I finished reading Luca Turin's book, The Secret of Scent: Adventures in Perfume and the Science of Smell -- interesting and demanding reading... lots of chemistry in it, and not chatty like Chandler Burr's book. Nevertheless, I found it compelling and worthy of reading (especially after first reading Burr's The Emperor of Scent.
NOW, I'm busily reading Chandler Burr's newly-released book, A Year Behind The Scenes (of the perfume industry in Paris and New York). A-mazing! In the same way that Burr opened the doors to scents and how they are/might-be smelled, he now opens the doors to how two scents are created: one, an in-house scent (Hermes); the other, a "celebrity scent" (Sarah Jessica Parker's Lovely, from Coty).
Again, highly recommended reading. Here is an excerpt, in which Chandler Burr expresses his feeling about Hugo Boss's Number One:
If a cat had morning breath, then ate kibble, then licked its anus, then licked your hand, and if you then smelled your hand,
it [Number One] would smell like this.
it [Number One] would smell like this.
Fascinating. I have two kittens... you do the math. Fortunately, they both brush their teeth before going to sleep.
I must be missing something.
