Some ideas for perfumes come to [Dawn Spencer] Hurwitz as fast, middle-of-the-night flames of inspiration, but others start as sparks, simmering over the years as she thinks about the themes she wants to explore. For her recently-released scent Onycha, she began looking for materials in 1993. She had found many scents with the label of Onycha, named for a fragrance mentioned in Middle Eastern texts, Calvinistic texts and the Bible. [...] So she set off in search for the perfect mix that balanced ancient aromas of musk, smoky smells of incense and oceanic odors of a pleasant-smelling shellfish. After years of formulating the perfume in her head, she finally released the scent in 2015, more than 20 years after the idea first came to her.
— Read more at Making scents: How Boulder-based perfume artist Dawn Spencer Hurwitz crafts fragrances at Boulder Weekly.
What a terrific article. So much information and so interesting. I wish there was a book comprised of interviews with perfumers from around the world, covering their inspiration, craft, perfume catalogue, introduction to perfume making etc. a beautiful hardback, ten to fifteen perfumers….I think it would work.
It doesn’t fill all your requirements, but still, you might like:
https://nstperfume.com/2014/01/20/22-perfumers-22-parfumeurs-by-clara-molloy-carine-soyer-perfume-book-review/
Thank you for that