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Perfume: In Search of Your Signature Scent ~ book review

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I understand the subtitle of Neil Chapman’s1 new book Perfume: In Search of Your Signature Scent. Bookstore browsers will weigh the book’s satisfying heft and eye its vaguely 1970s-does-Deco cover and gold-edged pages. They’ll think, “I’ve always loved perfume, but I’ve never found The One. Anaïs Anaïs was great for senior prom, but maybe it’s time to find a perfume to express the real me.” They’ll leaf through the book’s beautifully designed pages with their two-color images, scan a few dreamy descriptions, and plunk down a credit card.

Then they’ll be overwhelmed. Perfume is a book for the initiate, for someone who understands fragrance basics and wants to read about scent the way music lovers peruse opera scores…

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The daily lemming

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Nez, the biannual olfactory magazine, has published Volume 6. "The sixth edition of Nez focuses on the ways in which fragrances impact our physical and mental well-being in a special feature entitled Mind & Body with contributors ranging from Dephine de Swardt to Denyse Beaulieu examining everything from the nose’s ability to detect disease, the burgeoning field of aromachology (the study of how odors influence the mind) and how our taste in perfume can provide a window into our subconscious desires." Plus, our own Angela has an article on niche line Neela Vermeire Créations. $24 at Fumerie or Luckyscent.

A one-of-a-kind fragrance

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In updating the historical story, this six-part season also gets a detective show twist, with a group of investigators looking into the death of a singer. What they find is a group of one-time school friends, at least one of whom stumbled into the practice of using human scents as the basis for making a one-of-a-kind fragrance. An unexplained death quickly turns into a psychological dive down the rabbit hole of an obsessive killer.

— The new version of Perfume opens on Netflix in late December. Read more (and watch the trailer) at ‘Perfume’ Trailer: Human Scent Murder Mystery Gets Netflix German TV Treatment at Indiewire. You can read our review of the 2006 movie here, or of Patrick Süskind's novel Perfume here.

Homemade Perfume by Anya McCoy ~ book review

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Are you crafty? Me, neither. But I love talking to people who make things. Once I happily spent half an hour listening to a stranger explain how to transform a thrift store needlepoint canvas into a tote bag, and now I have an adorable vintage needlepoint of a cat and a bird, half a yard of upholstery velvet, and pagoda-printed fabric waiting to be made into that perfect bag. Will it happen? I doubt it.

Similarly, as much as I love perfume, I’ve never had the yen to make my own fragrances. It’s fun to learn about, though, and exploring the fine points of techniques such as enfleurage and distillation gives me a keener appreciation for the perfume I wear. If I ever were to tackle a tincture, Homemade Perfume by pioneering natural perfumer Anya McCoy of Anya’s Garden is where I’d start…

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