The essentials
The Perfumed Plume Awards are the annual North American recognition program for English-language fragrance journalism, founded in 2015 in New York (United States) and organized under the broader Fragrance Foundation umbrella. The awards honor writing across print and digital formats, including magazine features, newspaper fragrance coverage, books on perfumery, online publications, and long-form blogs. The ceremony is presented annually in New York (The Fragrance Foundation, accessed 2026-05-29).
The program fills a structural gap specific to the North American English-language fragrance writing ecosystem. The British Jasmine Awards, organized by The Fragrance Foundation UK, focus on UK-based journalism. The Perfumed Plume covers the broader anglophone market with a New York base, recognizing fragrance writing at major American consumer publications, dedicated digital platforms, and book-length work. Together the two programs represent the principal recognition mechanisms for English-language fragrance critics and journalists internationally.
Categories include book-length writing on perfumery (cultural, historical, or technical), long-form feature writing in consumer magazines or newspapers, online and digital media coverage, and in some editions, broadcast or podcast fragrance coverage. The jury comprises a mix of fragrance industry professionals, journalists, and publishing figures. Recipients have included authors of significant niche perfumery books and fragrance editors at Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, The New York Times, and similar mainstream consumer publications (Perfumer & Flavorist, accessed 2026-05-29).
Origin and the Fragrance Foundation context
The Perfumed Plume Awards were launched in 2015 to address an absence in the North American fragrance recognition landscape. The FIFI Awards, run by The Fragrance Foundation in New York since 1973, focused on fragrance launches and industry achievement. The Art and Olfaction Awards, founded in 2014 in Los Angeles, focused on independent and artistic perfumery. No program specifically recognized the journalists and critics who covered fragrance for North American audiences (The Fragrance Foundation, accessed 2026-05-29).
The Plume's positioning under the Fragrance Foundation umbrella gives it institutional continuity and access to the Foundation's industry network, which the program uses to assemble its juries and to amplify announcements through trade media. The name evokes the literary instrument of the journalist and signals the program's editorial rather than commercial mandate, distinguishing it from the trade-oriented FIFIs that share the same Foundation parent.
Categories and what they cover
Categories at the Perfumed Plume typically include book-length fragrance writing (cultural, historical, or technical works), feature writing in consumer magazines or newspapers, online and digital media coverage including long-form blog posts and specialist platforms, and occasional categories for broadcast or podcast coverage. The category list is updated periodically to reflect changes in the publishing landscape, particularly the growth of digital and podcast formats over the program's first decade.
A lifetime achievement or special recognition award exists in some editions for significant broader contributions to fragrance culture and writing. This category has recognized established critics and authors whose work over decades has shaped the English-language understanding of perfumery, complementing the annual category awards for recent work.
Jury and selection process
The jury combines fragrance industry professionals, magazine and newspaper editors, publishing figures, and senior fragrance critics. Submissions are accepted from publications, individual journalists, and authors, with eligibility windows tied to the calendar year of publication. The process is editorial rather than blind, with the jury considering the cultural and journalistic significance of the work alongside its formal qualities.
Past shortlists function as informal reading lists of significant English-language fragrance writing from the year. The program's editorial credibility rests on the seniority of the jury composition and the Fragrance Foundation's institutional backing. Winners receive industry recognition that supports commissioning opportunities, book contracts, and editorial standing within the American and broader anglophone publishing markets.
Perfumed Plume versus Jasmine Awards
The Perfumed Plume and the Jasmine Awards together form the two principal recognition programs for English-language fragrance writing. The Jasmines are UK-based and focus on British journalism; the Plume is New York-based with broader North American and anglophone scope. Both cover similar content categories but draw from different geographic talent pools (The Fragrance Foundation UK, accessed 2026-05-29).
Some writers are eligible for both. A British critic publishing in international platforms can be recognized at the Plume; an American author whose work appears in UK outlets can appear in the Jasmine shortlist. The Plume's New York location and Fragrance Foundation backing give it stronger ties to American mainstream consumer publishing; the Jasmines reflect the strength of the British specialist fragrance press and the long lineage of British perfumery journalism. The two programs are complementary, and the writers active across both define the core of the international English-language fragrance critical community.
Why the Plume matters to niche perfumery
Niche perfumery in North America depends heavily on critical and journalistic coverage for consumer discovery. The Plume-recognized writers and platforms include fragrance editors at major consumer publications, long-form bloggers whose writing reaches dedicated niche audiences, and book authors whose work shapes the broader cultural understanding of perfumery. A review or feature by a Plume-recognized writer translates directly into traffic and commercial interest for niche houses (Now Smell This, accessed 2026-05-29).
For niche houses with North American retail ambitions, the journalists and platforms recognized at the Plume are the most actionable editorial contact points alongside the FIFI Independent category. The two programs together cover the commercial and critical dimensions of niche fragrance recognition in the United States.
Book-length recognition and fragrance literature
The book-length category is one of the Plume's distinctive features. Long-form fragrance writing has become a small but visible publishing category, with works covering perfumery history, the lives of individual perfumers, the cultural history of specific materials, and technical or pedagogical treatises. Plume recognition for a book signals critical seriousness and supports book publicity in a market where fragrance titles have limited mainstream review coverage.
Past book recognitions have included historical, biographical, and pedagogical works on perfumery. The category contributes to the broader cultural standing of fragrance literature within American non-fiction publishing, where the segment remains structurally smaller than wine writing or food writing but has grown steadily since the 2010s.
Sources
- The Fragrance Foundation, Perfumed Plume Awards archive and category descriptions. Accessed 2026-05-29.
- The Fragrance Foundation UK, Jasmine Awards archive for comparative reference. Accessed 2026-05-29.
- Perfumer & Flavorist, industry reference articles on fragrance journalism recognition. Accessed 2026-05-29.
- Now Smell This, editorial coverage of fragrance writing and awards. Accessed 2026-05-29.