Essence and Alchemy: A Natural History of Perfume

REVISED EDITION, 2022

For centuries, people have taken an instinctive pleasure in rubbing scents into their skin and using them to pray, to heal, and to make love. Yet in many ways perfumery, with its lush history and creative and sensual possibilities, is a lost art. No one knows this better than artisan natural perfumer Mandy Aftel, who has spent nearly thirty years immersed in the world of scent, culling the most beautiful natural essences from all over the world and using them to create ...