Fragrance Matters

N.B. Many of these links are to Amazon but they may be available from other sellers at different prices.

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GENERAL INTEREST

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Olfaction: A journey -  A decade of the IFRA UK Fragrance Forum.

An excerpt from the book can be viewed online at the IFRA UK website. If you wish to watch the online launch event, it can be viewed here.  

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The Big Book of Perfume - For olfactory culture by Le collectif nez

All About Perfume is an accessible reference guide which invites readers to discover olfactory culture.

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

An intimate exploration of inspiration and creativity, from the parfumeur exclusif of the house of Hermès.

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Fragrant: The Secret Life of Scent by Mandy Aftel

In Fragrant, through five major players in the epic of aroma, she explores the profound connection between our sense of smell and the appetites that move us, give us pleasure, make us fully alive.

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Perfume: A Century of Scents by Lizzie Ostrom

The incredible stories of 100 perfumes from a whole century of scents.
Signature scents and now lost masterpieces; the visionaries who conceived them; the wild and wonderful campaigns that launched them; the women and men who wore them – every perfume has a tale to tell.

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Smells: A Cultural History of Odours in Early Modern Times by Robert Muchembled

Why is our sense of smell so under-appreciated?  We tend to think of smell as a vestigial remnant of our pre-human past, doomed to gradual extinction, and we go to great lengths to eliminate smells from our environment, suppressing body odour, bad breath and other smells.  Living in a relatively odour-free environment has numbed us to the importance that smells have always had in human history and culture.

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Past Scents: Historical Perspectives on Smell by Jonathan Reinarz

In this comprehensive and engaging volume, medical historian Jonathan Reinarz offers a historiography of smell from ancient to modern times.

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The Perfect Scent: A Year Inside the Perfume Industry in Paris and New York by Chandler Burr

No journalist has ever been allowed into the ultrasecretive, highly pressured process of originating a perfume. But Chandler Burr, the New York Times perfume critic, spent a year behind the scenes observing the creation of two major fragrances.

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NEZ magazine

NEZ magazine is published bi-annually and explores the world around us through our sense of smell.

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Smell, Memory and Literature in the Black Country by Sebastian Groes and RM Francis.

From Banks’s brewery’s yeasty stink to groaty pudding to spicy curry, Sebastian Groes and R. M. Francis have assembled a new literary history of the smells and (childhood) memories that belong to the Black Country. This often overlooked region of the United Kingdom at the frontlines of post-industrial upheaval is a veritable treasure trove for studying the relationship between olfaction and place-specific memory.

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The Hidden Power of Smell by Paul A Moore

Highlights the role of the sense of smell in humans and animals

Details fascinating and unexpected ways our olfactory senses affect our lives

The combination of hard science and thought-provoking stories and examples makes this volume informative for chemical ecologists as well as accessible to lay readers

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Scent by Elise Vernon Pearlstine Yale Univ. Press (2022)

Elise Pearlstine is a wildlife biologist turned natural perfumer. Plants must seduce pollinators to flourish, she tells us, and cannot relocate or avoid disease. So they produce attractive fragrances, along with volatile molecules to deter predators and heal tissues. Although these are not created for humans, we fall for them. This charming book discusses spices and scents including frankincense, saffron, rose, mint and musk. It also describes perfume manufacturing and the fashion world’s “hundreds, if not thousands” of perfume launches each year.

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SCIENCE

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On the Scent Unlocking the Mysteries of Smell – and How Its Loss Can Change Your World by Paola Totaro and Robert Wainwright

On the Scent is the story of a quest for answers, from the theories of ancient philosophers to the cutting-edge laboratories of 21st century neuroscience. It looks at the extraordinary experiences of patients and scientists alike, offering a unique glimpse into the world of those born without smell as well as those who lose it; exploring how smell can be a key indicator of declining physical health; and showing how new research may offer hope to the millions of people worldwide who h ave suffered sensory loss.

 

The Secret of Scent: Adventures in Perfume and the Science of Smell by Luca Turin.

The Secret of Scent is a book about science by way of art, in which the author's passion for perfume leads him to the scientific mystery of what makes one molecule smell of garlic while another smells of rose.

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The Scent of Desire by Rachel Herz

The Scent of Desire is a fun read that connects the often under-appreciated sense of smell to the bigger picture of evolutionary biology. Dr. Rachel Herz is an expert in the psychology of scent, and this book draws heavily from her research, but it is still easily accessible to the average layperson.

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Smell: A Very Short Introduction  by Matthew Cobb

Our sense of smell - or olfaction as it is technically known - is our most enigmatic sense. It can conjure up memories, taking us back to very specific places and emotions, whilst powerful smells can induce strong feelings of hunger or nausea. In the animal kingdom smell can be used to find food, a mate, or a home; to sense danger; and to send and receive complex messages with other members of a species. Yet despite its fundamental importance in our mental life and in the existence of all animals, our scientific understanding of how smell works is limited.

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Smellosophy: What the Nose Tells the Mind by AS Barwich

A pioneering exploration of olfaction that upsets settled notions of how the brain translates sensory information. 

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

Everything about the sense of smell fascinates us, from its power to evoke memories to its ability to change our moods and influence our behavior. Yet because it is the least understood of the senses, myths abound. 

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Nose Dive: A Field Guide to the World's Smells by Harold Mcgee

A work of astounding scholarship and originality, Nose Dive distils the science behind smells and translates it into an accessible and entertaining sensory and olfactory guide

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The Chemistry of Fragrances: From Perfumer to Consumer by Charles Sell

Ever wondered how perfumes are developed? Or why different scents appeal to different people? The Chemistry of Fragrances 2nd Edition offers answers to these questions, providing a fascinating insight into the perfume industry, from the conception of an idea to the finished product. 

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Discovering Cosmetic Science - published by the Royal Society of Chemistry

Includes a chapter on 'Follow the Scent - The Science behind the Fragrance in Products'