Fragrance: The Story of Perfume from Cleopatra to Chanel

I have recently read a ton of books, and so I was faced with a dilemma - which would my kindly readers prefer to hear about - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows or Fragrance? I chose the latter because Harry Potter reviews already abound.

This text, Fragrance by Edwin T. Morris, is mostly a history of fragrance use and manufacture throughout the ages. It has enough instructive description in it to head one in the right direction should one wish to start creating their own fragrance.

There are descriptions of discovering the various scent extraction techniques from still distilling to enfleurage, detailed enough for you to try yourself. This book also attempts to follow the tracks of the different 'spices' (what the scent sources were called) through the world and how they were "discovered".

There is a good deal of information on the history of Grasse, a current center of the world for perfumers. There are histories of some of the early influential perfumers including Thomas Yardley (lavendars), Jean-Marie Farina, and Pierre Francois Guerlain.

I give this book a hearty thumbs up.

Labels: grasse, perfume, scent

posted by reader kay at 9:05 AM