Essence and Alchemy: A Natural History of Perfume Paperback – May 18, 2022

This little book is my perfume bible. I am taking Mandy Aftel’s perfume course and this is definitely one of my favorite reference books. Her information on history and love of the beautiful essences is contagious.

I love Mandy's original "Essence and Alchemy; the first edition is where I "cut my teeth" so-to-speak. I truly am grateful she shared her knowledge.My only wish for this new second edition is that there'd be a lot more new stuff...more golden nuggets.

I thought there would be more information about actually creating fragrances - most of the book is a narrative history, which I very much enjoyed.

What didn't I enjoy about this book?

A delightful read, once again! Worth taking the time to experience, not only for the reminders and revisits but for the updated section on composition filled with concepts and guidance that you can’t find elsewhere!

Some reviewers seem to have wanted a recipe book. This book is so much more. You'll get basic how to information, but more importantly you'll get context to understand why and how scents work. The result will be to enable you to make creative decisions on your own. I loved this book and I'm going to read it again, and return frequently to passages i highlighted the first time through.

This book has useful and fascinating information on crafting perfumes.

A great book if you want to be inspired, convinced perfumery is a worthwhile thing, or provided with a teeny bit of instruction for getting started. Not nearly enough technical info to make me feel ready to buy several hundred dollars of starter oils and begin blending. The book is disorganized with an abundance of oddly pieced together history, and fantastical creative writing. Beautiful but not very helpful for making beautiful things. I got one page of "how to get started" notes from the whole book.