I received this a couple of days ago and thought it needed to be shared as many times as possible.
Even if only one new person sees and reads this, the message will slowly spread.
Save the independant perfumery
March 19th 2014 – We are perfumers, perfumeries, brand owners. We drive our energy towards creating olfactory beauty and each of us is a key part of this amazing process that turns components into olfactory emotions, futile for some, of the essence for us and our clients.
The recent proposals made by the European Commission, if they become law, threaten to destroy fine perfumery as we know it, an art slowly built for centuries by creators and craftsmen and part of our cultural common good.
This destruction will end up in modifying formulas of mythical perfumes, in restraining the freedom of using key ingredients that are absolutely necessary for a creative high end perfumery (some of these components being used for centuries in our fragrances), in losing a unique know-how and in destroying thousands of jobs.
Our goal is to have our line of work recognized by the institutions and the general public as it is and always have been: a collective cultural good, a pillar of our history, an art which contributes to the beauty of the world.
We want to have the concept of Freedom recognized along the concept of Safety and Precautions and have perfumers free to create, brands free to develop and customers free to choose, our profession being already widely regulated.
Eventually, we intend to inform the general public and the institutions on the reality of our business and our products and communicate as widely and transparently as possible so that they make their choices fully aware and informed.
If you share our values and wish to contribute to saving a perfumery in danger, thank you for signing this manifest. We will inform you on a regular basis about the actions taken and we might also ask you to contribute to the ”think-tank” and our actions.
Truly yours.
Luc GABRIEL/The Different Company infoatthedc.fr – François HENIN/JOVOY
Tagged: EU, IFRA, independent perfumery, perfume thoughts, regulations
All I am - a redhead 
This is a great letter and I’m going to spread it as much as possible. I also read another fantastic letter on Persolaise’s blog a while back. I’m so glad this is being addressed – you’re right – the more people who jump on board, sign up, pass it on, the more of a chance we might have to change things. Thanks for posting.
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Thank you Sally! I think we all should share it as much as we can and like you said, we just might teach the importance of perfume world to our non-perfumista friends as well.
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I am confused as to what “recent proposals” are referred to? I’m assuming this is something to do with IFRA? I completely sympathize with the perfumers, but I think sometimes they do themselves more harm than good when they circulate vague messages promising future transparency. Of some kind. Some day.
Color me confused. 🙂 Please enlighten me, Ines!
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Oh, so you missed the whole new IFRA proposal to limit even more ingredients?
Here is Denyse’s objective take on the whole situation:
http://graindemusc.blogspot.com/2014/02/europe-and-fragrance-allergens-dont.html
It’s not as bad as it sounded initially but it’s not good either.
I must say I don’t understand why is perfume under such scrutiny, I do wish someone would turn their eye to everything that gets put into cosmetics and cleaning products (both when it comes to fragrance and other ingredients as well).
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[…] few weeks ago, Ines of All I Am – A Redhead wrote a post that re-alerted me to the status of IFRA regulations. Normally, when the topic turns to IFRA, I tune out. I tend to think that the regulatory bodies are […]
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[…] few weeks ago, Ines of All I Am – A Redhead wrote a post that re-alerted me to the status of IFRA regulations. Normally, when the topic turns to IFRA, I tune out. I tend to think that the regulatory bodies are […]
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