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Browsing by author: Marcello

Les sens du parfum by Guy Robert ~ perfume book review

Posted by Marcello on 8 May 2007 16 Comments

Les Sens Du Parfum by Guy Robert“We are like painters: some use simple colors, others prefer sophisticated ones. It's the result that matters”. With over half a century of professional experience under his belt, Guy Robert knows what he's talking about. He grew up among perfumers, trained many talented noses throughout his career, and created a few brilliant fragrances of his own. His book Les sens du parfum reads like a straightforward, down-to-earth tutorial for novice perfumery students: what does it take to master this difficult craft, and where does one start? Besides providing a fascinating insight in the world of the modern perfumer, this book also serves as a practical guide for perfumistas. (French-speaking perfumistas, to be precise.)

The first three chapters of the book cover perfume history, the sense of smell, and fragrant raw materials…

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L’image publicitaire des parfums by Mariette Julien ~ perfume book review

Posted by Marcello on 30 March 2007 5 Comments

Somewhere in my attic lies a binder with print ads for unisex perfumes. It’s a rather singular collection of images from fashion magazines that I used for my graduate thesis in 1997. I was interested in the way people were portrayed in those ads: the famous cK one and cK Be series, featuring young models shot in black and white, seemed to announce some sort of iconographical revolution in the world of perfumery. I even considered exploring the connection between images and fragrances, but I quickly decided it would only complicate things. Later I found out that someone else had actually taken up that challenge: Mariette Julien’s L’image publicitaire des parfums (1997) is the first study dedicated to the semiotics of perfume ads. It raises a very difficult question indeed: how does one visualize the essence of a perfume in a print ad?

The basic premise of the book is that perfume ads contain symbols and signs that belong to the realm of olfactory communication. When you compare perfumes and their respective ads — the author collected and analyzed 300 advertisements published between 1986 and 1996 — you end up with a whole set of ‘olfactive markers’: visual messages that in one way or another reflect the perfume’s odorant properties. A simple example of an olfactive marker is the blue sea in Davidoff’s Cool Water ads: besides triggering various iconographical associations (like the sense of freedom suggested by the wideness of the sea), it actually conveys the concept of ‘freshness’ that is promoted as a characteristic of the fragrance itself…

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Perfume books: Sur Les Routes de L’Encens by Annick Le Guerer

Posted by Marcello on 15 February 2007 6 Comments

Sur Les Routes de L'Encens

New books smell great. There’s something mysteriously seductive about that lovely scent of pencils and printed paper, lingering in the air of quiet bookstores. Books about perfume are not the most pleasant ones; for that matter, I’d much rather bury my nose in a leafy foreign dictionary, or in some classic novel with a heavy, cardboard cover. There is, however, one notable exception: a scratch-n-sniff book entitled Sur les routes de l’encens (“on the trail of incense”), written by Annick Le Guérer and produced in collaboration with Dominique Ropion and IFF. The book is a fragrant journey through time, revolving around a series of ancient expeditions: it takes us back to the banks of the river Nile, the Arab and Persian worlds, classical times in Rome, Marco Polo’s travels to China, and the East Indies spice trade in the 17th century…

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Perfume Legends by Michael Edwards ~ perfume book review

Posted by Marcello on 20 January 2007 9 Comments

Michael Edwards Perfume Legends book coverMichael Edwards is a household name in perfumery. He is the man behind Fragrances of the World (formerly known as The Fragrance Adviser, and now available in book form and online), a critically acclaimed guide for retailers, and the author of Perfume Legends, a standard work on the history of modern perfumery. While there’s some controversy among perfume fans regarding the reliability of the (online) suggestions provided by the Fragrance Adviser, Perfume Legends is universally hailed as a must-have. Of course, good things come at a price, and at $130 US this book is no bargain. I’ve postponed my purchase for a long time, and ended up buying the (much cheaper) French soft cover edition, translated by Guy Robert. My review is based on the latter, but there’s no real difference between the two.

What we have here is a reference book on fragrances that made a mark in 20th century perfumery. The selection is restricted to French feminine fragrances, but that hardly narrows it down (although the wonderful Youth Dew would have fitted perfectly in Edwards’ list). The book features forty-five influential perfumes…

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Perfume books ~ Theophrastus: Enquiry into Plants (volume II)

Posted by Marcello on 27 November 2006 Leave a Comment

In my review of A Natural History of the Senses I referred to an old treatise by Theophrastus called De Odoribus, or ‘Concerning Odours’. It deals with the use of fragrant raw materials in Ancient Greece — how they were mixed with wine, used to scent bedsheets, and as ointments for the body. It’s one of two minor works in the author’s Enquiry into Plants that are not strictly about botany (the other one being a treatise on ‘weather signs’). I’ll give a short description of the work as a whole, followed by a brief insight in Theophrastus’ thoughts on perfumery.

Enquiry into Plants originally consisted of ten treatises (nine of which have survived the Middle Ages) and is widely considered as a seminal work in pre-modern taxonomy. It’s not exactly clear when the books were written: the oldest print in Greek known today dates back to 1497 (printed in Venice by Aldus Manutius, the man who gave us italics), but the version used in the modern Loeb Classical Library series is based on editions by Wimmer (1862) and Didot (1866)…

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