facebook friends will win a Fifi Top 10 Sampler Gift Bag (almost 100 fragrances) and one Fifi Facebook friend will win full sized bottles of the Top 5 nominees. (via press release)
See also: the Fragrance Awards page.
Update: many congratulations to Victoria of Bois de Jasmin, who won the Fifi in the Blog category for her article Scents of Cities : Kiev.
Harajuku Lovers “Luxe”? I guess this grading system is somewhat along the lines of the one we have for petrol that goes “Premium”, “Super Premium” and “Ultimate Premium”…
Luxe is to differentiate from mass market, that’s all…so HL is luxe because it’s sold in department stores.
So I’m trying to understand: Is “mass market” supposed to refer to things you can buy in Walgreens and Rite-Aid?
Exactly…although it’s not entirely black & white since Rite Aid might also sell Shalimar. And some department stores (Sears, JC Penny) carry mass market. But a “mid tier” or high end department store generally won’t carry a mass market product.
IS ALL POLITICAL AND RUN BY THE BIG 5. Robin, sincerely i hope you were nominated and win for blogger.
Kevin & Angela both entered articles (and the award is for a specific article, not for a blog, and as you know TFF included things like Sniffapalooza magazine which is not a blog anyway), but I did not.
I can see where they are going with this classification, but it feels odd to think of my local Boots as anything resembling a “Luxe” retail environment, haha! It also sells mass market, albeit in another part of the store, though I have never seen anyone buy a bottle of Charlie or L’Aimant, or indeed anything from that fixture – most shoppers hover around the “Luxe” end. But to be called “mass”, it must be selling somewhere!
Oh, and can only US citizens vote? If so, as I imagine, I will cast my hypothetical votes here for Eau Premiere, Dark Amber & Ginger Lily and Beige!
I’m sorry but I don’t know…I sort of assumed everyone could vote, but I don’t know anything about it.
anyone can vote— Profumo gets mine as does Chanel premiere. SNIFFAPALOOZA MAGAZINE got 2 of five nominated blog posts… always thought it was a magazine
Sorry, but I don’t see the nominated blog posts anywhere. Where should I look? I went to the frag foundation site and myspace…?
Sniffapalooza announced it on Twitter…I haven’t seen an official announcement anywhere yet.
Just added the winner…Bois de Jasmin!
Good grief, I think most MySpace pages are designed to be a total assault on my senses!
I think the brains of kids under 30 are wired differently from being weaned on that stuff and they’re better able to navigate it, but all I want to do is close sites like that Fifi one as soon as I open it.
Showing my age too: MySpace is nearly unbearable. Don’t know why they don’t also make announcements on the Fragrance Foundation website.
FiFi awards…..
just can’t get over the name!
Agree. But perhaps it is too late in the game for them to change it now…and when they started, don’t think they were after public interest the way they clearly are now.
You know, I think the concept of a ‘blog’ needs to be better defined. Sniffapalooza is effectively an online magazine, and not a blog at all. Slipping on my grouch hat, and much as I respect Victoria’s intelligence and knowledge, I don’t think Bois de Jasmin can really count as a blog when she updates it roughly once every four months, and usually (spot the cynic) only when there’s some publicity stimulus. I know she’s very busy now that she’s no longer a student, but if I were a blogger who generated new material every day, I would feel …annoyed…if someone submitted a piece to a competition on the basis of being one blogger among many. The Kiev piece was from a year ago, but even then she was posting only intermittently. Any of us can own a web address, but that doesn’t make us a blogger, does it?
It is true, Sniffapalooza magazine is not a blog. I don’t define a blog by how often it’s updated though…and since the award is for a specific article & not for overall excellence, not sure it matters in this case?
And since then does quantity matter more than quality? Better a beautiful article once a year than a badly written one every day.
But much better, several excellent articles every day! Quantity DOES matter – one lovely piece a year will probably be seen by exactly one person – the writer – because there will be no readership. No-one will bookmark and visit your site, search engines won’t revisit it or rank it high
Can’t disagree, but the award isn’t set up to reward overall excellence or quantity of output…it’s just for one article, and they did not take things like google rankings or readership into account. You nominate yourself, then a bunch of people in the industry vote on the submissions. It’s an entirely different scenario from something like the Basenotes award for best blog, which comes closer to measuring popularity among consumers.
Well, obviously, Nina. But show me a blog (apart from this one) or a website that has ‘several excellent articles every day’. Haven’t encountered one yet.
Sorry, it decided to post itself before I’d finished!
Blogs are moving past the point of being hobbies – they’re now being seen as influential opinion-formers and effective industry noticeboards. This means that things like blog awards will start to be fought for, and some due diligence will be needed to ensure that competition is fair.
How do you define ‘blog’? Is a blog which is funded and run by a commercial interest the same kind of blog as one run by an independent individual? Is it OK for a blog only to supply new content for the purposes of entering a competition? Should competition entry exclude industry insiders? Should a blog fulfill a readership criteria, measured by hits or registrations?
None of this matters, of course, in terms of enjoying a great blog. But once we’re into a competitive arena with gains to be made (even if only visibility), it matters to me that things are fair.
Hmm…for the sake of precision, I do think they ought to call it a “website” award and not a “blog” award, but speaking for myself personally, none of the rest of it matters to me. Most readers don’t find new blogs via means such as these, and even if they did, you have to ask why consumers looking for an “alternative voice” (still, to me, largely the point of blogs) would be interested in a seal of approval from the fragrance industry, right? The only gain I can see is the personal satisfaction of winning.
Dear Robin,
). Chapeau, my dear!
for what matters I totally agree with Nina.
And I would love to see dedication and hard work rewarded.
And, I will add, I’m glad whenever NST is rewarded because I think it deserves it.
I think the competition should be restricted between active blogs. And I would define “active” upon both update frequency, and scheduling.
You do a great job. You have the best archive. AND You seem totally unbiased and reliable (well except for iris frags!!! –
Zazie, you’re very kind, but I feel like dedication & hard work *is* rewarded…I do not feel slighted in the least. And Victoria wrote a great article, I do not see why she should not win for it.
I’m so glad Tom Ford’s Champaca Absolute made it among the finalists in that category, that is definitely my winner pick there !
It’s nice that they have the new “Unique Boutique” category this year…but interesting that 3 of the picks are designer scents anyway.