The Perfumer's Secret

The Perfumer's Secret
Author: Fiona McIntosh
Publisher: Penguin Books
Total Pages: 432
Release: 2016-07
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780143573814

I am at one with Nature's perfection - her beauty, her colours, her fragrances - and she has allowed me to glimpse it in a man.' On the eve of the First World War, Fleurette, the only daughter of the wealthy Delacroix perfume dynasty, is being forced to marry a man she loathes, Aimery De Lasset, head of the pre-eminent perfume house in France. It is only the rally to the frontlines that saves her from sharing his bed. When she receives an unexpected letter from Aimery's estranged brother, Fleurette is left holding a terrible secret, and the sparks of a powerful passion. Her discoveries risk shattering the two families, bringing tragedy to both their perfume empires. The Perfumer's Secret is an intoxicating feast for the senses, a dramatic story of duty, deception and desire.

A Scented Palace

A Scented Palace
Author: Elisabeth de Feydeau
Publisher: Tauris Parke
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2022-02-22
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0755647149

The untold story of Marie-Antoinette's perfumer, Jean-Louis Fargeon. Montpellier, 1748: Jean-Louis Fargeon is born into a family of perfumers and soon becomes apprentice to his father's modest perfumery. But he dreams of the glittering court of Versailles and of becoming perfumer to the young queen, Marie Antoinette. His ambition carried him to Paris where his boutique became one of the most elegant and well-patronised in France. Concocting sumptuous perfumes and pomades for most of the French nobility, Fargeon eventually caught the attention of the queen. After meeting Marie Antoinette in the Trianon Palace, he began creating lavish bespoke scents that perfectly reflected her moods and personality. He served as her personal and exclusive perfumer for fourteen years until 1789 when the darkness of Revolution swept across France, its wrath aimed at the extravagance of a now hated queen. Fargeon, a lifelong supporter of the Republican cause but a purveyor to the court, was in a dangerous position. Yet he remained fiercely loyal to Marie Antoinette, beyond her desperate flight to Varennes, her execution and even through his own imprisonment and trial...

Fragrant

Fragrant
Author: Mandy Aftel
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2014-10-16
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1101614684

Winner of the 2016 Perfumed Plume Award The “Alice Waters of American natural perfume” (indieperfume.com) and author of the Art of Flavor celebrates our most potent sense, through five rock stars of the fragrant world Mandy Aftel is widely acclaimed as a trailblazer in natural perfumery. Over two decades of sourcing the finest aromatic ingredients from all over the world and creating artisanal fragrances, she has been an evangelist for the transformative power of scent. 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. Cinnamon, queen of the Spice Route, touches our hunger for the unknown, the exotic, the luxurious. Mint, homegrown the world over, speaks to our affinity for the familiar, the native, the authentic. Frankincense, an ancient incense ingredient, taps into our longing for transcendence, while ambergris embodies our unquenchable curiosity. And exquisite jasmine exemplifies our yearning for beauty, both evanescent and enduring. In addition to providing a riveting initiation into the history, natural history, and philosophy of scent, Fragrant imparts the essentials of scent literacy and includes recipes for easy-to-make fragrances and edible, drinkable, and useful concoctions that reveal the imaginative possibilities of creating with—and reveling in—aroma. Vintage line drawings make for a volume that will be a treasured gift as well as a great read.

The Ghost Perfumer

The Ghost Perfumer
Author: Gabe Oppenheim
Publisher: Independently Published
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2021-12-23
Genre:
ISBN:

This is the story of a genius and a fraud. For more than half a century, Olivier Creed, heir to a French fashion empire but out to conquer an adjacent field by himself, created the most compelling and costly perfumes in the world - scents so successful - artistically and commercially - that the world's largest asset manager bought his small olfactory enterprise for nearly $1 billion in 2020. One could arguably have called him the world's most capable perfumer. Except Olivier Creed never authored the scents for which he has long received acclaim and lucre. Gabe Oppenheim reveals the heretofore untold story behind this supposed-cologne colossus of a man - and the eponymous company that became a social media sensation: That scents were authored by someone else entirely - a brilliant ghostwriter - a hidden, scholarly figure with a great passion for Proust and an unfortunate tendency to doubt the quality of his own compositions. How these two figures met and the arrangement was struck - how they circled each other warily for the next 40 years - how lies, told often enough, became truths - Gabe Oppenheim examines as he journeys into the heart of an industry mystifying and fanciful, enormous and intimate, sensuous and yet so-damn-insubstantial. It's an expedition that takes him to a Creed shop in Dubai and the castle in Normandy where the Ghost resides, having left behind a Parisian world that, in some sense, never acknowledged him. And yet, he's a legend in a certain section of the scented demimonde for a few achievements so innovative he wouldn't yield them even to a charismatic manipulator. Oppenheim explores issues of attribution and artistry, credit and craftsmanship, ingenuity and disingenuousness. "The Ghost Perfumer" is the story of a genius and a fraud. And perhaps the greatest con in the history of luxury retail.

Jitterbug Perfume

Jitterbug Perfume
Author: Tom Robbins
Publisher: Bantam
Total Pages: 439
Release: 2003-06-17
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0553897926

Jitterbug Perfume is an epic. Which is to say, it begins in the forests of ancient Bohemia and doesn’t conclude until nine o’clock tonight (Paris time). It is a saga, as well. A saga must have a hero, and the hero of this one is a janitor with a missing bottle. The bottle is blue, very, very old, and embossed with the image of a goat-horned god. If the liquid in the bottle actually is the secret essence of the universe, as some folks seem to think, it had better be discovered soon because it is leaking and there is only a drop or two left.

The Perfume Companion

The Perfume Companion
Author: Sarah McCartney
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2021-10-05
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 0711242194

'An authoritative guide from two experts who really know their way around scent' – FUNMI FETTO The Perfume Companion is a beautifully illustrated compendium of almost 500 recommended scents, designed to help you pick out your next favourite fragrance. Perfumes have the power to evoke treasured memories, make us feel fabulous and help us express our best self. But with so many out there, how do you choose something new? When the scents in the perfume shop are merging into one aromatic haze, how do you remain focused? And if your favourite scent goes out of stock, how do you replace it? The Perfume Companion is here to help. Sarah McCartney and Samantha Scriven deliver a host of scents for you to try – including bargain finds and luxury treasures, iconic stalwarts and indie newcomers, the lightest florals and the deepest leathers. With insider information about how perfumes are really made, discover hundreds of new fragrances and find the scents to share your own memories with. This is the perfect companion for your scented adventures.

Perfume

Perfume
Author: Jean-Claude Ellena
Publisher: Skyhorse
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2011-09-15
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 1628721707

To women the whole world over, perfume means glamour, and in the world of perfume, Jean-Claude Ellena is a superstar. In this one-of-a-kind book, the master himself takes you through the doors of his laboratory and explains the process of creating precious fragrances, revealing the key methods and recipes involved in this mysterious alchemy. Perfume is a cutthroat, secretive multibillion-dollar industry, and Ellena provides an insider’s tour, guiding us from initial inspiration through the mixing of essences and synthetic elements, to the deluxe packaging and marketing in elegant boutiques worldwide, and even the increasingly complicated safety standards that are set in motion for each bottle of perfume that is manufactured. He explains how the sense of smell works, using a palette of fragrant materials, and how he personally chooses and composes a perfume. He also reveals his unique way of creating a fragrance by playing with our olfactory memories in order to make the perfume seductive and desired by men and women the world over. Perfume illuminates the world of scent and manufactured desire by a perfumer who has had clients the likes of Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Bulgari, and Hermés.

The Perfume Lover

The Perfume Lover
Author: Denyse Beaulieu
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2013-03-19
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1250025028

The Perfume Lover is a candid personal account of the process of composing a fragrance, filled with sensual scent descriptions, sexy tidbits, and historical vignettes. What if the most beautiful night in your life inspired a perfume? When Denyse Beaulieu was growing up near Montreal, perfume was forbidden in her house, spurring a childhood curiosity that became an intellectual and sensual passion. It is this passion she pursued all the way to Paris, where she now lives, and which led her to become a respected fragrance writer. But little did she know that it would also lead her to achieve a perfume lover's wildest dream: When Denyse tells famous perfumer Betrand Duchaufour at L'Artisan Parfumeur of a sensual night spent in Seville under a blossoming orange tree, wrapped in the arms of a beautiful man, the story stirs his imagination and together they create a scent that captures the essence of that night. As their unique creative collaboration unfolds, the perfume-in-progress conjures intimate memories, leading Beaulieu to make sense of her life through scents. Throughout the book, she weaves the evocative history of perfumery into her personal journey, in an intensely passionate voice: the masters and the masterpieces, the myths and the myth-busting, down to the molecular mysteries that weld our flesh to flowers. Now, just to set your nostrils aquiver: Séville à l'aube is an orange blossom oriental with zesty, green and balsamic effects, with notes of petitgrain, petitgrain citronnier, orange blossom, beeswax, incense, and lavender, and is now available at fragrance outlets in the U.S.

The Perfume Collector

The Perfume Collector
Author: Kathleen Tessaro
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2013-05-14
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0062257854

A remarkable novel about secrets, desire, memory, passion, and possibility. Newlywed Grace Monroe doesn’t fit anyone’s expectations of a successful 1950s London socialite, least of all her own. When she receives an unexpected inheritance from a complete stranger, Madame Eva d’Orsey, Grace is drawn to uncover the identity of her mysterious benefactor. Weaving through the decades, from 1920s New York to Monte Carlo, Paris, and London, the story Grace uncovers is that of an extraordinary women who inspired one of Paris’s greatest perfumers. Immortalized in three evocative perfumes, Eva d’Orsey’s history will transform Grace’s life forever, forcing her to choose between the woman she is expected to be and the person she really is. The Perfume Collector explores the complex and obsessive love between muse and artist, and the tremendous power of memory and scent.

The Perfumer

The Perfumer
Author: Jan Moran
Publisher: Sunny Palms Press
Total Pages: 398
Release: 2020-11-10
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1951314115

A young French perfumer. A world at war. A personal vengeance that could destroy a family. A must-read for fans of Kristin Hannah and Kate Quinn! *From a USA Today Bestselling Author* Europe, 1939: At the dawn of World War II, French perfumer Danielle Bretancourt and her German husband strive to ensure their family's safety, yet neither can foresee the ultimate cost. From London to Paris, Danielle struggles to find her missing child and aid the Resistance, even as she grieves her losses. As the war intensifies, Danielle is forced to seek refuge in America to save the lives of her remaining family. She draws on her skills as a talented perfumer to pull them out of crushing poverty. Yet even as she forges a new life among the Hollywood elite, she cannot forget her lost child nor the man who risked everything for her. Set between privileged lifestyles and gritty realities, The Perfumer is one woman's story of courage, spirit, and resilience. From Jan Moran, USA Today bestselling author, this beloved, bestselling saga was originally published by St. Martin's Press. Also by Jan Moran: The Chocolatier, The Winemakers, and Hepburn's Necklace. For readers who enjoy the romantic historical fiction of Kristin Hannah and Danielle Steel. “A sweeping tale that transports readers from the lavender-scented fields of Provence to the pulsing boulevards of Paris… Heartbreaking, evocative, and inspiring, this book is a powerful journey.” – Allison Pataki, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Accidental Empress "Jan Moran is the new queen of the epic romance." ―USA Today Bestselling Author Rebecca Forster "A stylish, compelling story of a family torn apart by war and a woman's courageous efforts to bring them back together, with everything from romance to heartache, spying, intrigue, and vivid settings. Danielle is just the kind of feisty female protagonist that I love, but what really sets this saga apart is the backdrop of perfumery that suffuses the story with the delicious aromas of rose, jasmine, lavender, bergamot, etc. You can almost smell them as you read - a remarkable feat!"―Liz Trenow, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Forgotten Seamstress “A sweeping saga of one woman’s journey through World War II and her unwillingness to give up even when faced with the toughest challenges.” — Anita Abriel, Author of The Light After the War “A gripping World War II story of poignant love and devastating, heart-wrenching loss.” — Gill Paul, USA Today and Toronto Globe & Mail Bestselling Author of The Secret Wife "Hard to put down…captivating. A 'must-read.'" ―Marvel Fields, Chairman, American Society of Perfumers "Utterly inescapable. Jan Moran's masterful romance comes with a bonus: she interweaves this romantic tale with a behind-the-scenes look at perfumery. The fascinating result is a tale that rivals Danielle Steele at her romantic best!" ―Allegra Jordan, Author of The End of Innocence