Frédéric Malle should have quit while he was ahead. His perfume house, Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle, has a number of popular and well done fragrances. On top of enjoying regular publicity, Malle himself is an Allure magazine contributor and pens “The Fragrance Guy” advice column.

For someone who built a brand to put perfumers in the spotlight, his book Frédéric Malle: On Perfume Making is distractingly self-oriented. Memoirs inherently are, but On Perfume Making lacks the rich insight and detail that makes them so intriguing. Malle’s introduction focuses on his personal frustrations with the industry’s present fixation on blockbuster perfumes, mainly that corporate input and disproportionate marketing budgets are crippling the creative process. For the majority of blog readers, it’s preaching to the choir. Where are the cringe-worthy anecdotes of marketing department meddling? Or the depressing examples of brilliant ideas rendered lackluster by cheap inferior ingredients? Whatever stories Malle has to tell, he’s not telling them here…

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