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Essence and Alchemy : A Natural History of Perfume by Mandy Aftel (2004, Trade Paperback)

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Paperback edition. Covers have noticeable handling, dings, and shelfwear. There is a plastic covering on jacket that can not really be removed without tearing the books covers.

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Publishers Weekly called this unique title an extraordinary treatise on the history and making of perfume and hails author Mandy Aftel's ability to bring sheer delight in the bouquet of aromas in the natural world and her irreverent sensibility that embraces 'little-acknowledged' aphrodisiacs like the smell of sweat. Renowned perfumer Mandy Aftel explores the primal nature and fundamental importance of aroma in everyday life, teaching people about the nature of smell and the idea of olfactory consciousness in Essence and Alchemy: A Natural History of Perfume. With gorgeous illustrations, the book also serves as a practical guide to making custom scents for a variety of uses, and explains the process of selecting base notes, heart notes and head notes to create truly personal aromas and perfumes. Writer and perfumer Mandy Aftel was a founder and chief perfumer of all-natural perfume company Grandiflorum, and went on to create Aftelier, a company that concentrates exclusively on creating custom perfumes for men and women. As an authority on natural essences and custom perfumes, she has participated in panels for the perfume industry, and demonstrated and taught the art of natural perfumery across the nation. Her work has been featured in publications including In Style, Vogue, W Magazine, Self, O (Oprah) Magazine, Allure, Health and Elle. Smelling her extraordinary collection of oils took me to beautiful places I have never been before. The fragrance that Mandy Aftel blended exclusively for me is full of citrus and herbal fragrances that complement my culinary life. --Alice Waters, Executive Chef and Owner celebrated restaurant Chez Panisse Reading Mandy Aftel on perfume is like listening to Mozart on original instruments-it's a revelation of tone and technique. She captures the sensuous pleasure of working with fragrance oils and the intellectual delight of composing in scent. Her book combines a perfumer's sensibility with the authority of a historian and the passion of an enthusiast. --Avery Gilbert, President of the Sense of Smell Institute

Product Identifiers

Publisher
Gibbs Smith, Publisher
ISBN-10
1586857029
ISBN-13
9781586857028
eBay Product ID (ePID)
30901545

Product Key Features

Book Title
Essence and Alchemy : a Natural History of Perfume
Author
Mandy Aftel
Format
Trade Paperback
Language
English
Topic
Beauty & Grooming
Publication Year
2004
Genre
Health & Fitness
Number of Pages
256 Pages

Dimensions

Item Length
8in
Item Height
0.7in
Item Width
5.1in
Item Weight
11.3 Oz

Additional Product Features

Age Range
18
Number of Volumes
1 Vol.
Reviews
This is by Mandy Aftel, who is an all-natural perfumer in Berkeley. She comes out of the same movement for the best natural ingredients that created Chez Panisse [restaurant], also in Berkeley, which started the foodie revolution. This is a wonderful, swoony, sensual book. She gives you the history of perfume through the ages, from the ancient Egyptians and Assyrians. She talks about how people have moved away from the idea of perfume as a ritualistic, meditative, aesthetic creation. The mass marketing of perfume, which includes a lot of synthetics and chemicals, has taken away a lot from the original idea of what perfume was and should be. Aftel started her own atelier to make perfumes. She uses natural ingredients, so no synthetics, no chemicals, no fixatives. The downside is that all-natural perfumes don't last that long, maybe two hours maximum. But she has striven to show that you can make elegant, complex, interesting, beautiful perfumes using all natural ingredients. She holds workshops where you can make your own perfume. The book is really a primer to go back to the roots and the ancient ideas of what perfume is all about. She talks about the meditative nature of certain essences, and notes their healing properties and the transcendental element of perfumery. It's also gorgeously written. People have read this book and developed their own interest in making perfume. It's a seminal, inspirational book that many people cite. Earlier I mentioned the Swiss perfumer Andy Tauer. He trained as a chemist. He told me he read Mandy's book, and after that he decided he wanted to make perfume. He started experimenting in a home laboratory, just mixing ingredients, and his first perfume was called "L'Air du Desert Marocain". It was a huge hit. Luca Turin gave it five stars and called it a masterpiece. Tauer is now a highly recognised niche perfumer. He's not a completely natural perfumer, but he uses up to 50% natural ingredients which is huge these days. There are many perfumes that use just a few percentage points of real ingredients and the rest is synthetic. That's not to say you can't make perfumes using all or mainly synthetics. There are some wonderful perfumers out there with very modern takes on perfumery - such as Comme des Garcons - and they have no problem using synthetics. This book has inspired a generation of perfumers, and it brought people back to the original idea of what perfume was supposed to be. Mandy Aftel is a very spiritual person, who is able to meld the spiritual and ritualistic elements of perfumery with the pure, hedonistic, sensual beauty of it.
Table of Content
Introduction Chapter 1 The Spirit of the Alchemist: A Natural History of Perfume Chapter 2 Prima Materia: Perfume Basics Chapter 3 The Calculus of Fixation: Base Notes Chapter 4 Aromatic Stanzas: Heart Notes Chapter 5 The Sublime and the Volatile: Head Notes Chapter 6 An Octave of Odors: The Art of Composition Chapter 7 Flacon de Seduction: Perfume and the Boudoir Chapter 8 Perfumed Waters: The Reverie of the Bath Chapter 9 Aromatics of the Gods: Perfume and the Soul Supplies for the Beginning Perfumer Notes Bibliography Acknowledgments Index
Copyright Date
2004
Target Audience
Trade
Lccn
00-053376
Dewey Decimal
668.5409
Dewey Edition
22
Illustrated
Yes

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3 out of 5 stars
by luay42Jan 03, 2010
i dont recieve Essence and Alchemy
hii only i wanna tell you its i dont recieve Essence and Alchemy yet i dont knwo what the problem please i need more information whay i dont get it yet

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