The shortlist for this year’s FiFi UK Best Niche Perfume award has just been revealed on Basenotes and it features a few of my favourite releases of 2010.

Here’s the list:

Absolue Pour Le Soir from Maison Francis Kurkdjian
Aventus from Creed
Empress Of India from Essentially Me
Orange Star from Tauer Perfumes
Portrait Of A Lady from Editions De Parfums Frederic Malle
Ruth Mastenbroek from Ruth Mastenbroek
You’ll see from the links above that three of the nominees have already been reviewed here on Persolaise.com. As far as the remainder is concerned, I don’t know the first thing about Empress Of India so I can’t pass any comment on it. Ruth Mastenbroek’s eponymous scent is, in my opinion, a full-bodied composition with considerable presence, but it also comes across as rather old-fashioned with a drydown that seems to focus excessively on coumarin. Aventus is what I’d call a niche version of Bleu De Chanel: fairly competently put together, but overly reliant on thin synthetics. It’s generic and ultimately quite unnecessary.

If you’re a UK-based Basenotes member, please do consider voting for this award. It’s one of very few chances that consumers and perfume-lovers are given to send a message to the industry about the fragrances which we consider worthy of praise and recognition.

If you’re not based in the UK, you still get to take part, because Grant Osborne has also opened voting for the 2011 Basenotes Awards. Categories include Best Fragrance Of All Time, Best Fragrance From 2010, Best Online Retailer For Fragrance and… ahem… Best Fragrance Blog.

Voting closes at midnight GMT on 6th April.

Get your thinking caps on!

Persolaise.


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4 thought on “NEWS – Voting Open For UK FiFi & Basenotes Awards”
  1. Thanks for the heads up Persolaise. Quite a good list there. Of those I've tried Absolue, Orange Star, Portrait of a Lady and Aventis.

    Absolue is my absolute favourite. Love it. I like your summing up of Aventis. It's so true. I personally found it totally forgettable, but then I am not a massive fan of the more recent Creeds.

  2. Hi Michael.

    Absolue Pour Le Soir would certainly be a worthy winner; I've made my opinion of it quite clear on this blog.

    And as for Creed, well the house has a very loyal following, so I expect Aventus will do pretty well in the votes… rightly or wrongly…

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