Hey Hey Posse Peeps!!

It’s Portia from AustralianPerfumeJunkies and I have another trilogy of books to add to your tottering piles of MUST READ tomes. Yes they are perfume centric! I have something for everyone today from novices to manufacturers.

Bookish Portia Reads Mandy Aftel, Luca Turin and Dariush Alavi

Le Snob: Perfume by Dariush Alavi

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Le Snob: Perfume is a wonderful starter book fort anyone new to fragrance as a hobby or people who want to make more informed choices. I have bought a few of these as add on presents and stocking stuffers. A young person needing some guidance, or a hobby, a man unsure of the rules or even a friend who doesn’t get your addiction. Le Snob: Perfume gives a great over view of how fragrance fits into the world, your life and history. A pocket encyclopedia.

The Blurb: With the cachet knowledge every aficionado must possess, plus authentic insights into the lives and skills of the experts within the industry, Le Snob: Perfume offers impeccable advice on all aspects of this artisanal product, from learning how to recognise olfactory categories to professional production techniques. Providing an authoritative directory of the very best scents available from around the world, and from all manner of producer, from select haute couture and niche producers, to natural perfumery and the surprising gems available on the mass market, you’ll learn to distinguish the quality fragrances from the hundreds of options available in today’s market.

The Secret Of Scent by Luca Turin

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If you’ve read Chandler Burr’s expose on Luca Turin’s scientific belief in smell as vibration then this is the next step. Mr Turin takes us step by step through the science that has led him to his important discoveries. As is often the case much of the scientific community has shut their doors to anything new and Turin is still fighting an uphill battle. He goes deep enough to make you feel like you’ve learned something but keeps it simple enough for a numb skull like me to understand most of it.

The Blurb: Smell is our forgotten sense. Long neglected by science in favour of more prestigious areas of research, it’s also barely understood in general life. At the core of our sense of smell lies an enigma: why do things smell the way they do? How is smell written into the molecules? This book is the story of the quest to solve this puzzle.

Essence & Alchemy by Mandy Aftel

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Mandy Aftel of Aftelier Perfumes takes us deep into her world of fragrance, the history, uses, combining and creation of fragrance. This is a journey more that a book. I find myself reading chapters and then going away to digest the topic then coming back to reread for clarification. Mandy is interesting and so passionate that you are swept along with her.

The Blurb: Publishers Weekly called this unique title an “extraordinary treatise on the history and making of perfume” and hails author Mandy Aftel’s ability to “bring sheer delight in the bouquet of aromas in the natural world” and her “irreverent sensibility that embraces ‘little-acknowledged’ aphrodisiacs like the smell of sweat.” Renowned perfumer Mandy Aftel explores the primal nature and fundamental importance of aroma in everyday life, teaching people about the nature of smell and the idea of “olfactory consciousness” in Essence and Alchemy: A Natural History of Perfume.

There you are gang! Go to it. Some extra reading to keep you awake through the night.

If you liked this then why not trot over to AustralianPerfumeJunkies and see what’s going on over there too, we love to see you. Leave a HELLO! so we know you’ve been.

Till next week, loads of love,

Portia xx