Our BSP President, Marianne Martin shared her review of ‘In Search of Perfume: A Lifetime Journey to the Sources of Nature’s Scents’ by Dominique Roques:
“Dominique Roques brings alive with warmth and respect for all the people he finds along his search for perfumes. From the perfumers with their childlike excited-ness on smelling a botanical in the fresh plant for the first time, [I can see myself jump off the page here]; through the dedicated processors and growers often with a heritage of knowledge, but not forgetting his connection to the pickers. For example, he was happy to sit down with forest people and learn respect for their skill in revealing the precious nut within the Tonka fruit.
His love for the ingredients and all those who help to bring them to the perfumer’s palette sings from every page.
A joy to read as someone who can now bring all the odours he speaks about to mind. I would recommend it to everyone who wants an insight into perfumery and its ingredients. If a trainee is learning materials for the first time, they could do no better than read the chapter on the ingredient they are studying to gain knowledge about the areas the material is grown in and the geopolitics involved in the most charming and accessible way.”
‘In Search of Perfume: A Lifetime Journey to the Sources of Nature’s Scents’ by Dominique Roques (Mountain Leopard Press, £20) available from all good bookshops.
*A review copy of the book was provided by the publisher, with no fees or obligation to review.