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Scent of Excellence: The Asia Perfume Awards 2025 Ceremony
The Asia Perfume Awards 2025, hosted by the Asia Perfume Foundation, celebrates the artistry, innovation, and cultural resonance of perfumery across Asia. The 2025 awards will commend exceptional contributions in key categories, including Emerging Perfumer Award, Emerging Perfume Brand Award, Niche Perfumer Award and Niche Perfume Brand Award.
The Asia Perfume Awards 2025 was successfully held on 12 November, and congratulations to all the winners.
Emerging Perfumer Award
SAKUL PAWASUTTIKUL (THAILAND) - TINI TINI
AZEEZ AKASAH (MALAYSIA) - ETHEREAL MANTIN
Emerging Perfume Brand Award
WREN ATELIER (PHILIPPINES) - SMOKY GOURMAND
LIBERTA PERFUME (JAPAN) - FRUCTUS
Niche Perfumer Award
SUCHIN KAWUDON (THAILAND) - KALI GIRL
Niche Perfume Brand Award
D’ANNAM (VIETNAM) - MATCHA SOFT SERVE
Thanks for flying over to Hong Kong for attending the award ceremony, and nonetheless the efforts of all judges are largely appreciated.
Venue Partner 2025
Award Partner 2025
Meet the Judges
APF Asia Perfume Awards 2025
Erica Moore
Head of Evaluation, Fragrances of the World
Erica Moore is Head of Evaluation at Fragrances of the World, working alongside fragrance authority Michael Edwards since 2003 and serving as his full-time evaluator since 2010. In this role, Erica leads the global collection and evaluation of fine fragrance launches, building strong partnerships with brands, perfumers, and fragrance houses to ensure the accuracy and depth of the industry’s most trusted fragrance classification resource.
With over two decades of experience, Erica brings a unique birds-eye view of the fragrance world - spanning markets, creative processes, and olfactive trends. Her work is grounded in an understanding of fragrance composition and raw materials, supported by a global network of evaluation professionals. She is known for her collaborative approach and her ability to work intuitively across the fragrance development lifecycle.
Pissara Umavijani
Founder and Perfumer, Parfums Dusita
Pissara Umavijani is the founder and perfumer of Parfums Dusita, an award-winning haute parfumerie based in Paris. Inspired by her Thai heritage and the poetry of her late father, Montri Umavijani, she creates fragrances that marry the French tradition of fine perfumery with a spirit of poetic freedom. Since launching the house in 2016, Parfums Dusita has gained international recognition, receiving several prestigious awards and the heartfelt appreciation of perfume lovers worldwide. Each creation reflects her belief in “Happiness in a Scent” and her passion for crafting perfumes that bring joy, beauty, and connection.
TOMOO INABA
Perfumer for Zoologist
Journalist for Profice
Tomoo Inaba is a Japanese perfumer and fragrance journalist who has been shaping the world of scent for over two decades. Since 2003, he has run profice, a pioneering online portal dedicated to fragrance culture in Japan, have been reviewing over 7,500 perfumes. From 2009 to 2016, he hosted perfume making classes, introducing many to the art and craft of perfumery. Not only niche market fragrances, also he has knowledge of vintage historical fragrances as vintage collector.
In 2016, he created international recognition for composing Nightingale for Zoologist Perfumes. Beyond creation, his passion for fragrance has taken him to essential oil producers/farmers across the globe—from India to Madagascar to Réunion Island—while also attending and reporting on leading fragrance exhibitions annually since 2007. The latest creation is Orchid Mantis for Zoologist, released on the end of May.
GARY CHIN
Hong Kong Perfume School
Educator
Gary Chin is one of the most influential figures in the Asian scent creation community. In 2015, he founded the Hong Kong Perfume School—the first and only training center in Hong Kong and Taiwan open to all professionals in the perfume industry. To date, over 1,500 students have completed professional certificate courses through the school.
Beyond training fragrance consultants and nurturing a new generation of perfumers, Gary also provides entrepreneurial guidance, job referrals, and brand development consulting for independent perfumers and perfume houses.
Currently, Gary serves as the President of the Hong Kong Perfumery Association and President of the Asia Perfume Foundation, playing a key role in connecting and cultivating the fragrance community across Asia.
YEN HUYNH
Perfumer – Co-founder of MetaScent
Founder of Olfactory Odyssey
As one of the pioneers in scent creation and education in Vietnam, Huynh Hai Yen has helped pave the way for a new generation of perfumers, where fragrance is not merely a product, but a form of artistic expression and emotional dialogue.
She is the co-founder of MetaScent, a fragrance house based in both Melbourne and Vietnam, known for its unique approach that blends olfactory science, artistry, and local cultural narratives. Her four Vietnamese-language books on perfumery serve as foundational resources, bringing in-depth fragrance knowledge to a wider Vietnamese audience.
In her roles as a judge for the Asia Perfume Awards 2024 and the founder of Olfactory Odyssey, she contributes not only through scent creation but by fostering a creative, educational, and collaborative ecosystem around the art of fragrance.
Her works have been recognized and showcased at prestigious international events such as Paris Fashion Week, Melbourne Fashion Week, Esxence Milan, and Beautyworld Middle East—offering a distinctive Vietnamese perspective to the global fragrance landscape.
Sébastien Plan
Professeur at ISIPCA
Founder and Perfumer of ABSTRACTION Paris
Graduated from ISIPCA in 2007, he learned his trade at Robertet in Grasse, particularly in the ingredients division, where he acquired expertise in natural raw materials, which would subsequently become a signature in his creations.
In 2014, he joined the Cosmo International Fragrances perfumers team in Switzerland for a year before going back to where he grew up, Paris.
In 2016, during his six-month stint in L'Oréal's olfactory department for the brand Armani, he met Maxime Garcia-Janin. Maxime was about to create the digital perfume brand "Sillages Paris." For this project, he asked Sébastien to take charge of the olfactive direction. Sébastien decided to gather a team of perfumers to feed the collection. They are three perfumers he knows very well since they started out together in Grasse: Amélie Jacquin, Alex Lee, and Mylène Alran.
Watching Maxime's entrepreneurial journey fueled Sébastien's feels he should acquire new skills, more business-oriented. He decided to return to school and enrolled at ESSEC Business School in 2018.
At the same time, eager to take the pulse of the field by interacting with perfume users, he took a position as a store salesperson at Atelier Cologne, and six months later, as director of the historic St. Germain boutique at Le Labo.
In 2020, he got his Master's degree in "Strategy & Management of International Business" from ESSEC Business School, and eventually had all the tools he needed to launch his own brand.Sébastien called back the team of perfumers with whom he started Sillages and asked Alexandra Carlin (whom he also met in Grasse during their early days) to join them.
After a development fraught with setbacks related to the pandemic, ABSTRACTION Paris started in June 2022 in the boutique at 22 rue Houdon in Montmartre with a collection of ten fragrances composed by its five perfumers.
In addition to his perfumer career and as a founder of ABSTRACTION Paris, He is also a teacher at ISIPCA for APF graduates in 2025.
Emerging Perfumer Award 2025
TOP 10 FINALISTS (IN RANDOM ORDER)
ANG NGO (VIETNAM) - MATCHA SOFT SERVE
ASHEK ZUBAYER (AUSTRALIA) - AMBROSIA
MINAKO YONEMITSU (JAPAN) - MORINOSEIREI
RUTIMA CHANBANGYANG (THAILAND) - JUNGLE CANVAS
HILARY SCHOFIELD (AUSTRALIA) - THAMNIC
SAKUL PAWASUTTIKUL (THAILAND) - TINI TINI
HERMON NG (INDONESIA) - FRAGRANT RICE
MORRIS T. H. (MALAYSIA) - GUIWOOD
AZEEZ AKASAH (MALAYSIA) - ETHEREAL MANTIN
KANCHANAPA SATHIRACHAWAN (THAILAND) - GOLDEN SUNSET
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Niche Perfumer Award 2025
TOP 10 FINALISTS (IN RANDOM ORDER)
RENATO JR LOPENA (PHILIPPINES) - ANNAPURNA PARFUM
SUCHIN KAWUDON (THAILAND) - KALI GIRL
HIU YAN JENNIFER LAM (HONG KONG) - HECTOR - THE HIPPOGRIFF
JOHARI KAZURA (SINGAPORE) - JASMINE DRAGON
ARRON JAN PATAWARAN (PHILIPPINES) - YSVEN RUM COLA
JUSTIN JAMES (AUSTRALIA) - MOONSCAPE L’EAU PARFUM
OSCAR III MEJIA (PHILIPPINES) - DIWATA EAU DE TOILETTE
ARFAN RAMLI (MALAYSIA) - RAMPAI NOIR
SHALE ALBAO (PHILIPPINES) - SCANDALOUS
DAIKI YAMANE (JAPAN) - NIVALIS
Emerging Perfume Brand Award 2025
TOP 10 FINALISTS (IN RANDOM ORDER)
WREN ATELIER (PHILIPPINES) - SMOKY GOURMAND
BENTALA FRAGRANCES (INDONESIA) - SACRED SUMMIT
HART + HEDI (AUSTRALIA) - COASTAL FEVER
BAHFAMSN FRAGRANCE (MALAYSIA) - GUAVA NOIR
PHUTAWAN (THAILAND) - JUNGLE CANVAS
LILOU STUDIOS (VIETNAM) - TEA FOR NO ONE
SAD GIRL SCENTS (PHILIPPINES) - THRIVING TITA
L'CLOCHE (THAILAND) - CONSTANTINE
LIBERTA PERFUME (JAPAN) - FRUCTUS
SIRODOM PARFUM (THAILAND) - LOVE REFLECTION
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Niche Perfume Brand Award 2025
TOP 10 FINALISTS (IN RANDOM ORDER)
D’ANNAM (VIETNAM) - MATCHA SOFT SERVE
ARTEPOLÉ (THAILAND) - EAU DE TENDERNESS
BYERMIA FRAGRANCE (AUSTRALIA) - PUSHPAK
GYPSY AROMA (HONG KONG) - 000 - SIGNATURE
YSVEN (PHILIPPINES) - YSVEN RUM COLA
OSCAR MEJIA III (PHILIPPINES) - LIMINALITY EAU DE PARFUM
PERFUMERS’ JOURNEY (THAILAND) - HAVANA BY NIGHT
FUSE KUALA LUMPUR (MALAYSIA) - FRACTURE
TADHANA (PHILIPPINES) - REBEL
MAISON D. AZEEZ (MALAYSIA) - CLASSY ROMPIN