I'm thinking I'd like to read something on the subject. It should be enjoyable to read and give me some of the basics of scents - a framework around which to organize my impressions. I'm not looking for advanced biochemistry (though a hint would be OK - if it's only a top note). Any particular recommendations?
Perfume / Cologne books
- Thread starter BarryR
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Your timing is good. Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez's Perfume The Guide just came out on Tuesday in paper back, updated and with some additonal useful stuff in it. Also renamed for some reason Perfumes: The A-Z Guide .
An excellent and entertaining book wih essays at the beginning and a glossary. You will not agree with their every review of every scent, but these folks know what they are talking about, and this book is absolutely as good a place as any to start reading up on scents.
Anything else Luca Turin has written on scents if good. Anything Chandler Burr has written on scent worth reading. Even if it is about a year in the perfume industry it will have lots and lots of great information.
You can also read a bunch of stuff on Basenotes and the stickies that appear on the colognes forum on B&B.
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Thanks.
I noticed the Turin books on Amazon.
Are they mostly reviews of perfumes or more general information?
On a related note: where can I buy a sampler of basic scents (ingredients, not blended perfumes) to get an idea of what everything smells like?
I'd only want enough to sniff.
I noticed the Turin books on Amazon.
Are they mostly reviews of perfumes or more general information?
On a related note: where can I buy a sampler of basic scents (ingredients, not blended perfumes) to get an idea of what everything smells like?
I'd only want enough to sniff.
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Not books, but web sites. Try The Perfumed Court, Aunt Judy's Attic, Perfume Shrine and Fragrance Foundation. Have fun, John
The Perfume Encyclopedia has both, although in your words, it may be "mostly reviews," in that there are many more pages of reviews than there are of essays. But the reviews are really descriptions of each perfume/edt/cologne, with lots on its individual components/accords. So in that respect the entire book is also genuinely general information.
<On a related note: where can I buy a sampler of basic scents (ingredients, not blended perfumes) to get an idea of what everything smells like?
I'd only want enough to sniff.>
That would be a very logical thing for someone to be selling wouldn't it!? You would buy one. I would buy one. I bet lots of folks on this forum would buy one. But I have never seen such a kit type sample or seem such as thing that might be available somewhere discussed. What one does see through BadgerDecants--which is back up and running, that goodness; cheers, Chuck!--and I think through decant vendors like Perfiumed Court is set of small decant of fragrneces by type that are not too, too expensive. For instance, going by memory, one can buy 1 ml each of eight or more masculine lavender based frags, and compared and contrast those to help on figure out what lavender is like in a frag.
Or you can be the cheap jerk-wad that I am and to down to your local health food type store that sells fragrance oils and has testers, and stand around and smell the testers for the various scents for a while. The food coop closest to me, for instance, has racks of little bottles of fragrances oils, I assume for making soaps, candles, scented lotions, and the like, as well as for wearing as scents. Seems to me for something like bergamot, they had three different oils on these racks made by the same brand but of diffent types. One was a less expensive scented oil, which I assume had at least some synthetics to it. A second was a pure natural essential oil. I think the third had a different base like jojo oil or something. Also this store has Provence Sante, which purports to have scent in pretty pure form, including bergamot. I have to say that I was very surprised at the end of sniffing a bunch of scents how different each bergamot was. I am not even sure if I could have guessed that each one was a bergamot.
Maybe it is me, but I expected to get a better sense of what each note is in a scent thant I did.
Other books by Luca Turin and by Chandler Burr have other things go along.
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- #6
Thanks.
I'll try the Natural Food store thing at some point.
Regarding samples / decants, I agree that that's the way to go and have close to 100. One chunk of them is from BadgerDecants, and, I too, am very glad he's back up and running.
I'll be ordering more from him at the first point at which I don't think it's ridicuolous to order more decants!
I'll try the Natural Food store thing at some point.
Regarding samples / decants, I agree that that's the way to go and have close to 100. One chunk of them is from BadgerDecants, and, I too, am very glad he's back up and running.
I'll be ordering more from him at the first point at which I don't think it's ridicuolous to order more decants!
I was in the Le Labo store a couple of weeks ago. They sell a small stylish aluminum case containing around 50-60 small vials of different cologne "notes" in an isolated state (e.g. civet, musk, bergamot, lavender).
It sold for $250 I believe. It was interesting sampling some of the notes alone. (Civet!?!?! Arrrgggghhh).
I've got two of Turin's books. THE SECRET OF SENT is not a breezy entertaining read. Very chemistry based. His just issued perfume guide is indeed very heavy on his reviews, but at $20, I think it's worthwhile.
While no ONE opinion should be anyone's criteria for a frag, Turin has become the most prominent scent critic, and most of the reviews are funny and well written.
Go to Amazon and if you punch in one of Turin's books, you should get some "you might also like" references. Read some of the reviews of the books and you shoudl get some idea if it would interest you.
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$250, eh. I am impressed! 100 samples/decants, I am also impressed, although I have been afraid to count up the number I have. Under 50 I would think, but that is what I "have." What I have been through in samples would bring that number up quiet a bit!
I would be interested in knowing more about any othere books myself. Seems like a paucity of writing in this ares. Turin is sort of a Robert Parker of scents. I have not yet taken a crack at his "chemistry" book.
Yeah, "civet"! Not something you would want in a single note fragrance!
I would be interested in knowing more about any othere books myself. Seems like a paucity of writing in this ares. Turin is sort of a Robert Parker of scents. I have not yet taken a crack at his "chemistry" book.
Yeah, "civet"! Not something you would want in a single note fragrance!
There's a pretty interesting essay on Mama Bear's site by somebody who makes colognes and sells some of them through her site. If you go to her site you can navigate to it pretty easily. It's a start.
Funnily enough, I am wearing the old version of Givenchy Gentleman today. Nothing like a nice blast of civet at 5 am to get the day started.
Two books that I really enjoyed are "The Perfect Scent" by Chandler Burr, and "The Secret of Scent" by Luca Turin. The former details the development and launch of two scents, one in Paris and the other in NYC, I believe. Turin's book explores some of the biological and chemical aspects of scent, told with humor and a wonderful clarity. Previous posters did not apparently care for Turin's book, but as a healthcare person with a strong science background I found it fascinating. It really is not that technical, IMO, and he goes to great lengths to explain the science aspects.
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Yeah, as one note out of many- great. All alone- yikes!
Don' read a dis against "The Secret of Scent" in anything I have posted. I am darn near an LT fan boy, which I sure hope never to come across as. It woud just seem too weird. I just have not gotten around to getting a copy. I am pretty sure I will really like it, even if it is a bit dense compared to his other writing. I just got a copy of Chander Burr's biography of L, which I really look forward to reading. Pretty darn small community of those that write about scent, eh? I thought the "Perfect Scent" was really good too. Like I tried to say earlier, I think regardless of what the topic of any of these books purports to be, i think there is one heck of a lot of information including technical information on scents in each of them. Lots of good information in Perfect Scent.
CB and LT both write very well. I agree with CB a bit less often than I do with LT, and CB seems a bit elitist, but I almost always understand where CB is coming from and why. CB may be a little heavy on the hem clutching in Perfect Scent, by which I mean hero or celebrity whorship, but even so it is great and interesting stuff.
Both LT and CB may also be often in error but never in doubt, but that is entertaining too. I am not sure how controversial LTs scientific theories are these days re scents, but I think what he came up with was pretty radical at the time he first published. I think CB actually has some social theories that might be bit radical, but I have not read any of his stuff on topics other than scents.
It has been a while since I read it but the guy, a oerfumer, who has the I Hate Perfume.com web site (something like that) seemed to have some amazing things to say, that seemed like real insights when I first read him quite a while ago. Almost inspirational!
There is something absolutely delightful to me about civet being and important fragrance buidling block!
It's interesting that you brought this up, Barry. I just ordered 3 books this week. The new Turin book from Barnes & Noble, and 2 used books through Barnes & Noble partners, "Perfumes, Splashes and Colognes : Discovering and Crafting Your Personal Fragrances", which I thought will be interesting to read even though I don't plan on making my own frags, and "The Secret of Scent: Adventures in Perfume and the Science of Smell" by Turin. These will be the first books I've ever read on fragrances.
I tried sniffing the EO's at the Whole Foods store recently, and got some ideas about single notes, but am not sure how helpful this is by itself. I notice some similarities between some frags that don't seem to have common notes, and others that do have several common notes which would seem to indicate that they should have some recognizable similarity don't seem anything alike. But this all just makes frags that much more fascinating to me.
You can probably find a lot of the notes in places like whole foods, but many of the notes that go into frags seem like they might be pretty tricky to find.
Civet, musk, ambergris, petit grain, styrax, bergamot, birch tar- those are the kind of notes that seem pretty cologne industry specific. Not sure how east it would be to find some of those. In a big city, there's probably somewhere to find them.
Civet, musk, ambergris, petit grain, styrax, bergamot, birch tar- those are the kind of notes that seem pretty cologne industry specific. Not sure how east it would be to find some of those. In a big city, there's probably somewhere to find them.
Bethesda Food Coop, where I was, had an amazing number of oils whose names I recognized from scents, and like I said, often in several varieites, but not everything typical of scents. Of the above, they had lots of musk and bergamot. And they had lavender, parchouli, neroli, frankensence, myhrr, vertvyr (however you spell it!), rose, jasmine, a bunch of sandalwoods, a bunch of other florals. I am blanking, but a some other scent names that begin with v, oakmoss, ying yang or whatever that stuff is, on and on really. You really do not want any civet, but if you want to smell it, see if your significant other has any "Joy."
And each version of a particular one note scent might smell very differently. It was not as useful as I had hoped, but it was fun.
