Some 350 fragrance industry denizens buzzed about Cipriani 42nd Street in New York on Thursday for the 2026 Fragrance Foundation Awards Finalist Luncheon.
The event, a prelude to the annual Fragrance Foundation Awards in June, revealed the finalists across all 18 categories, and awarded winners in five of them.
Among those winners were a number of first-timers to the room, including Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty and Pura, which tied for the Fragrance Innovation of the Year Award. The award recognized Rare’s Fragrance Layering Balms, and Pura’s diffuser oil scented after Pantone’s Cloud Dancer color of the year.
Other newcomers included Blue Meadow Brands — the company behind the recently launched Squishmallows Fragrances line — and Violet Grey founder Cassandra Grey, who last May launched her own extrait de parfum.
“Fragrance has never been more a part of [consumers’] lives — in their daily rituals; for special occasions, memories and so much more,” said Jerry Vittoria, global president of fine fragrance at DSM-Firmenich and outgoing chairman of the Fragrance Foundation, in his opening remarks.
Linda G. Levy, president of the organization, kicked off her remarks with a tribute to the late Kendal Ascher, the Estée Lauder Cos. veteran who passed away earlier this year at age 56.
“He was the quintessential leader of teams, with positivity, inclusion, and, my real favorite attribute of his — the greatest sense of humor,” Levy said.
Among the other winners revealed at the luncheon were Ralph Lauren’s Ralph’s Club New York Eau de Parfum, which won for packaging of the year in the prestige and popular category, and Guerlain’s $880 Exceptional Rendezvous Muguet perfume, which won packaging of the year in the luxury category.
Jerry Vittoria and Linda G. Levy
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Fragrance Foundation
Liberty London’s Lbty Zepherine Eau de Parfum took home Indie Fragrance of the Year, and Editorial of the Year went to factice collector Sudhir Gupta, who penned a story for Rolling Stone titled “What Guerlain’s Shalimar Can Teach About Building a Brand That Lasts 100 Years.”
Honorine Blanc, master perfumer at DSM-Firmenich, was revealed as the 2026 Lifetime Achievement Perfumer, and IFF’s Carlos Benaïm presented fragrance historian Michael Edwards with the Game Changer Award.
In addition to his body of research, Edwards is best known for introducing the Michael Edwards Fragrance Wheel, which designates four fragrance families — woody, fresh, floral and amber — and details the key notes subsets within each family.
“Back in the early ’80s, fragrance was so much smaller than it is today,” said Edwards. “There was no guide that helped you understand which fragrances belong to which family…I had a dream to make it easier for people to find fragrances they would enjoy.”
That guide is still widely used as a framework for understanding the category, by fragrance fanatics and newcomers alike.
