I personally like Perfumes The A-Z Guide by Turin
I have seen a plethera of books on fragances, but I prefer to learn the basics and work my way up even in choosing the right frag book. What is the one you would recommend I start with?
I personally like Perfumes The A-Z Guide by Turin
Essence and Alchemy: A Natural History of Perfume by Mandy Aftel
I think the frag blogs today are better than any one book by far, but "Perfumes: The Guide" is cheap and has some good info.
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A blogger ("Persolaise") who also writes for Basenotes has written a basic sort of guide book called Le Snob: Perfume, which is part of the Le Snob series. It's being published this month:
Basenotes article about it:
http://www.basenotes.net/content/127...-Dariush-Alavi
On Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Snob-Perfume-L.../dp/1742704689
His blog post about it:
http://persolaise.blogspot.co.uk/p/le-snob-perfume.html
Turin & Sanchez's Perfumes: The A-Z Guide is informative and an entertaining read, even if one doesn't agree with all their opinions on the perfumes.
On Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Perfumes-The-G.../dp/0143115014
Their more recent book, The Little Book of Perfumes: The Hundred Classics, updates reviews. I have not read this one, but understand a number of perfumes formerly praised were downgraded due to reformulations.
Review of this book:
http://perfumeshrine.blogspot.com/20...rin-tania.html
On Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Little-Book-Pe.../dp/0670023108
A big Turin Sanchez fan here too. A comprehensive, funny, and opinionated list of reviews (with whom I am in agreement most of the times). Be aware that the reviews are fore pre-2010 perfume formulations, and in 2010 there were several reformulations due to restrictions, so that not all frags are as good anymore as they appear in the book (and in fact, they have a follow-up 2011 book on the top frags, where many of them are downgraded)
Roja Dove Essence of perfumes is more general intro for beginners. It has some reviews, which are nowhere near as informative as Turin's, but it has also general chapters on the history of perfumes which are useful.
cacio
Just a warning, despite what the authors claim, their opinions on fragrances are very much biased (its clear they have a heavy preference to "classic" style scents based on memories, though they explicitly state they don't do that). I'd hate for you to discount a ton of great fragrances because of a rating (personally bn reviews are much more insightful and accurate).
Perfume: The Art and Science of Scent by Cathy Newman is a good book for beginners.
I found Perfumes - The Guide by Luca Turin & Tania Sanchez informative; however, the crassness and subjective opinions, which comprise a majority of the writing, leave much to be desired.
Perfumes The A-Z Guide by Turin
1. Dior Homme Original
2. Musc Ravaguer
3. Portrait of a Lady
4. Noir de Noir
5. L Instant Guerlain pour Homme Extreme
6. New Haarlem
7. Pure Coffee
8. Blu Mediterraneo Sicilian Almond
9. Rose 31
10. Spiritueuse Double Vanille
I recommend ( cacio beat me to it):
The Essence of Perfume by Roja Dove.
An excellent coffee table book which gives not just the basics of note appreciation, but also traces the development of the fragrance industry and showcases quite a number of classic perfumes with some nice pictures thrown in for good measure.
It's definitely more accessible though it's not half as much fun as Turin & Sanchez's tongue-in-cheek A-Z Guide.![]()
"Your fragrance with a fume of iodine" L. Cohen
Turin/Sanchez, no doubts. Fragrances are very subjective and meant to be so.
Not as much a book, but far more the series of fragrance articles signed by Turin. They might seem rather elitist, nerdy, twisted humorous, exclusive etc. at first, but once one gets used to this man's style, I think there is so much in terms of sheer facts, combined with constructive criticism/constructive assessment, wit and a tremendous sens of stylishness and still not losing the focus on pretty much almost any given scent.
Definitely Turin/Sanchez. I LMAO'd several times and, while I really don't agree with around 1/2 of the ratings, I believe it's incredibly informative.