As I walked back to my hotel room, through the Manadalay Bay casino, at the end of Day 1 of Cosmoprof North America I realized my thought processes on “the world of fragrance” that according to my logo I like to muse upon had expanded. My HQ for the exposition is the cross roads right inside the entrance where the Discover Scent exhibition is set up. Up and down two crossing aisles are a curated selection from the women behind Sniffapalooza; Karen Adams and Karen Dubin.
For the first part of the day I spent time at the Sniffapalooza booth and talking a bit with the other brands in the Discover Scent section. What I saw was the most diverse international crowd I have seen at an exposition. It is also the largest by a lot. It is an interesting experience to see fragrance in the form of perfume playing a smaller part. Even with that reduced footprint there was constant interaction. I spoke with attendees from every continent except Antarctica. They also had very different ways they want to use scent for the consumers in their countries. This new perspective would be reinforced as I wandered around the show floor.
The Sniffapalooza booth on Day 1
There are two other curated sections similar to Discover Scent; Discover Green and Discover Beauty. As I walked through them I was struck at how much a factor scent was for these brands.
Discover Green is as you might imagine the section highlighting the eco-conscious natural and organic brands. It could also be subtitled Discover Millennials. It was very clear that the products were aimed directly at that demographic. Nearly every product was scented according to aromatherapy principles. There is a clear desire to use the natural oils which have a cleaner profile. It means there was citrus, lavender, rose, and most unusually avocado. I realized those scents have become an important part of the natural/organic brands. Seeing it all in one place it brought home something I had never put together which in hindsight seems obvious.
Walking in Discover Beauty which gives the opportunity for small entrepreneurial brands a chance to participate in Cosmoprof. In the hair and nail categories scent wasn’t as important. Skin care was another thing. There were choices to make some products smell “serious” by eschewing additional scent. Most of these products touted a new ingredient. There seems to be a thought that you need to smell that ingredient without having some more usual floral ingredient masking it out. It made me consider if the scent of “serious” actually makes an impression on consumers.
By the time I returned to Discover Scent the announcement that the convention hall was closing for the day rang out over the loud speakers.
Tomorrow I will be spending more time with the exhibitors in Discover Scent returning to my more traditional part of the “world of fragrance”
Until tomorrow Colognoisseur has left the building.
–Mark Behnke
