Paris Perfume Week takes on a new dimension

Paris Perfume Week reached a milestone in 2026 by moving to the Palais Brongniart, confirming its change of scale. From 9 to 11 April, the event attracted 11,500 visitors, 45% of whom were industry professionals, with 180 exhibitors, 50 conferences and nearly 80 off-site events. Now in its third year, the event has firmly established itself as a key fixture in the fragrance industry, at the crossroads of creativity, innovation and cultural diversity. Among the participants, several houses showcased their expertise through dedicated presentations.

By

Véronique Louis

Cosmo scripts its DNA

For its first participation, Cosmo International Fragrances unveiled "Beyond", an immersive experience designed to take visitors on a journey into the company's DNA. The journey is structured in several chapters, and showcases the company’s history, commitments and vision. It blends exceptional natural ingredients, such as Inca Myrtle and Craftivity^®White Cacao from Peru, or DM Patchouli from Indonesia, with technological innovations, including Cosmo's alcohol-free fragrance solution, AquaElixir^™.

At the heart of the venture, perfumers are given "carte blanche" to express their creativity, reflecting the group’s ambition to combine artistic expression with innovation. The experience continues through conferences, covering everything from new olfactory frontiers to regulatory issues and the evolving nature of the trade. Cosmo's commitment to people, knowledge-sharing and research is evident in this statement, which comes at a time when perfumery is reinventing itself at the intersection of culture, science and new market expectations.

CPL Aromas unveils its sensory palette

CPL Aromas showcases its AromaSpace technology, an exclusive collection of olfactory bases that capture scents from nature and everyday life without altering their sources. Visitors can explore a wide range of accords, from classic fruity notes to bolder compositions such as durian or cannabis, illustrating the company’s creative diversity.

Beyond this immersive experience, CPL Aromas participated in professional discussions at conferences and Smell Talks, emphasising the increasing importance of science and innovation in fragrance creation. Initiatives focusing on new raw materials, particularly those stemming from international collaborations, emphasised the industry's current sustainability and sourcing challenges. At the Bastille Design Centre, CPL Aromas presented Contes & Légendes – Cavalcades, a photographic exhibition in which perfumers Julien Rasquinet and Elise Pierre translated images of horses into olfactory compositions. Enhanced by narration and live piano accompaniment, this true multi-sensory event blended image, sound and scent. The exhibition then continued at the Hôtel Drouot for the entire duration of Paris Perfume Week.

Robertet: A manifesto for tomorrow's naturals

The stand of the Grasse-based company certainly made a lasting impression. Instead of a traditional corporate presentation, Robertet chose to showcase its latest innovations with bold staging, where "waste" is transformed into emotion and scents into texture. Visitors were immediately struck by the unique aesthetic of the space, which was a true manifesto of artistic upcycling. There were flowers made from used perfume blotters — scent strips bearing witness to laboratory research — which had been assembled to create organic structures resembling paper sculptures that still exuded the scents of past trials. There were also enamelled ceramics that echoed the earth. These pieces with vibrant glazes served as diffusion media, trapping the essences only to release them more effectively, before eventually being offered to visitors after being infused with the fragrance of their choice. These installations were an artistic introduction to presenting Robertet’s newly developed raw materials and their interpretation by a perfumer. The house combines technical expertise in sourcing (CleanRscent, CO₂) with the poetry of creation. Thus, with Cyprès CleanRscent, Romain Almeirac envisions a mystical stopover: Cyprès Saint Honorat, while, with Cassisweet, Sidonie Lancesseur explores a modern and sophisticated gourmand accord in All-over Pink.

Symrise reinterprets its heritage as a creative language

On the occasion of De Laire’s 150^th anniversary, the German group goes beyond celebrating its past by putting it to the test of the present. Its historical bases are no longer approached as heritage references, but as active structures capable of engaging with contemporary constraints and aesthetics. Reformulated, adjusted and sometimes reworked, they reveal remarkable plasticity and continued relevance in modern perfumery.

The installation sets four founding accords – Mousse de Saxe, Ambre 83, Prunol and Miel Blanc – against a series of contemporary variations, including Ambre 84, Noir Prunol, Miel Essentiel and Mousse de Saxe 18. More than simple reinterpretations, these compositions highlight the tensions between fidelity and transformation: shifts in raw materials, regulatory constraints and evolving olfactory expectations. Behind these rewritings lies the full scope of reformulation work, expressed not as a technical limitation but as a genuine creative driver.