A perfumer's and flavorist's practical description of available materials, their origin, production and processing, appearance, odor and flavor type, evaluation, application and availability with brief notes on their main constituents, replacements and most common adulterants.

An artisan perfumer reveals a lost art and its mysterious, sensual history. For centuries, people have taken what seems to be an instinctive pleasure in rubbing scents into their skin. Perfume has helped them to pray, to heal, and to make love. And as long as there has been perfume, there have been perfumers, or rather the priests, shamans, and apothecaries who were their predecessors. Yet, in many ways, perfumery is a lost art, its creative and sensual possibilities eclipsed by the synthetic ingredients of which contemporary perfumes are composed, which have none of the subtlety and complexity of essences derived from natural substances, nor their lush histories. Essence and Alchemy resurrects the social and metaphysical legacy that is entwined with the evolution of perfumery, from the dramas of the spice trade to the quests of the alchemists to whom today's perfumers owe a philosophical as well as a practical debt. Mandy Aftel tracks scent through the boudoir and the bath and into the sanctums of worship, offering insights on the relationship of scent to sex, solitude, and the soul. Along the way, she imparts instruction in the art of perfume compositions, complete with recipes, guiding the reader in a process of transformation of materials that continues to follow the alchemical dictum solve et coagula (dissolve and combine) and is itself aesthetically and spiritually transforming.

A text/reference regarding the structure and function of components used in perfume development and the process of developing perfumes. Covers gas chromatography, mass spectrometry and a host of other analytical techniques; the esthetics and techniques of perfume development; the manifold and ever-changing safety-related requirements of countries and customers; concerns about the environmental impact of materials and impurities which affect the perfumer's work.

Get a good start in flavor and fragrance chemistry! This book presents a survey of those natural and synthetic fragrance and flavor materials which are commercially available, produced and used on a relatively large scale and which are important ingredients for the creation of fragrance and flavor compositions because of their specific sensory characteristics, e.g., smell, taste. It provides information on their properties, methods employed in their manufacture, and their areas of application. This is the 5th edition of the classic "Bauer-Garbe". '...The excellent and concise introduction to this unique industry is followed by extensive information on nearly 500 of the most used fragrance and flavor compounds. Names, molecular formula, physical data, odor and flavor descriptions, uses, and a number of processes for the larger scale production of chemicals are all included. Successive chapters deal with essential oils, animal secretions, quality control, toxicology and literature. The formula, name and CAS registry number index are an invaluable and timely addition.' - Parfumer and Flavorist '...Data that would normally have to be selected from many different books are available in one source with this book...with over 800 citations throughout the text, this is a nearly inexhaustible source of information.' - Euromaterials

The first edition of this unique book established itself as an unparalleled source of information on perfume. Although it is primarily aimed at perfumers and others in the perfume industry, it has also found substantial sales among a wide range of others including aromatherapists, botanists, and many others who wanted to learn more about this faceted subject. The new edition is now aimed squarely at perfumery marketing specialists and others in the industry world-wide and covers in particular the needs of publicity/advertising teams and journalists, together with sales people and consultants at the counters who like to have a wide range of information at their fingertips. Changes include: an expansion of the number of profiles of the perfume houses, and of the 50 or so new perfumes worthy of record which have been launched since the previous edition. There is also increased coverage of the essences and the plants and other material from which they are derived. Coverage of perfume containers is substantially expanded and linked to other parts of the book.