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Amazon.com Review The first book of its kind: a definitive guide to the world of perfume
Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez are experts in the world of scent. Turin, a renowned scientist, and Sanchez, a longtime perfume critic, have spent years sniffing the world's most elegant and beautiful--as well as some truly terrible--perfumes. In Perfumes: The Guide, they combine their talents and experience to review more than twelve hundred fragrances, separating the divine from the good from the monumentally awful. Through witty, irreverent, and illuminating prose, the reviews in Perfumes not only provide consumers with an essential guide to shopping for fragrance, but also make for a unique reading experience.
Perfumes features introductions to women's and men's fragrances and an informative "frequently asked questions" section including: What is the difference between eau de toilette and perfume? How long can I keep perfume before it goes bad? What's better: splash bottles or spray atomizers? What are perfumes made of? Should I change my fragrance each season?
Perfumes: The Guide is an authoritative, one-of-a-kind book that will do for fragrance what Robert Parker's books have done for wine. Beautifully designed and elegantly illustrated, this book will be the perfect gift for collectors and anyone who's ever had an interest in the fascinating subject of perfume.
Picking a Perfect Perfume
For Perfumes: The Guide, Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez tested nearly 1,500 fragrances--some glorious, some foul. Here they offer some humble advice on finding something worth loving among the stinkers.
1. Smell top to bottom Perfumes usually unfold in three (often very different) stages: the sparkling first few minutes are the fragrance's top note, followed by its true personality, known as the heart note, and ending with the base note, aka the drydown, hours later. Something you love at the counter you may loathe by the parking lot. We recommend top-to-bottom tests on skin and on paper, since some scents that disappoint on the heat of skin may shine on your shirtsleeve.
2. Write it down Bring a pen to write names on paper test strips, so you're not in anguish hours later, trying to recall which is the third scent from the left that transports you to Shangri-La. Keep a cheap, possibly extremely trashy paperback on hand, so you can store strips between pages to keep them separate.
3. Rest your nose Noses tune out, which is why you can smell your friends' homes but not your own. Smell no more than five scents per day on paper strips and try on only the best one or two, to keep your nose reliable.
4. Check the radiance To get a good sense of how the perfume will smell to other people as you walk past, try spraying a test strip and leaving it in the room while you step out for a bit. Come back fifteen minutes later and breathe in: that's the radiance.
Product Description "The first book of its kind: a definitive guide to the world of perfume Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez are experts in the world of scent. Turin, a renowned scientist, and Sanchez, a longtime perfume critic, have spent years sniffing the world's most elegant and beautiful as well as some truly terrible perfumes. In Perfumes: The Guide, they combine their talents and experience to review more than twelve hundred fragrances, separating the divine from the good from the monumentally awful. Through witty, irreverent, and illuminating prose, the reviews in Perfumes not only provide consumers with an essential guide to shopping for fragrance, but also make for a unique reading experience. Perfumes features introductions to women's and men's fragrances and an informative frequently asked questions section including: What is the difference between eau de toilette and perfume? How long can I keep perfume before it goes bad? What's better: splash bottles or spray atomizers? What are perfumes made of? Should I change my fragrance each season? Perfumes: The Guide is an authoritative, one-of-a-kind book that will do for fragrance what Robert Parker's books have done for wine. Beautifully designed and elegantly illustrated, this book will be the perfect gift for collectors and anyone who's ever had an interest in the fascinating subject of perfume."
God, I love this book!November 15, 2008 If you love perfume, and I mean REALLY love perfume, then this book is for you.
It gives you details on every perfume on the market (and many that aren't but can still be acquired on the internet) and not just the facts but the EXPERIENCE of what it's like to sniff each one. I may not always agree with their opinion, but this is irrelevant: they have given me an idea; something to work with.
I am a person who will literally follow someone down the street if they are wearing a perfume I like. In recent years I had not fallen in love with any scent. This book fixed that. By buying samples of scents they recommended, I now have two signature scents.
Truly, for the perfume lover, a sumptuous feast!
Fantastic readNovember 10, 2008 After reading an outstanding review in the New Yorker for this book, I went out and bought it, and have loved it. As that review says, it is a model for anyone who is interested in aesthetics, particularly talking about food and wine. It is a fantastic combination of art (whimsical, evocative, and funny descriptions) and science (describing the chemical families and compounds that make up perfumes). The authors provide a five star rating system for lots of perfumes, which makes for amusing reading (a friend who had just spent $100 on a perfume was shocked to hear it called "reminiscent of ham"), and has interested me in seeking out some of the five-star perfumes. This book also makes a great gift.
A book of opinions - not even indexed!October 18, 2008 I was disappointed in this book and didn't find it useful. It doesn't have entries for KL, Jess (or any Jessica McClintock), or Giorgio - some of my favorites from the past. Scent is a very personal issue for me. First time I ever returned something to Amazon.
Use this book As An Interactive Guide to Exploring and Collecting PerfumesOctober 7, 2008 3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I'm older now, and I have a little more disposable income (and a lot more self-confidence), so I have had great fun using this book's witty reviews to guide me in trying and purchasing perfumes. I never had more than one or two bottles of perfume on my vanity table before. Now I have several dozen because this book has made me see perfume in a whole new way.
Yes, the book is a delight to read, but I have found it much more fun to actually use. Interestingly, I discovered just how interactive this book can be because I am a book lover.
I was intrigued by the book's description of a perfume by L'Artisan Parfumeur called Dzing! The authors likened the perfume's scent to a "secondhand bookstore." I purchased a bottle on a whim when I happened across it on a trip to New York. It was only when I was browsing at my favorite used bookstore days later that it struck me. The vanilla overtones in this fabulous scent do indeed evoke the wonderful aroma of old paper. I smelled my wrist, I sniffed the terrific, familiar book-laden air around me, I felt a happy sense of discovery and I was hooked.
Since reading this book, I have stuck it into my tote whenever I plan to be in a major department store. The book's vignettes ignite my curiosity and imagination.
Take, for example, Thierry Mugler's Angel. The authors deem this scent a masterpiece. They tell the reader the history behind the scent -- that it started as a joke which combined the elements of a masculine and a feminine fragrance, but that in making that joke the perfumer came up with a truly new kind of scent. The authors point out that Angel exists in a "high energy state of contradiction. Many perfumes are beautiful or pleasant, but how many are exciting?" Then the authors deliver the zinger, which gives me a mental image for placing the perfume into my own life context. They say that Angel evokes that " woman in a film who seethes "He's so annoying!" and marries him in the end." I got that! I could then smell the contradiction and the attraction in the scent. I purchased a bottle because the scent now "speaks" to me in a way it never could have before I read this book.
Is perfume necessary to my existence? No. When my children were small and we had meager time, money or energy, perfume was simply that handy bottle of Chanel No. 5 my mother had sent me for Christmas which I sprayed on to feel pretty on those infrequent dinner/movie dates with my husband (when we could get a babysitter.) Do I agree with everything the authors say about the various perfumes? No, but that's part of the fun.
This book has opened a pleasant door for me. Perfume has become a fascinating foray into sensual exploration. I enjoy reading the metaphors and similes, the creative adjectives and backstories describing these perfumes, and then experimenting with the truth of them for myself.
The authors have done something wonderful with this book. They have taken the mystique which advertising has always made sure surrounded fragrance and swept it away. But they have replaced that mystique with something better -- little personalities, if you will, for the different scents. Now browsing at the perfume counter has become like attending a cocktail party filled with famous people. Some will speak to you immediately. Some will stand back, but become friendly if you approach. Some are dull as dishwater. Some you will dislike. But being an insider at the party is exciting. I love that I have an invitation.
Catty, superior, and yes - bitchy.October 6, 2008 1 out of 4 found this review helpful
One liners about how bad certain perfumes smell isn't really what I would expect from a book that takes itself so seriously as to be titled "Perfumes: The Guide". I was hopeing for something informative. Instead I got two divas with their claws out.
Yes, they're clever. They're also so superior it's nauseating.
The information in the begining of the book was helpful, I enjoyed that. But the reviews were a waste of time. My issue is not with how many stars they give a certain perfume or whether or not I agree with how much they liked it (or hated it so much they insulted and mocked it), I just would have enjoyed a little more subtance and a little less venom.
And for the people who were insuled by the bad reviews of their perfumes, I can see why you would be. This book is very insulting to what it does not worship. I can understand why someone who enjoys, and smells like a perfume that gets ridiculed in this book could take that a little personally.
Keywords: Perfumes: The Guide, General AAS, All Products, parfum, discount perfumes, fragrance, cologne, French perfume, skin care, cosmetics, parfum la femme, eau de cologne, eau de parfum, eau de toilette
For Perfumes: The Guide, Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez tested nearly 1,500 fragrances--some glorious, some foul. Here they offer some humble advice on finding something worth loving among the stinkers. 
