Author Michael Edwards has released the 2008 edition of his yearly Fragrances of the World, known as “the fragrance bible”.
The new edition lists 5,700 fragrances (815 more than the 2007 edition) classified by fragrance family. It is used by numerous retailers to help customers find fragrances they might like based on the scent(s) they already know and enjoy…
They want something that lasts, and if they get comments about it, that becomes one of ‘their’ fragrances. Men tend to stick to the fragrances they pick up in their youth.
You can tell the age of a man by the fragrances he uses.
— Michael Edwards (author of Perfume Legends), quoted in The minefield of manly smells in The Age.
Michael Edwards is a household name in perfumery. He is the man behind Fragrances of the World (formerly known as The Fragrance Adviser, and now available in book form and online), a critically acclaimed guide for retailers, and the author of Perfume Legends, a standard work on the history of modern perfumery. While there’s some controversy among perfume fans regarding the reliability of the (online) suggestions provided by the Fragrance Adviser, Perfume Legends is universally hailed as a must-have. Of course, good things come at a price, and at $130 US this book is no bargain. I’ve postponed my purchase for a long time, and ended up buying the (much cheaper) French soft cover edition, translated by Guy Robert. My review is based on the latter, but there’s no real difference between the two.
What we have here is a reference book on fragrances that made a mark in 20th century perfumery. The selection is restricted to French feminine fragrances, but that hardly narrows it down (although the wonderful Youth Dew would have fitted perfectly in Edwards’ list). The book features forty-five influential perfumes…
Fabulous Fragrances of the World, the online fragrance database created by Jan Moran and Michael Edwards, is now offering 1 day (24 hour) subscriptions for $19.95. When I posted about Fabulous Fragrances last September, they had information about 4600+ fragrances, now there are over 5000, including new, discontinued and current perfumes.
Next week, Jan Moran and Michael Edwards will officially launch Fabulous Fragrances of the World, their new online system designed to provide comprehensive fragrance information to retailers and journalists.
The heart of the system is a database of over 4600 fragrances…