Any kind of moving into commercial areas becomes a minefield set around with regulations which have come in force, due to (in my opinion) precisely the everywhere use of synthetic cocktails of fragrance products.
I think many people have become ‘sensitised’ to artificial isolates But I only do it for personal use, or face to face friends etc that I might make something for. I have the same reaction to processed food. I’ve not bought commercial perfumes for decades because they smell of strange chemistry to me, rather than ‘real’ or harmonious. At its best we are drawn into a realisation of the complexity of growing the plants, of extractions to yield their aromatics, of a weight of history behind themĪnd Aftel brings all this along with her in her book, connecting ‘’Per fumem” to its original, sacred roots, and the making of perfume from extracting essential oils from plants to an original pairing with alchemy. Those of us who are pulled, for many reasons, by perfume using plants, know that this is slow, reflective perfumery. And, her interest is in natural perfumes, rather than those of novel synthesised chemistry created in a lab. Originally a psychotherapist she brings that listening delight to teasing out the useful story of ‘the other’ the uncovering of hidden meaning, to the way she sees her present vocation – perfumer. There is something enormously pleasing about the original slow work involved in making, for example, botanical line drawings, woodcuts and the like, which are then here reproduced.Īftel is a fascinating writer, too. Instead, dense and engagingly written text, lightened and deepened by beautiful line drawings – which are actually so much more satisfying (for this reader) than the usual photographer and bottles of perfume artfully arranged number. Her book is far from a leaf through, light on substance pretty picture coffee table book.
Writing on perfume so fine and evocative I could smell the accords in imagination!Īftel’s book is a delight, to all who might be interested in perfumery, the mysteries of olfaction, and, particularly how psyche and aroma connect.
0 kommentar(er)
