The Spanish perfume house Eurofragance presented five fragrances at this year’s Beautyworld Middle East (BWME) trade fair. Perfumers from the Spanish company were invited to collaborate with young women Artists on the elaboration of creations that incorporated a visual element and an olfactive one. The five pairs produced five works of art, combining, for instance, a painting and perfume under a single name (e.g., “Euphoria Reef,” “Abstraction No 10”…).
Eurofragance Perfumers, of different nationalities working out of either Barcelona or Dubai, were paired with young women currently studying art or graphic design in the United Arab Emirates, ranging in age from 17 to 21. The tag team duos had three months to deliver five pieces of artwork, which became the focal point of Eurofragance’s ArtLab Gallery, the name for the company’s exhibition space at BWME, an environment meant to foster creative inspiration.
Beyond a Wish to Collaborate, a Desire to Support Young Female Artists
The Eurofragance ArtLab Gallery was a real-life illustration of collaboration that reached across generations, cultures and artistic fields. The fragrance house openly admits that they love working this way, but beyond the pure business angle, lies a more human story—the desire to support culture and especially young women who deserve to be recognized for their talent.
During the three days of the exhibit at the Eurofragance ArtLab Gallery, Perfumers and Artists were on hand to explain their creations, share their passion and exchange with visitors, including clients, colleagues and even the parents and professors of some of the young creators.
Chiara Buongiorno, IMEA Marketing Manager at Eurofragance Dubai said: “The concept we adopted this year to mark our presence at BWME, illustrates how Eurofragance operates and how we nourish ourselves creatively speaking from collaborating with others. This humble approach comes from our founding principles and I feel that the young women Artists we worked with came to appreciate these family values.”
Two of the artists chosen to take part in the event attend Swiss International School Dubai, clearly an educational establishment which puts high value on encouraging its students to pursue their talents and passions.
A Tribute to Creativity
The works of art, the fragrances and a number of singular perfumery ingredients were presented to visitors in an elegant, almost minimalistic art gallery setting. With its clean white walls and natural wood pillars the Eurofragance stand was designed to offer just that to visitors—an art exhibit in a gallery, where the works of art were fragrances, paintings, photographs, sculptures and digital displays. With regards to the fragrances, each creation was presented in a fine fragrance and in a trickle down application such as: a hair mist, an air freshener spray, a reed diffuser, bakhoor and a scented candle.
Visitors could appreciate the works of art while smelling the corresponding fragrance, and at the same time view a short video that provided contextual background on how the pair collaborated and what message they wished to convey in their creations. Buongiorno added: “It was our wish to create a pure, minimalistic exhibition space that would be a tribute to creativity, where one could easily grasp the concept we were presenting. We feel that visitors understood our collaborative approach, which reflects our young, innovative spirit and our desire to be transparent in everything we undertake.”
From Creative Inspiration to Sustainable Perfumery Ingredients
Eurofragance Perfumers can count on the 1,200 raw materials in the Eurofragance global palette, but for the scents they designed for the ArtLab Gallery, they seized the opportunity to create with more singular ingredients. As a result, each of the five fragrances was developed with at least one special raw materials from the company’s ICON Collections. Visitors to the Eurofragance ArtLab Gallery were invited to smell such ingredients in fragrance creations and in their naturally extracted form, and to learn about their sustainability properties. Eurofragance sources its geranium rosat from a farm in South Africa run entirely by women, providing them with economic independence; and procures itself in pink lotus absolute from flowers picked in a controlled, eco-friendly manner by villagers in India.
Antoine de Riedmatten, Global Business Unit Director, Fine Fragrance and the General Manager IMEA of Eurofragance, based in Dubai, and who spearheads the company’s cross-functional sustainability team, was invited to speak at the Next in Beauty conference, which was held during the BWME fair. De Riedmatten stressed that sustainability was part of Eurofragance’s DNA and that related projects are paramount to the company and that all strategic decisions, at the corporate level, are taken accordingly. He further underlined that the company’s size allowed it to move quickly and that, at their scale, they were transforming the fragrance industry for the better. De Riedmatten added: “It was a great opportunity to participate in such a professional roundtable and encouraging to see how so many key players in the industry are moving to greener fragrances and the implementation of meaningful sustainability actions. I see this as healthy and very needed form of competition.”
Given the success the ArtLab Gallery, Eurofragance is planning to take its exhibit on the road and present it in several major cities in Europe and beyond. A road show calendar will be released in the coming weeks.
