Category: books

The Perfume Garden: an epic tale of love and loss

The Perfume Garden: an epic tale of love and loss by Kate Lord Brown

A sensuously written international bestseller of lost love, family secrets, and the art of creating a perfect perfume, perfect for fans of Kate Morton and Tatiana de Rosnay.

High in the hills of Valencia, a forgotten house guards its secrets. Untouched since Franco’s forces tore through Spain in 1936, the whitewashed walls have crumbled, and the garden, laden with orange blossom, grows wild. Emma Temple, London’s leading perfumer, is the first to unlock its doors in seventy years. Her free-spirited mother has just passed away, leaving her the house mysteriously purchased just before her death. At the same time, Emma broke up with her long-time lover and business partner, although she carries his baby.

Guided by a series of letters and a key bequeathed to her in her mother’s will, Emma makes it her mission to restore the beautiful but decaying house to its former glory. But for her aging grandmother, Freya, a British nurse who stayed in Valencia during Spain’s devastating civil war, Emma’s new home evokes memories of a terrible secret, a part of her family’s past that until now has managed to stay hidden. With two beautifully interwoven narratives and a lush, atmospheric setting, Kate Lord Brown’s The Perfume Garden is a dramatic, emotional debut that readers won’t soon forget.

“At its core, this is a love story celebrating both romantic and parental love, a tale that fans of romantic women’s fiction will enjoy.” –Booklist

“Beautifully written and researched, this is an intensely atmospheric read, and a hugely enjoyable one.” –Isabel Wolff, international bestselling author of A Vintage Affair

“Sweepingly romantic . . . heartbreaking at times; a vivid, gripping read.” –Katherine Webb, international bestselling author of The Legacy

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From Amazon

All-Natural Perfume Making: Fragrances to Lift Your Mind, Body, and Spirit

All-Natural Perfume Making: Fragrances to Lift Your Mind, Body, and Spirit by Kristen Schuhmann

Master your own custom perfume blends with ingredients to benefit your mind, body, and emotions in All-Natural Perfume Making.

Just like magic, turn botanical herbs, flowers, and essential oils into wonderful-smelling, healthy, and sustainable perfumes. In All-Natural Perfume Making, author and herbalist Kristen Schuhmann guides beginning perfumers in the art and techniques of crafting oil-based, alcohol-based, and solid perfumes. Learn the history and traditional benefits of certain scents as you create your own unique blends from a variety of plant-based ingredients.

In addition to smelling good,natural scents can be a powerful self-care tool to benefit mental and emotional health. Feeling anxious? A blend of vanilla, lavender, cedarwood, and neroli can help relaxfrazzled nerves. Have a big test coming up? Boost your brain power with rosemary, sweet orange, and peppermint. Once you’ve grasped the techniques in All-Natural Perfume Making, the possibilities are endless as you mix, layer, and experiment with natural scents.

Perfect for the beginner who wants to create their own signature scents without the use of harsh chemicals, this book provides a solid base on the philosophy and methods of crafting all-natural fragrances that not only smell fantastic but can add to your well-being.

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From Amazon

Homemade Perfume: How To Make Your Own Perfume At Home: Easy DIY Perfume Recipes You Need To Try

Homemade Perfume: How To Make Your Own Perfume At Home: Easy DIY Recipes You Need To Try by Paul Hohne

If you are wondering how to make perfume, we have got you covered. A woman’s signature fragrance must be her own and instantly recognizable. Even a small whiff of the best perfumes can be a magical experience, and a little goes a long way.

If you want to do something super creative, make your perfume right at home using your local grocery store ingredients. When you make perfumes at home, you can customize the product as per your needs and likes. Besides, you can also avoid using harmful chemicals and ingredients that may cause allergies.

This book explains the guide to making your DIY perfume with easy-to-follow directions. They make for great handmade gifts and are one of the simplest DIY projects out there!

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From Amazon 

Perfume Of Provence: Experience the joys of the South of France with this perfect escapist romance!

Perfume Of Provence: Experience the joys of the South of France with this perfect escapist romance by Kate Fitzroy

Leaving her cheating ex-boyfriend behind, Rosie Fielding heads away from her hectic working life in the London fashion world to spend a blissful – and man-free – weekend basking in the Cote d’Azur sunshine. Surely the Mediterranean sea breeze will blow away memories of the disastrous anniversary dinner-that-never-was?

During a chance visit to a nearby perfumery, Rosie meets the owner, Jean-Michel de Fleurenne, whose distillery and crumbling chateau are desperately in need of her PR expertise. Everyone knows you should never mix business with pleasure… but in the heat of Provence the rules seem to melt away. The soft perfume of the lavender fields and the rich citrus aromas of the fruit trees are blissfully intoxicating and soon, maybe all too soon, Rosie is falling madly in love with a certain impossibly handsome French perfumier and his aristocratic life at Chateau de Fleurenne.

But if French is the language of love then why doesn’t the path of true love run smoothly for Rosie?

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From Amazon

The Scent of Hours: A Novel

A Scent of Hours: A Novel by Barbara O’Neal

A divorced perfumer navigates an uncertain but fresh new start in life in a poignant and witty novel about self-discovery by the USA Today bestselling author of When We Believed in Mermaids.

Nikki Bridges has it good. An enviable home in an upscale neighborhood, a heavenly-scented hobby making personal-blend perfumes, a cherished daughter, and comfortable rituals with a husband she loves. How was she to know it would all blow up with her husband’s affair, a blindsiding divorce, and an identity crisis she never saw coming?

With little money, less work experience, and a modest apartment, Nikki is tentatively moving on. Along the way: a waitressing job, a bond with an empathetic group of friends, and reentering the dating game at fortysomething. Luring her out of her funk is Niraj, an ex-Londoner with twinkling eyes and a hint of cinnamon and ginger. For the first time in a long time, Nikki feels a warm summer flush—and with it, a spark of inspiration.

On a liberating quest for self-expression and the courage to follow a dream, Nikki is blending the pieces of a new life into a fragrance that is uniquely and passionately her own.

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From Amazon

1001 Perfumes: The Guide

1001 Perfumers: The Guide by Daniel Barros

Whether you are a newcomer to the world of fragrances or a connoisseur, this guide is your passport to the olfactory realm.

Daniel Barros delves into the art of perfumery, from its history to its modern expressions. He unveils the perfume industry, market, terminology, notes, ingredients, and myths. You will learn how to choose and wear fragrances that resonate with your unique personality. The author’s TOP 10 rankings will help you find the perfect fragrance for every style, occasion, and scent profile.

With over 1,000 perfume reviews at your disposal, you will elevate your senses and embark on an unforgettable olfactory adventure.

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From Amazon

Perfume and Pain: A Novel

Perfume and Pain: A Novel by Anna Dorn

Having recently moved both herself and her formidable perfume bottle collection into a tiny bungalow in Los Angeles, mid-list author Astrid Dahl finds herself back in the Zoom writer’s group she cofounded, Sapphic Scribes, after an incident that leaves her and her career lightly canceled. But she temporarily forgets all that by throwing herself into a few sexy distractions—like Ivy, a grad student researching 1950s lesbian pulp who smells like metallic orchids, or her new neighbor, Penelope, who smells like patchouli.

Penelope, a painter living off Urban Outfitters settlement money, immediately ingratiates herself in Astrid’s life, bonding with her best friends and family, just as Astrid and Ivy begin to date in person. Astrid feels judged and threatened by Penelope, a responsible older vegan, but also finds her irresistibly sexy.

When Astrid receives an unexpected call from her agent with the news that actress and influencer Kat Gold wants to adapt her previous novel for TV, Astrid finally has a chance to resurrect her waning career. But the pressure causes Astrid’s worst vice to rear its head—the Patricia Highsmith, a blend of Adderall, alcohol, and cigarettes—and results in blackouts and a disturbing series of events.

Unapologetically feminine yet ribald, steamy yet hilarious, Anna Dorn has crafted an exquisite homage to the lesbian pulp of yore, reclaiming it for our internet and celebrity-obsessed world. With notes of Southern California citrus and sultry smokiness, Perfume and Pain is a satirical romp through Hollywood and lesbian melodrama.

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From Amazon

The Perfumist of Paris

The Perfumist of Paris: A novel from the bestselling author of The Henna Artist (The Jaipur Trilogy Book 3)

Paris, 1974. Radha is now living in Paris with her husband, Pierre, and their two daughters. She still grieves for the baby boy she gave up years ago, when she was only a child herself, but she loves being a mother to her daughters, and she’s finally found her passion—the treasure trove of scents.

She has an exciting and challenging position working for a master perfumer, helping to design completely new fragrances for clients and building her career one scent at a time. She only wishes Pierre could understand her need to work. She feels his frustration, but she can’t give up this thing that drives her.

Tasked with her first major project, Radha travels to India, where she enlists the help of her sister, Lakshmi, and the courtesans of Agra—women who use the power of fragrance to seduce, tease and entice. She’s on the cusp of a breakthrough when she finds out the son she never told her husband about is heading to Paris to find her—upending her carefully managed world and threatening to destroy a vulnerable marriage.

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Available on Amazon

Sensehacking: How to Use the Power of Your Senses for Happier, Healthier Living

Sensehacking: How to Use the Power of Your Senses for Happier, Healthier Living by Charles Spence [Published September 2020]

Showing us how our senses change how we think and feel, and how by ‘hacking’ them we can reduce stress, become more productive and be happier.

We like to think of ourselves as rational beings, and yet it’s the scent of expensive face cream that removes wrinkles (temporarily), a room actually feels warmer if you use a warmer paint colour, and the noise of the crowd really does affect the referee’s decision. Understanding how our senses interact can produce incredible results. This is popular science at its unbelievable best.

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From Amazon

Nose Dive: A Field Guide to the World’s Smells

Nose Dive: A Field Guide to the World’s Smells by Harold McGee [Published October 2020]

McGee familiarizes us with the actual bits of matter that we breathe in — the molecules that trigger our perceptions, that prompt the citrusy smells of coriander and beer and the medicinal smells of daffodils and sea urchins. And like everything in the physical world, molecules have histories. Many of the molecules that we smell every day existed long before any creature was around to smell them — before there was even a planet for those creatures to live on. Beginning with the origins of those molecules in interstellar space, McGee moves onward through the smells of our planet, the air and the oceans, the forest and the meadows and the city, all the way to the smells of incense, perfume, wine, and food.

Distilling the science behind smells and translates it into an accessible and entertaining sensory and olfactory guide. We’ll sniff the ordinary (wet pavement and cut grass) and extraordinary (ambergris and truffles), the delightful (roses and vanilla) and the challenging (swamplands and durians). We’ll smell each other. We’ll smell ourselves. Here is a story of the world, of all of the smells under our noses – revealing how our sense of smell has the power to expose invisible, intangible details of our material world and life, and trigger in us feelings that are the very essence of being alive.

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From Amazon