The winner of the 28th edition of the International Perfumer-Creator Award organised around the theme “Le Parfum, C’est la Fête!” (“Fragrance is a celebration”) is Virginie Armand, perfumer at Argeville, a manufacturer of fragrances and flavours located in Mougins, South of France.
The prizewinner received her award from Patrick Saint-Yves, President of the French Society of Perfumers (SFP), Patrick de Vilmorin, SFP vice president, and Dominique Ropion, chairman of the judges panel and perfumer at IFF.
Virginie Armand described her work as based on keywords like conviviality, lightheartedness and carefree fun. Her initial idea was to evoke sweet candy, making it even lighter by blending it with the tart notes of cola. “Imagine a martini glass in which you mix rum and cola. Then on the toothpick, you put pieces of candy instead of an olive. That gives you an idea of the concepts I wanted to convey in my fragrance.”
Celebrated every two years, the International Perfumer-Creator Award was created in 1957. The winner is selected by a technical [1] and an artistic [2] panels.
For the 28th edition this year, SFP vice president Patrick de Vilmorin chaired an organizational committee including Fabienne Pastor, perfumer at Rochas and winner of the 2004 prize, Francis Thibaudeau, perfumery director at Robertet and former SFP president, and Norbert Bijaoui, perfumer and former SFP president.
From a field of 82 anonymous entrants from 12 different countries, including five Europeans, the technical panel submitted a short list of five finalists to the artistic panel for the final selection.
| CAPSULE BIO: Virginie Armand, Winner of the 2012 International Perfumer-Creator Award Virginie Armand is the daughter of Michel Armand, a respected perfumer who has created functional products for Firmenich, IFF and Takasago. Born in 1981, Virginie Armand works for Argeville in Mougins, France. After earning a degree in organic chemistry at Lyon University and a post-graduate degree in chemical and sensory analysis applied to fragrances, flavours and cosmetics at Le Havre University, she worked at IFF in Mexico for two years (2004-2005), followed by stints with IFF in New York (2006) and Jean Niel in Grasse (2007-2011) before joining Argeville in 2011. |
