Fragrant: The Secret Life of Scent, by Mandy Aftel
Pioneering natural perfumer, writer Mandy Aftel is a force of nature herself, an inspiration to many, and now even has her own museum. The ‘Aftel Archive of Curious Scents’ is located in a building adjacent to her home in California, where you can see Aftel’s incredible, custom-made perfumer’s ‘organ’ of ingredients, smell more than three hundred natural essences and even choose three samples to take home. But it’s Aftel’s incredible way with words we first fell in love with, even before smelling her radiant scents. In Fragrant, Aftel explores scent literacy, taking five pillars of the perfumed world and tracing their history (and our own sense of familiarity or exoticism with each ingredient). From cinnamon and the Spice Trail to the healing properties of mint, from the mysticism of frankincense to the mythology surrounding ambergris, and our addiction to the radiance of jasmine. We come away with a true feeling for Aftel’s passion, and for the many years of research and experience behind this exquisite book – filled to the brim with knowledge, recipes and lovely line drawings.
Publisher: Penguin Random House
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