Perfumes: The Guide 2018 Paperback – June 27, 2018

I’ve never in my life written an Amazon review for anything. I was besotted by the first Perfumes the Guide, and am beside myself that this next installment is just as whip smart, honest, opinionated, intelligent, challenging, hilariously witty and viciously excoriating as the first. I am so happy right now.There is nothing more enjoyable than experts doing their thing, but very often expertise ends up meaning a gloss of pomposity - see art speak, some talk about chefs and their ‘journey’, movies that are all emperor’s new clothes, theatre performances where the texture of the seat in front of you is more interesting than any of the overheated gammon in the programme.These two are experts who bring their two wildly varying life experiences to inform the way they talk about smell (like dancing about architecture, only it WORKS) in the most exhilarating, elucidating and exciting way. I’d like to have some kind of badge or sticker to wear so other people who feel as passionately as I do about just how impressive their combined knowledge is and how very entertaining they make this art form would understand that they should talk to me IMMEDIATELY about how brilliant it is. The secret Luca-Tania hand gesture of an invisible spritz on the left wrist and an all-knowing sniff. Yes, I know, me too!It’s like a potted history of the world - polite and filthy, polished and raw, social life, pure sex, marketing, delusion, hope, chancerism, bold-faced lying, the sad diminution wrought by time, carelessness and capitalism, chemicals, storytelling, flowers, food, childhood memories, alien forms, history, the future, and magical talent.A Dickensian, sprawling, complicated, rewarding, beautiful clever and honest book. I couldn’t recommend it more highly. Loved every word.

A classic reference, very readable

I am well familiar with the earlier edition (Perfumes: The A-Z Guide) and frequently reread snippets of it.The rave points: 1) all-new material. No rehashes of fragrances reviewed in the earlier edition. 2) enjoyable prose. I'm still not sure whether I enjoy the rhapsodies or the pans best, because each type of review is worth reading. 3) learning. Dr. Turin's understanding of perfume structure is pretty much beyond me (and I'm not sure I care all that much), but I always learn something from reading his comments. 4) discovering something new to smell. Several of the niche/independent companies mentioned in reviews in this edition were previously unknown to me, and I'm enjoying getting to know their fragrances. 5) entertaining. It's always fun to disagree with a review and snort loudly and disparage the authors' parentage, etc., while impatiently swiping the Kindle page. (Twilly gets 5 stars? PUHLEASE. It's a chemical disaster, with not only that flat chalky baby-aspirin orange note, but also the eye-stabbing lab-created jasmine thing completely overwhelming the ginger and tuberose.)The quibbles: 1) not nearly as comprehensive as I'd expected. I get it, this is all new, but there are frequently only a few fragrances reviewed from a prolific line. Samples of some lines mentioned are unobtainable by me in the U.S., even in this age of online orders. And some prominent indie/niche lines aren't reviewed at all. (I suspect, for example, that after Turin made a less-than glowing comment on his now-closed blog, Perfumes I Love, about the "natural" ingredients of Hiram Green fragrances, HG declined to have his scents included.) This kind of hit-or-miss inclusion does readers, particularly ones who'd like to use this guide as a "try this line" advisory, a minor injustice. 2) the balance of reviews written by co-authors seems off. I haven't counted, but a casual reading displays far fewer reviews written by Tania Sanchez than I'd expected, given the makeup of the earlier edition. Frankly, I miss seeing her writing and I feel that maybe the reviews are skewed toward one person's tastes rather than a mix of preferences. Which brings me to my third point. 3) personal preferences heavily influence ratings. Unavoidable, probably. All fragrance reviewers have preferences, and those tend to influence what they choose to review as well as the ratings. Even so, this volume seems far more skewed toward Turin's preferences than the earlier edition, and that in itself was fairly influenced. (For example, some really cutting reviews are reserved for scents that seem to have gotten his hopes up by referencing in their names a raw material he loves, such as iris or gardenia, and then turning out to not feature that material as prominently or as correctly as he'd hoped. I, on the other hand, could not possibly care less whether an Iris-This named perfume actually smells like iris butter or not, since I don't love that material, and I wish he'd quit having those knee-jerk reactions.)Even with the quibbles, I've enjoyed this Kindle ebook very much and will probably order the paper copy when it is released. The writing is still a delight.

Turin and Sanchez’s monumental book Perfumes: The A-Z Guide was profound, necessary, passionate and compelling. It stimulated an evolutionary leap in perfumery that changed the landscape and inspired hundreds of new perfumers to use their talent and imagination. It resulted in a world of beauty no one thought possible. It was so vivid, stylish, hilarious and technically good, even critics with little interest in perfume considered it one of the best books of the year.Perfumes The Guide 2018 is a different approach that covers all kinds of fragrances, but puts even more emphasis on niche and artisan perfumes. Like the first book, its substantial, extremely easy to read and highly entertaining, .but for many people this book is a great assist to those attempting to understand and define the genuinely worthwhile creations. Perfumery has changed radically. It's mind-blowing. Many of today's fragrances have to be smelled to be believed, and to generate context. The book focuses, not upon what is found at Neiman Marcus, (etc etc), with their corporate, mass consciousness, profit generating agendas, but rather the wave of perfumes that represent craftsmanship and art (as was centuries ago). That sometimes go to great lengths for the ingredients (and sometimes don't) to develop something of beauty. The pioneers, scientists, explorers, who are often more interested in what they can find, and combine, and present.At a time when so many people are simply looking to take your money, Perfumes The Guide 2018 is more relevant than ever. Luxury may have lost its luster, but this book will help you find the good stuff.