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The Secret Life of Scent
by Mandy Aftel
Mandy Aftel is widely acclaimed as a trailblazer in natural perfumery. Over two decades of sourcing the finest aromatic ingredients from all over the world and creating artisanal fragrances, she has been an evangelist for the transformative power of scent. In Fragrant, through five major players in the epic of aroma, she explores the profound connection between our sense of smell and the appetites that move us, give us pleasure, make us fully alive. Cinnamon, queen of the Spice Route, touches our hunger for the unknown, the exotic, the luxurious. Mint, homegrown the world over, speaks to our affinity for the familiar, the native, the authentic. Frankincense, an ancient incense ingredient, taps into our longing for transcendence, while ambergris embodies our unquenchable curiosity. And exquisite jasmine exemplifies our yearning for beauty, both evanescent and enduring.
In addition to providing a riveting initiation into the history, natural history, and philosophy of scent, Fragrant imparts the essentials of scent literacy and includes recipes for easy-to-make fragrances and edible, drinkable, and useful concoctions that reveal the imaginative possibilities of creating with?and reveling in?aroma. Vintage line drawings make for a volume that will be a treasured gift as well as a great read.
"Starred Review. The book is peppered with fascinating trivia [and] recipes and tidbits … that entice readers to wake up their noses and perhaps engage in their own scent alchemy." - Publisher's Weekly
"Evocative, heady and overflowing with history and lore." - Kirkus
"Fragrant is a thoughtful, beautifully written meditation on scent ... This book vividly shows how the aromas of the natural world have the power to open the pathways to our minds, guiding and defining our traditions, our history and our future." - Alice Waters
"An eloquent account of the forgotten stories of nature's aromatic materials, the pleasure and meaning that they've given to people through the centuries, and simple ways of bringing those riches back into our own lives." - Harold McGee, New York Times columnist and bestselling author of On Food & Cooking
This information about Fragrant was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Mandy Aftel is an internationally known artisan perfumer and the author of six previous books, including Essence and Alchemy: A Natural History of Perfume. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Vogue, O, The Oprah Magazine, Elle, In Style, W, and Bon Appétit, among many other publications. Aftel lives in Berkeley, California.
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