Perfume: The Alchemy of Scent
Perfume: The Alchemy of Scent book cover

Perfume: The Alchemy of Scent

Kindle Edition

Price
$11.99
Publisher
Arcade
Publication Date

Description

“(This book) makes you want to run to a perfume counter and test your impressions against the author's romantic rhapsodies." --Liesel Schillinger, the New York Times “(This book) makes you want to run to a perfume counter and test your impressions against the author's romantic rhapsodies." --Liesel Schillinger, the New York Times Jean-Claude Ellena was made Hermès' first “perfumeur exclusive” at Hermès in 2004. He lives and works in the hills in Grasse in France, and designs his scents at his studio in Cabris. “ [This book] makes you want to run to a perfume counter and test your impressions against the author's romantic rhapsodies. ” ( Liesel Schillinger - The New York Times ) --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. Read more

Features & Highlights

  • To women the whole world over, perfume means glamour, and in the world of perfume, Jean-Claude Ellena is a superstar. In this one-of-a-kind book, the master himself takes you through the doors of his laboratory and explains the process of creating precious fragrances, revealing the key methods and recipes involved in this mysterious alchemy.Perfume is a cutthroat, secretive multibillion-dollar industry, and Ellena provides an insider’s tour, guiding us from initial inspiration through the mixing of essences and synthetic elements, to the deluxe packaging and marketing in elegant boutiques worldwide, and even the increasingly complicated safety standards that are set in motion for each bottle of perfume that is manufactured. He explains how the sense of smell works, using a palette of fragrant materials, and how he personally chooses and composes a perfume. He also reveals his unique way of creating a fragrance by playing with our olfactory memories in order to make the perfume seductive and desired by men and women the world over.
  • Perfume
  • illuminates the world of scent and manufactured desire by a perfumer who has had clients the likes of Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Bulgari, and Hermés.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(80)
★★★★
25%
(67)
★★★
15%
(40)
★★
7%
(19)
23%
(62)

Most Helpful Reviews

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Surprisingly good history

It's a strange kind of subject. In fact, it would never occur to me that there's enough of a history of perfume to make a book, but I was quite wrong. There's a lot of back story and Ellena give it all in his book. Since fragrance is his business, Ellena also gives you a sense of how the perfume industry works. I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in business, because Ellena's discussion on the creative process gives a sense of how products are created.

The weakness is in the writing. Ellena is not a skilled writer, and it shows. Yet he did keep and hold my interest. However, a bit more skill at laying out the story would turned this into a great book. Still, it was worth reading and I would reccomend it.
7 people found this helpful
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Perfume

A friend recommended this title but I must have misunderstood. This is the history of perfume making, how to use the senses to develop a fragrance, how the bottles were designed etc. I just was not into the history or chemistry of perfume making. Not what I thought it was going to be.
5 people found this helpful
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Needs a more ruthless editor

The detailed chemistry of perfumery in the first few chapters bogged down the romanticism and could have been saved for later chapters or end notes. Most readers want to hear the inspiration for the most popular fragrances and behind-the-scenes intrigue over stolen formulas, not complex chemistry jargon.
1 people found this helpful
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Mistake...

Not what I expected. Too analytical for me. Didn't realized scent was so technical. Too sciencey for me. Wanted more of a "how-to."
1 people found this helpful
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Perfume

This is a very interesting read about creating perfumes using smelly molecules.