Tuesday 2 September 2008

Perfumes The Guide


One of my favourite books for 2008 is Perfumes The Guide by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez. Turin and Sanchez, who are a real-life couple, write highly informative and always entertaining, if not laugh-out-loud hilarious reviews of perfumes that are always interesting to read, even if you've never sniffed the perfume being reviewed. I highly recommend visiting the official website and downloading their new quarterly update to the guide. The first (and current) issue is free but subsequent issues will be by subscription.

I had to order my copy of the book from Amazon.com but it is now available at Kinokuniya in Bugis Junction (I haven't seen it at the Kino in Ngee Ann City but they should carry it too). Also worth picking up is Chandler Burr's The Emperor of Scent which tells the story of Turin's efforts to propound a new theory of smell, and The Perfect Scent: A Year Inside the Perfume Industry in Paris and New York, which tells the stories behind the development of Sarah Jessica Parker's Lovely and Hermes' Un Jardin sur le Nil. Burr is the New York Times' resident fragrance critic.

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