The 28th edition of the Fragrance Foundation France Awards, which went digital this year with a virtual ceremony, highlighted the work of glassmakers Pochet du Courval, Verescence and Bormioli Luigi in the best bottle category.
In the Professional Awards (voted on by the industry) for Selective Perfumery, the best bottle for a men’s fragrance went to Jean Paul Gaultier’s Le Beau. Lancôme took home first prize for the best women’s fragrance bottle with Idôle, which also won a Formes de Luxe Award last year.
Best Men’s Bottle Design – Jean Paul Gaultier Le Beau
Designed by Marc Ange of Studio Ange, the brand’s iconic male torso in a deep green is adorned with a gold vine leaf at the base of the flacon. Pochet du Courval and Verescence were the glassmakers on the project, which required perfectly calibrated tooling to master the distribution of glass on the bottle’s multiple reliefs and angles. The vine leaf was pad printed in gold, and the flacon was refired to further enhance the male torso shape.
Best Women’s Bottle Design – Lancôme Idôle
Designer Chafik Gasmi (Studio Chafik) took inspiration from a smartphone for this bottle. Idôle’s refillable flacon is just 15mm thick - a first in the world of perfumery. For the glassmakers on the project (Pochet du Courval for the 50ml and 75ml and Bormioli Luigi for the 25ml and 50ml) the challenges were manifold in attaining an even distribution of glass and the thin walls given the flat base and square shoulders. A thin golden aluminum frame (Qualipac) surrounds the bottle.
JPG Le Beau also won Best Men’s Launch in the Consumer Choice category. Best Women’s Launch went to Lancôme Idôle, which was also crowned the winner for Best Women’s Launch in the Professional Awards category.
The Fragrance Foundation France Awards handed out a total of 13 prizes, including the new Responsible Innovation Award, which went to Bastille Parfums’ Bataille scent, created by Nicolas Beaulieu of IFF.
The trophy for the Awards was created by glassmaker Steklarna Hrastnik and packaging manufacturer Quadpack; the design of a totem of fragrance bottles was the work of designer Sylvie de France.
The final piece, 800g of “clear and transparent glass that was easily pressed into thick shapes” is carved in relief on both the front and the back panels. At the bottom of the trophy, a block of wood (ash) acts as a stopper, creating an inverted bottle of sorts.
