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The Perfect Scent: A Year Inside The Perfume Industry In Paris And New York (2009)

by Chandler Burr(Favorite Author)

3.77 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0312425775 (ISBN13: 9780312425777)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Picador

review 1: I love fragrances, and heard a good review of this book. I did enjoy it, but the amount of detail was overwhelming. I think it started as a long-form magazine article, and it would have perhaps been better in that format. The amount of detail made it difficult to grasp – perhaps that was the point, that the perfume industry is so vast and complex and full of arcane mystery. I wasn’t sure I needed to know every single detail of each and every meeting Sarah Jessica Parker had with the perfume executives when creating her products. And Shock! Horror! It turns out that she’s a complete and utter decently nice person! But on the whole, I enjoyed wading through the scent-industrial-complex and it did make me want to rush straight to my nearest perfume counter and start sni... moreffing! Also, it solved the mystery for me of why I often find that the scent I loved on the little bit of paper they wafted at me smells completely different on my skin.
review 2: I read this for the Aussie Readers group non-fiction challenge. It was already on my to-read list. Chandler Burr is a journalist and the story of the two scents he followed - one for French design house Hermes and the other for Coty for Sarah Jessica Parker - is an eye-opener into the perfume industry. Burr has definite views on some of the colognes and perfumes that are available and details his opinions in no-nonsense language, perhaps to the annoyance of the design houses they come from. The story was originally written for newspaper publication and is detailed on conversations, meetings and the people involved and is in a chatty style. I did find some of his explanations in parenthesis a little tiring, but given his newspaper audience these are probably understandable. The articles had to reach a wide audience, many of whom may never have considered reading it in book form. As a non-French speaker I was glad of the translations however, though whether he needed to include so much conversation in that language in the first place is another matter. But these are minor points. This was a book I picked up and read in short bursts in between lighter fiction and thoroughly enjoyed the journey. less

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