Perfume: The Art and Science of Scent Book

The Essence of Illusion

Promise her anything...but give her Perfume. This bewitching, lavishly illustrated book explores every aspect of the fascinating yet little-known art and science of scent, which for thousands of years has worked its powerfully seductive magic on men and women all over the world.

You'll witness every stage of the development of a perfume, from the rose fields of rural Morocco to the finest department stores of Paris and New York. You'll attend a school for perfumers in Provence where hopeful apprentices hone their skills, meet the legendary alchemists who create complex, closely guarded formulas, which can be worth millions, and listen in as executives devise strategies for tapping the 15-billion-dollar-a-year perfume market -- an intensely competitive arena where failure can literally destroy a company.

Throughout, you'll glory in stunning color photographs that capture all the elegance and romance of an art where image is truly everything -- the sensuous shape of a crystal flask filled with amber enchantment, the alluring promise of a whiff of scent on a gentle evening breeze, the extraordinary power of perfume to evoke the memory of a treasured moment. Glamorous, mysterious, enthralling, this is a book as sophisticated and irresistible as the classic art it celebrates.