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Exsence Milan 2015

Exsence Milan 2015 9 years ago
Apologies if we already have a thread. If we do I can't find it.

So, I was at Exsence. Here are some bits and bobs from my visit. This is almost the same as a report I posted on Basenotes. I hope you don't mind. There might be something to interest you.

Exsence 2015;
Bear in mind that there were around 160 exhibitors so you just have to target some and dip in where you can. I know that I will have completely missed a lot of great stuff. I would also stress that it is a trade show. It happens to be open to the public for a couple of days but it really is a trade show, visitors are not a priority, which makes the generosity of the following people, in giving us their time, all the more appreciated.

I have three absolute standouts (both in terms of the fragrances AND the people presenting them), and some honourable mentions. Here they are, just in the order that we discovered them;

Masque Milano;
Terrific! I am really blown away by this whole collection, and I also want to tell you that Alessandro Brun, co- founder and creative director, gave me a lot of time and he personally talked me through the whole collection one at a time. He understood that I was genuinely interested and he was informative and very pleasant in return. He gave me samples of the range. Favourites are Terralba and Russian Tea. Meeting him and discovering Masque fragrances was one of the highlights of my visit.

X - Ray Profumo.
(The collection in it's new presentation seems to be called XRX Profumo) An oasis of FUN in a sea of snobbery. They are delightful! There seems to be little written about this brand. I don't know this, but I think that maybe the first launch didn't become that well known? They are being relaunched with a new presentation. But I tell you, the fragrances made us *smile*. They simply smelled great, and for me they stood out amongst some very sombre and serious collections. I think sometimes that we forget that above all perfume is meant to make you feel good! And this collection made my friend and I feel good. Ray Burns complete lack of pretension was so refreshing. Despite being very stylish, and handsome, and having a long history in a very chic business, he was fun, funny, and on the level. I didn't get the name of the woman that was working with him. I wish I had. She was lovely and she had lots to say about the fragrances. I'm looking forward to telling you more about these. And I can do that because they also gave us samples.

Jul et Mad;
I was nearly done in when we decided that we had to stop at Jul et Mad, and I am so pleased that we did. We met both Julien and Madalina and they were charming and lovely. The fragrances are wonderful, elegant, very chic. I absolutely fell for Terrasse a St_Germain, on the spot, and my friend was crazy about one of the others ( I can't remember which one). They gave us each a "love dose" of our favourite, which is a beautifully presented little miniature. I must order samples of the others somewhere so that I can join in a chat about them.

Honourable mentions to;
Bruno Acampora. Lovely friendly women and very generous with their samples which were offered enthusiatically. (not a common occurrence I can tell you !) I can't say much about the fragrances yet but I am really looking forward to trying them at my leisure.

Puredistance;
Very helpful, and interested in customers. gave us lovely little sample sets and brochures which I much look forward to trying properly.

Mark Buxton. Because my friends would kill me if I didn't mention him! I didn't have much time at his stand myself but two of my friends had met him before and were keen to visit his stand again. One of my friends has his whole collection except the new ones and she will definately get those too, and he is a laugh.

Castle Forbes. The Scottish ones that I had never smelled! It turns out they stock them in a place about two miles from my house! Male grooming type. Old fashioned and gentlemanly. I really liked their Fougere, "1445" and I will buy it.

Angelo Pregoni . An honourable mention for Mr Pregoni. I know, I know. Say what you like and yep there was an installation with meat and fish on it, and yep, there was a buzz in the cafe about him. But I can only say that I met him and he was very gentlemanly. He was talking me through his newer fragrances and the concepts behind them. Then the press came to film him and we had to skedaddle out of the frame, but he directed an assistant to continue to attend to us.

Was anyone else there? What was your experience?
9 years ago
Thanks for the scoop! I wasn't fortunate enough to attend but I've been reading about it here and there. Jul et Mad seems to have taken the place by storm, and that X-Ray line sounds so cool! SchaumB wrote an intriguing positive review of "Morphine" ages ago, and I went looking for a US source but couldn't locate one. Hopefully I'll have better luck in 2015. How fab that Ray is so down to earth and refuses to take himself too seriously.

It strikes me as counterintuitive that some of the houses hoard their samples. Shocked Did they expect you to fall in love with the bottles? Lol, how odd, but it sounds as if here were enough generous ones present to make it worthwhile. So glad you were able to go and thank you again for writing up your impressions for us. Smile
9 years ago
Thank you Cryptic. You are most welcome. Do go someday!
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