Essence and Alchemy: A Natural History of Perfume

This just might be the best overall book on fragrance ever, ever written. It is of essential interest to the reader interested in perfume at most any level, from the connoisseur to the designer to the fabricator to the consumer. Mandy Aftel persists in creating perfumes from "all natural" ingredients, after "the trade" now relies on synthetics and scent enhancers and linear construction, even in the most expensive concoctions. And, here we're talking about QUALITY perfumes with history behind them, not new age, "go with the glow" infusions that are often a little reminiscent of the compost heap after the rain. For the general reader, Aftel references the history of fragrance preparation, from ancient times, through alchemists perfumery, to the great age of the perfection of the art in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. All the traditional ingredients are itemized, from essential incenses and oils used as the "base" to the citrus and floral essences used for the "heart" or middle notes, to the delicate and short-termed finishing high or "head" notes. The properties of each are well explored. More interested readers will be delighted to learn more about the character of what is going into their favorite perfumes and what combines and what doesn't. The reader considering dabbling in perfumery, will find this to be an excellent guide on how to start and continue to build fragrances from easily obtainable essences acquired by mail order.

This book relates the historical facts about perfumes in an enjoyable, easy to read manner. The author does not limit herself to the descriptions of the typical essential oils listed in most books such as lavender, rose and jasmine, but also includes more exotic aromatics such as blood orange, champa, amberette, and cabreuva. She does not include the more medicinal smelling oils like thyme and tea tree in her recomendations as many other books do. However, this is a book on perfumary and the esthetic properties of the essential oils are the focus. For those interested in the technical and medicinal merits of the essential oils, this is not the book for you. The author does not promote the use of animal products; they are mentioned as these oils are a part of the history of perfumery, and still have a role , albiet diminished, in the modern perfume industry. Her discriptions of the various oils are detailed and her anecdotal references are interesting. She describes how to blend oils, offers suggestions on blending companions, and provides enough data to create your own blends. The oils are catagorized by note, and also according to family ie. resin, citrus, floral etc.She also includes recipies, indicates which oils are costly and/or difficult to find, and some sources. Overall, this is a well written, entertaining, and information packed book, which focuses on perfumery not chemistry.A sheer joy to read, and inspiring for the creative nature of blending essential oils.

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This is the book to have when you want the best perspective about natural perfumery. Most perfume books focus solely on the synthetic or aesthetic aspect of scent. "Essence and Alchemy" goes into depth about all aspects of perfume: scientifically, historically, sensually and spiritually. Maybe this will add one more element to home perfume-making. It's what makes the book unique. That, and it's a great read. I renewed it twice from the library when I first came across it!

Read Best Reviews of Essence and Alchemy: A Natural History of Perfume Here

This book was an entertaining read, but it was hardly a good historical account of perfumery. It did have a brief overview at the beginning of the book, but it quickly goes into a collection of quotes and historical quirks about perfume. I think that the "alchemy" part of the book where the author repeatedly ties perfume making to the thought processes of alchemists gets old fast. While alchemical processes did play a part in perfume's beginning the parallels she draws seem to be more of her own making.

I think this book also didn't quite live up to my expectations of a book to help a beginner start making their own perfume. It did list items a beginner needs and go into a discussion of the different notes and the ratios they need to be in, and it also described the characteristics of a sampling of fragrances as well. However, a majority of these passages seemed to drift into (and worse yet start out as) lengthy paragraphs on the "spiritual" aspects of perfume, while others simply dwell on the intangible and almost go as far to qualify as "purple prose".

The author also has a preference of natural scents over synthetics which I don't have a problem with especially since she explained why, but she does mention that synthetics can cheaply extend natural scents for perfumers on a budget but at no time during the book does she discuss the use of synthetics for scents that cannot be naturally derived such as with the "ozone" smells.

This book did have a few recipes for scents (only about four I think), and it did have a list of beginning supplies as well some website retailers of these items, but no where did it go into a lot of detail as to why someone would want to do this on their own (given the large starting cost) outside of creating personalized scents. I think I would have liked the book better if there was more information or at least if the information contained was more easily accessible. As is, the useful parts of the book are often hidden between the author's comparison of perfumery to alchemy and while I may find the imagery of combining the sun and moon interesting it isn't incredibly relevant to what people who want to start making perfume need to know.

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There are a number of books on perfume out there (be they ever so hard to get a hold of), and very few give any information other than what has been said before again and again. But this book actually delves a little deeper and touches on this subject with new and subtle observations not seen before. Very well done!

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