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Perfume Books

This page lists perfume book reviews and book announcements on Now Smell This. If you're new to the subject, check out Building a fragrance library: five "must-have" books for beginners and Building a fragrance library: five suggestions for advanced readers.

You can find an extensive bibliography of perfume books at Scented Pages.

Last updated on 14 August 2021.

Perfume Book Reviews

The original books are in English unless otherwise noted (all reviews are written in English).

Natural History of the Senses

Ackerman, Diane; A Natural History of the Senses

Aftel, Mandy; Aroma: The Magic of Essential Oils in Food & Fragrance

Aftel, Mandy; Essence and Alchemy: A Natural History of Perfume

Aftel, Mandy; Fragrant: The Secret Life of Scent

Aftel, Mandy; The Art of Flavor: Practices and Principles for Creating Delicious Food

Barillé, Elisabeth; Guerlain

Barillé, Elisabeth and Catherine Laroze; The Book of Perfume

Barnes, David S; The Great Stink of Paris and the Nineteenth-Century Struggle against Filth and Germs

Berwin, Margot; Scent of Darkness

Blackson, Robert; If There Ever Was… a book of extinct and impossible smells

Brown, Kate Lord; The Perfume Garden

Burr, Chandle; Dior: The Perfumes  

Burr, Chandler; The Emperor of Scent: A Story of Perfume, Obsession, and the Last Mystery of the Senses

Burr, Chandler; The Perfect Scent: A Year Behind the Scenes of the Perfume Industry in Paris and New York.

Calvino, Italo; Under the Jaguar Sun: The Name, the Nose

Chabbert, Sabine and Laurence Férat; Rare Perfumes / Parfums Rares

Chapman, Neil; Perfume: In Search of Your Signature Scent

Chuang, Della; KyotEau: Bottled Memories

Classen, Constance, David Howes & Anthony Synnott; Aroma: The Cultural History of Smell

Corbin, Alain; The Foul and the Fragrant: Odor and the French Social Imagination

de Feydeau, Elisabeth; Diptyque

de Feydeau, Elisabeth; A Scented Palace: The Secret History of Marie Antoinette’s Perfumer

Dove, Roja; The Essence of Perfume

Drobnick, Jim (ed); The Smell Culture Reader

Dyhouse, Carol; Glamour: Women, History, Feminism

Edwards, Michael; Perfume Legends: French feminine fragrances

Ellena, Jean-Claude; Journal d’un Parfumeur (French; published in English as The Diary of a Nose)

Ellena, Jean-Claude; Le Parfum (French)

Ellena, Jean-Claude; Perfume: The Alchemy of Scent

Ellena, Jean-Claude; The Diary of a Nose: A Year in the Life of a Parfumeur

Fellous, Colette; Guerlain

Gilbert, Avery; What the Nose Knows: The Science of Scent in Everyday Life

Godfrey-June, Jean; Free Gift With Purchase

Grasse, Marie-Christine, Elisabeth de Feydeau, Freddy Ghozland; L'un des sens : Le parfum au XXe siècle (French)

Grasse, Marie-Christine et al.; Une histoire mondiale du parfum : des origines à nos jours (French)

Groom, Nigel; The Perfume Companion: A Connoisseur's Guide

Hamilton, Denise; Damage Control

Herman, Barbara; Scent & Subversion: Decoding a Century of Provocative Perfume

Herz, Rachel; The Scent of Desire: Discovering Our Enigmatic Sense of Smell

Huysmans, Joris-Karl; Against Nature

Johnson, Jacqueline; Classic Perfume Advertising 1920-1970

Julien, Mariette; L'image publicitaire des parfums (French)

Kaufman, William; Perfume

Kemp, Christopher; Floating Gold: A Natural (& Unnatural) History of Ambergris

Kemp, Percy; Musc (French)

Le Guérer, Annick; Once Upon a Time...Perfume

Le Guérer, Annick; Sur Les Routes de L'Encens (French)

Lyttelton, Celia; The Scent Trail

Malle, Frédéric; On Perfume Making

Malone, Jo; My Story

Martin-Hattemberg, Jean-Marie; Caron

Mazzeo, Tilar; The Secret of Chanel No. 5: The Intimate History of the World’s Most Famous Perfume

McCoy, Anya; Homemade Perfume.

Molloy, Clara & Carine Soyer; 22 Perfumers.

Moran, Jan; Scent of Triumph

Morris, Edwin; Scents of Time: Perfume From Ancient Egypt to the 21st Century

Newman, Cathy; Perfume: The Art and Science of Scent

Nez Magazine; Sentir, Ressentir (Smell, Feel)

Oehler, John; Aphrodesia

Ostrum, Lizzie; Perfume: A Century of Scents 

Pavia, Fabienne; The World of Perfume

Robert, Guy; Les sens du parfum (French)

Robbins, Tom; Jitterbug Perfume

Rose, MJ; The Book of Lost Fragrances

Rose, MJ: The Collector of Dying Breaths

Rosen, Marc; Glamour Icons: Perfume Bottle Design

Roudnitska, Edmond; Le Parfum (French)

Sagarin, Edward; The Science and Art of Perfumery

Scribner, Keith; The Oregon Experiment

Sell, Charles (ed); The Chemistry of Fragrances

Société Française des Parfumeurs; Classification des Parfums et Terminologie (bilingual French & English)

Stamelman, Richard; Perfume: Joy, Obsession, Scandal, Sin

Süskind, Patrick; Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (see also: review of the Perfume movie)

Tessaro, Kathleen; The Perfume Collector

Theophrastus: Enquiry into Plants

Thomas, Dana; Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster

Tonatto, Laura and Alessandra Montrucchio; Storia di un naso (Italian)

Turin, Luca and Tania Sanchez; Perfumes: The Guide

Turin, Luca; Folio Columns: 2003-2014

Turin, Luca; The Secret of Scent: Adventures in Perfume and the Science of Smell

Vigarello, Georges; Concepts of Cleanliness

Vroon, Piet, Anton van Amerongen and Hans de Vries; Smell: The Secret Seducer

Williams, Tessa; Cult Perfumes

Perfume Book Announcements & News

Aftel, Mandy; Fragrant: The Secret Life of Scent (book announcement)

Alavi, Dariush; Le Snob: Perfume (book announcement)

Beaulieu, Denyse; The Perfume Lover (book announcement, Q & A, US edition)

Berwin, Margot; Scent of Darkness (book announcement)

Blodgett, Bonnie; Remembering Smell: A Memoir of Losing — and Discovering — the Primal Sense (link to radio interview, book club)

Burr, Chandle; Dior: The Perfumes (book announcement)

Burr, Chandler, The Art of Scent 1889-2012 (announcement of exhibit catalogue)

Burr, Chandler, The Perfect Scent (book announcement)

Dean, Peggy; Sarbez: The Renaissance Of A Fragrance (brief announcement)

de Feydeau, Elisabeth; Diptyque (brief announcement)

de Feydeau, Elisabeth; A Scented Palace (brief blurb)

Dove, Roja; The Essence of Perfume (book announcement)

Dubrow, Jehanne and Lindsay Lusby (eds); The Book of Scented Things: 100 Contemporary Poems about Perfume (book announcement)

Durruty, Veronique and Patrick Guedj; Afrique en Parfums (brief announcement)

Edwards, Michael. Fragrances of the World 2008. (brief announcement)

Edwards, Michael. Fragrances of the World 2009. (brief announcement)

Edwards, Michael. Fragrances of the World 2010. (brief announcement)

Edwards, Michael. Fragrances of the World 2011. (brief announcement)

Edwards, Michael. Fragrances of the World 2012. (brief announcement)

Edwards, Michael. Fragrances of the World 2013. (brief announcement)

Edwards, Michael. Fragrances of the World 2014. (brief announcement)

Edwards, Michael. Fragrances of the World 2015. (brief announcement)

Edwards, Michael. Fragrances of the World 2016. (brief announcement)

Ellena, Jean-Claude. Perfume: The Alchemy of Scent. (brief announcement)

Fairley, Josephine and Lorna McKay; The Perfume Bible (brief announcement)

Fearnley, Laurence Fearnley. Scented (brief announcement)

Harad, Alyssa; Coming to My Senses: A Story of Perfume, Pleasure, and an Unlikely Bride. (brief announcement, excerpt, Q&A, paperback edition)

Herz, Rachel; The Scent of Desire: Discovering Our Enigmatic Sense of Smell (link to radio interview)

Malle, Frédéric; On Perfume Making (brief announcement)

Moran, Jan; Scent of Triumph (brief announcement)

Nicolaï, Patricia and Jean-Louis Michau; Nicolaï: Parfumeur créateur, un métier d'artiste (brief announcement; French and English)

Osmoz; Paris Parfum: The Fragrance Guide to Paris (brief announcement)

Pasco, Eva. Underlying Notes. (book announcement)

Quintessentially Publishing. Quintessentially Perfume. (book announcement)

Rosen, Marc. Glamour Icons: Perfume Bottle Design. (book announcement)

Stamelman, Richard; Perfume: Joy, Obsession, Scandal, Sin. (link to radio interview)

Tessaro, Kathleen; The Perfume Collector. (book announcement)

Turin, Luca and Tania Sanchez; Perfumes: The Guide (book announcement, link to review in New Yorker, Q&A with, part 1, Q&A with, part 2, quarterly updates, Second quarterly update, Third Quarterly Update, Paperback Version: Perfumes: The A-Z Guide)

Turin, Luca and Tania Sanchez; The Little Book of Perfumes: The Hundred Classics. (book announcement, Q&A, part 1, Q&A, part 2)

Williams, Tessa; Cult Perfumes (book announcement)

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