Perfumes: The Guide | 
| Authors: Luca Turin, Tania Sanchez
Publisher: Viking Adult
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  67 reviews
Sales Rank: 19902
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 5.5 x 1.6
ISBN: 0670018651
Dewey Decimal Number: 668.54
EAN: 9780670018659
ASIN: 0670018651
Publication Date: April 10, 2008
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Book 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. 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 62 more reviews...
 some "experts" August 28, 2008
First, let me state clearly that I used to value Luca Turin's work, and I'm enthusiastic about "The secret of scent". It is his name which attracted my attention to this Guide.
Second, I did check authors' synopses on the back page. Dr. Turin holds a PhD in biophysics and writes about perfumes. For the little I know biophysics is not perfumery. Ms. Sanchez is an expert and avid perfume collector, writes on the Internet, lived in San Francisco and now in London. Now, how many prospective readers of this Guide don't collect perfumes, don't write on the Internet, didn't change a place of residence? OK, there is one difference - we don't claim to be experts.
Bemused by this preliminary finding I set out to explore the book. The faults I found are so many I will just enumerate them.
1) Text is uneven. Parts written by Turin (all text is initialed) flow easily, making for effortless reading. Sanchez's penmanship seems heavily indebted to tabloid prose, only it achieves higher level of sentence convolution. Copious references to "mom" and "dad" made me wonder if this book targets the adolescents.
2) Products selected for inclusion. A lot of these brands and fragrances is just noise. We either can't buy them in the USA, or they were shortly on the market and disappeared. What's the point of including these products, in particular since many are branded as either "disappointing" or "awful"?. (Though it does give an idea why some perfumes are not available this side of Atlantic.)
Remaining selections are either staple Sephora, or department store niche, say Creed or Annick Goutal.
3) Products not selected for inclusion. I looked for some the well-known names - Panthere de Cartier, Shiseido's Feminite du bois, Hermes' Rouge, Versace Blonde, Jardin du Nil MPG (do not confuse with Le Jardin sur le Nil by Hermes) - futilely. The whole brand of Molinard is dispensed with "cheap floral scents" and only Habanita merits the review. So-called niche is limited to few brands, as a rule available at department stores. Don't expect to find here any mention of DelRae, Nanadebarry, Christiane Gelle, Shalini or Fifi Chachnil of the frolicsome flacon. Not sure if the authors heard about Montale, MPG makes an appearance only once or twice. (Strangest of all, considering the taste exhibited in perfume rating - more below - they left out Avon.) Space does not allow me to list all what is missing.
At first I thought that the authors just pander to the interests of major department stores, but then checked again and yes, Trish McEvoy is also absent, so it's not department stores. Of course with the sheer number of perfumes on the market they had to make some exclusion choices, but what was the criteria? Perhaps product selection reflects the French/British market. Why, then, this book had been offered to the American public at all? Product selection should be adjusted to the local market.
4) Style of critique. Typical review is limited to up till three lines of qualifiers, intended to explain the fragrance's rating, which ranges from "masterpiece" to "awful". Any Internet-based retailer gives better "reviews" just by listing ingredients and comparable fragrances. This Guide is nothing better than a guide to personal tastes of the authors.
5) Tastes of the authors. Yes, they asked for it, by employing peculiar style of critique, see 4). Syrup, syrup ueber alles! True perfumery masterpiece sags under overload of vanilla and assorted kitchen odors, with generous hints at soiled underwear. Flowers, or rather "insect attractants", are deemed olfactorily inferior. Price is not a factor in rating, though price is said to reflect quality of ingredients; several affordable masterpieces may be found in the "personal care" section of your local food mart. Four labels - Guerlain, Estee Lauder, Chanel and Dior - dominate the field. Out of the three, two are owned by LVMH and only one has perfumes as its primary product. Given all this, I don't understand how the Authors could overlook Charlie!
The Authors never reveal their evaluation criteria.
6) Precision of execution. Sample case, Bulgari Black, which is rated "masterpiece" (did the Authors ever sniff the original Black, which reeked of burning rubber, and burning rubber alone? it wasn't pretty, but it was indeed outstanding in a very unappealing way. There is no mention of it in the review, while so many other scents come with history of all releases; current version of Black reeks of suburban mediocrity). The last sentence: "its place is with Bandit, Tabac Blond, and Cabochard among the great emancipated fragrances of all time". Now let's look at the ratings of the "great emancipated fragrances of all time". Bandit - a masterpiece; Tabac Blond - awful; Cabochard - disappointing. What did the Venerable Authors smell besides perfumes?
7) Presentation method. All products are listed alphabetically, followed by lists of "top ten" and all grade categories - masterpieces, recommended, disappointing, awful. Needless to say any such ranking functions only either as personal confession, or an attempt to influence prospective buyers. Judging by distribution of masterpieces across giant marketing firms we are dealing with the latter. That's why, perhaps, any absence of groupings and indexes based on the brand, creator, or the fragrance content.
On the positive note, I have absolutely no problem with the nasty tone of many reviews. Nasty wit can be wickedly funny and illuminating, though here it is neither, due to excess of cliches worn out by constant use in all texts on fashion, style and glamour. It doesn't matter anyhow, since the Guide totally fails in its purported mission. It is just another boring oeuvre on "style" (yes, "style" and not style), intended by its creator as a money-maker and directed at the newbies. Newbies are always numerous and impressionable, so it is rather easy to get them enthusiastic about - and spending on - anything.
Footnote: I did not buy this book, in spite of previous positive experience with one of the authors. Decided to borrow it first and check. And the verdict is: I will not buy this book and will not bother with any consecutive editions. Better to spend on some perfume not listed in this guide.
 Opens your eyes to a world beyond the Sephora selection--BUT! August 25, 2008
Yes, BUT! I was dancing with anticipation when the library finally delivered this to me. I am not a "perfumista" and I think I have a terrible nose for things. I am also a sucker for adverts, I admit it! So I was really interested to see so many perfumes reviewed in one volume.
Gone are the silly and ultimately unenlightening magazine tags of "fruity," "floral," and "sexy." LT and TS delve into depth for those perfumes that merit such attention, and for others, two words often suffice. I have no qualms whatsoever about the tone of this book, which many seem to think cruel or overly snipey. I may like it because, well, I talk that way myself.
However, I also have some serious complaints. It's not just that they dislike some fragrances that I like, etc. but LT's overall theory of perfume and its application in this guide leaves me cold. Perfume is something intimately tied to memory and personal taste. I cannot accept that perfume does not smell different on different people, as they posit. I tried Guerlain's Shalimar, which they rate as a masterpiece, but to me and on me it smells like wet baby diapers. Ew.
I was trying to think of an example: Those scientific chaps have shown that most of our sense of taste is really our sense of smell (this is why when you have a stuffy nose your food tastes off). Let's say a person absolutely abhors food X in any form. This person goes to the best restaurant in the world and the best chef at that restaurant prepares a complex and beautiful meal that also contains X. The person will still dislike it. Even though food critics may have lauded that dish for its mastery of ingredients, complexity, etc, that person will still hate it.
However, I learned about fragrances I never knew about before and have tried some of them with good results. But lots of brands and popular fragrances were completely omitted? Where's Fresh? Hard Candy? Gap?
I hope they revise this with new fragrances every year. I'll probably read it, but not buy it. And take everything with a handful of salt.
 Crash course in perfumery August 18, 2008
This book is a fascinating view into the world of perfume. While cursorily interested in fragrance, I had never before been overly concerned with the art of notes, accords, and blends. Now I'm eager to go about and smell perfumes with a fresh new understanding and appreciation.
Caveat - be prepared to have your favorites slaughtered or mercilessly derided by the authors. This didn't bother me at all, but sensitive souls (read: the easily offended) may want to avoid.
A learning experience August 17, 2008
Having loved perfume my whole life I found this book fascinating. Yes, there are many negative comments but it's the first time I ever read a review of perfumes that actually expressed anything but over the top compliments for every fragrance and manufacturer.
I honestly learned a lot about what it takes to create a good fragrance and I've been trying some of the ones they recommended, especially the classics that I never considered buying before. So far I've been pleased with every choice (Shalimar, Angel, several Estee Lauder scents) and have enjoyed the experience.
Equal parts Carl Sagan, Paul Fussell, and Pauline Kael July 27, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I expected a light, dumb read. What I got was the most hilarious and thought-provoking book I've read in the last five years. They explain the technicalities of the subject as directly and patiently as your favorite high school teacher, but the reviews are acidic and laugh-out-loud funny (My friends are sick to death of me calling them to read them passages.). When you consider how intimately scent is linked to both attraction and memory, it's amazing that so little attention is paid to it. It amazes me how little attention I'VE paid to it. I bought this book less than two months ago and I've read it twice and refer to it almost daily. I've read in a couple places that they might be starting a newsletter or magazine of some sort. It would be a shame if they didn't.
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