This book is responsible for one my ridiculous flights of fancy, where I get so enamoured of something (usually a Big Crafty Idea) and totally immerse myself in it for about, ooh, 4 weeks, before I get enamoured of something else instead. So here we go again with perfume. I'm already totting up in my mind all the ingredients I want to buy, the equipment, the beautiful perfumes I'm going to make...
This book is bad for me.
It's a rambling journey through the world of natural perfume. Covering a brief history of it, various types of scents, where they come from, what they mix well with. Base and heart and head notes. How to make your own. Much of it is very overwritten and purpled prose and "ohmygoodness esoteric amazing wow wow blah", I found my eyes glazing over (I don't remember thinking that when I first read this book. Perhaps I have become more cynical since 2004...) BUT the good bits are still good, which is looking at specific notes and what they smell like and how they blend with each other. Less flight of fancy, more actual useful knowledge.
If I indulge myself this time, it will be to 'dabble' rather than 'completely immerse'! Despite my protestation above, there's something about the magicality of natural perfume that I love. I love reading the lists of different botanical extracts and thinking how they might smell, how they might blend with each other.
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