The Perfect Scent: A Year Inside the Perfume Industry in Paris and New York | 
 enlarge | Author: Chandler Burr
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy New: $12.84
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Avg. Customer Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 24311
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 0805080376
Dewey Decimal Number: 338.766854
EAN: 9780805080377
ASIN: 0805080376
Publication Date: January 22, 2008
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Condition: Brand new book. Never used. Nice gift. Best buy. Same day shipping.
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Product Description
From the New York Times perfume critic, a stylish, fascinating, unprecedented insider’s view of an industry and its charismatic characters No journalist has ever been allowed into the ultrasecretive, highly pressured process of originating a perfume. But Chandler Burr, the New York Times perfume critic, spent a year behind the scenes observing the creation of two major fragrances. Now, writing with wit and elegance, he juxtaposes the stories of the perfumes—one created by a Frenchman in Paris for an exclusive luxury-goods house, the other made in New York by actress Sarah Jessica Parker and Coty, Inc., a giant international corporation. We follow Coty’s mating of star power to the marketing of perfume, watching Sex and the City’s Parker heading a hugely expensive campaign to launch a scent into the overcrowded celebrity market. Will she match the success of Jennifer Lopez? Does she have the international fan base to drive worldwide sales?
In Paris at the elegant Hermes, we see Jean Claude Ellena, his company’s new head perfumer, given a challenge: he must create a scent to resuscitate Hermes’s perfume business and challenge le monstre of the industry, bestselling Chanel No. 5. Will his pilgrimage to a garden on the Nile supply the inspiration he needs? The answer lies in Burr’s informative and mesmerizing portrait of some of the extraordinary personalities who envision, design, create, and launch the perfumes that drive their billion-dollar industry.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
"Lilac smells like soiled underwear" the author writes, July 24, 2008
and I happen to like lilacs! His nose can't possibly be right all the time, can it? Maybe he just wanted to see if people will actually sniff soiled underwear and compare it with the smell of lilacs. Or, buy a Godiva chocolate bar to see if it really has a hint of "the smell of sh**." Well, I didn't do either one of those scratch n' sniff challenges. Thought about it, but...nah, no thanks! However, the Tonquin musk comparison challenge sounds intriguing; I just don't know where to get the Tonquin musk! ;-)
Anyway, I'm not at all into perfume, but after reading this book, I found myself stopping at perfume counters, spraying test strips and sniffing as many of the perfumes mentioned in the book as I could find. As other reviewers have said, the author has a such a fluid writing style, that he both entertains and educates the reader with wonderful ease; that is, if you like lots of metaphors and similes (I think it would be rather tough to write a book about scents, otherwise).
Years ago, MTV showed a 30-second clip of how JLo was developing her follow-up to Glow; I saw it and I wasn't impressed. JLo didn't seem involved at all with creating the scent: she was sniffing and rejecting fragrance blotters, that was all. The description of how SJP developed the scents for Lovely and Covet couldn't have been written better than her own PR person. Clearly, the author is a fan, and influenced my own positive views about the actress, even though I'm not crazy about the actual scents of Covet or Lovely.
If I hadn't borrowed and read the book, I would not have discovered Jo Malone's great scents at my local Nordstrom's. Now, I'm saving my money to purchase a bottle of Hermes' Un Jardin sur le Nil. But, then again, if it's true that 'Miss Dior' "smells like the armpit of a woman who has not bathed in a week," I can just save my money (and water) and go fragrance-free for the rest of my life. Isn't that good to know?
As much about creativity as perfume July 10, 2008
+1 to the other positive reviewers; I didn't find the story wordy, and I can see that adding more details about the perfumes mentioned in the epilogue would only have delayed the release of this book. Burr probably has another one in him...
Sidebar: My nose has never worked very well; attributed to a bad fall when I was a child. I buy perfume by the box and marketing package and based on response, seem to be getting it right.
Therefore, this story is about a world that's alien to me. I loved Chandler's faith-in-opinion (smells like ****). Mostly, I read this book as a documentation of the creative process, at least as expressed through a commercial product. It's hard to find artists who can speak clearly about how they get from idea to finished product; the big decisions that get made early and the increasingly constrained and refined adjustments along the way; the contribution of deadline and budget to the final product; the changes in thinking and ability that occur across a lifetime.
Four stars not five because it didn't change my life and the library can have their copy back. However, I did find myself buying Burr's Emperor of Scent when it crossed my path at a local used bookstore.
A Fascinating Journey Into The World of Luxury Fragrance April 16, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I enjoyed this book tremendously. It was definitely not a page-turner for me. Rather, I savored it steadily over several weeks. Still, rest assured that this will remain one of my favorite books. By the time I was done with it, I had a huge admiration for both the author and his subjects - both American and French. I attribute this to the skillful writing and crystal-clear honesty of the author. I thought it was wonderful to see discussions end with complete candor when things went "off-record", as well as full disclosure when sensitive topics and "hot" documents were discussed. I admire Burr's journalistic integrity, which is unfortunately an increasingly rare thing these days.
Before reading this book, I was, I will admit, a bit of a Francophobe, with no particular desire to ever set foot there again. Not even finished with the book, my wife and I began planning a family trip there. This is purely a product of the author's sensitive but unforced treatment of his French subjects. As noted in other reviews, he takes pains to provide complete yet flowing translations of French dialogue, which actually makes for a wonderful, engaging read. Many authors would toss out the French with an air of linguistic superiority and force the reader to sink or swim. Instead, Burr clearly wants everybody to get on board the train before it leaves, and it works. Whether it was the author or the editor or both, my hat is off to them.
The book teaches - almost unbeknownst to the reader - an enormous amount about fragrances. As a scientist, I can assure you that he does a marvelous job with the scientific aspects, and that he made even the "old hat" science interesting to me. The history, economics, marketing, and politics of fragrances - about which I know far less - was even more fascinating, and - I have no doubt - just as accurate. And the really neat thing is that he made it so damn interesting. I could almost feel the starched lab coats and smell the test strips, and I wanted to be there.
To my fellow fragranauts (or "fragra-nuts"), I offer this. Before reading this book, I knew next to nothing about the Hermes line of fragrances ("Hermes? The scarf people? You mean, they do fragrances?"). By the time I was done, I was *positive* that I would take a liking to "Terre d'Hermes". Sure enough, when I tested about a dozen newer fragrances in Sephora, I walked out with Terre d'Hermes. If you're a fragrance fetishist like me, this book will talk to you.
 The Perfect Scent March 29, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I was stuck to this book from beginning to end. I highly recommend the writing style and the subject. Fantastic!
As Addictive as a Great Perfume February 24, 2008
17 out of 18 found this review helpful
First I read "Emperor of Scent", but this is totally different from Burr's prior work on the world of fragrance. This one is an easy quick read (I finished it in a single day), but also addictive - you bounce back and forth from Paris and Jean-Claude Ellena's story of Hermes' "Jardin sur le Nil" and New York, where Burr see first-hand how Coty works with Sarah Jessica Parker to create "Lovely". Francophiles will delight in the liberal use of French phrasing and direct quotes (always translated), which gives a wonderful sense of place to the Paris/Grasse side of the story. The New York story is a mini biography of SJP herself - who turns out to be an incredibly likeable and compelling woman with a great sense of self.
I was also intrigued at the idea that fragrances were all unisex until the early 20th century - prior to then, men and women wore what they liked, rather than what was 'marketed' to them. And finally, finally! I understand why the majority of American fragrances smell the same to me - because they ARE the same (common ingredients in standard proportions)... and also why French perfumes are so vastly different.... and most interestingly, perhaps, is a wonderful and insightful discussion of "naturals" vs. "synthetics" in fragrance, which has forever altered my perspective on what is a 'quality' ingredient.
The only reason I gave the book for stars instead of five is honestly because the very end of the book felt rushed - felt incomplete. Given that it started life as an article in the New Yorker, I'm not surprised... articles and books have different requirements for endings. But I was very sorry to see the creative process that brought Parker's latest fragrance, Covet, to market in 2007 given only a paragraph in the end (though the origins are clearly visible throughout the early creative process and then meetings where IFF is trying to discern Parker's scent preferences. It would have been a nice coda to the original story, or perhaps to weave the Covet story throughout.
I bought the book on the strength of Burr's earlier work, and those who used it (as I did) as a virtual shopping list of fragrances to try will find this book an even better resource. And for the record, Jardin sur le Nil is one of my favorite fragrances, along with Jardin Mediterran and the newly-released Kelly Caleche. I am not a big fan of Lovely - but Parker's personal favorite scents are some of my own, and I also wear Covet on a regular basis... and now I will look forward to her next release, which I hope will have that 'dirty' feel she's been wanting to put out there from the beginning...
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