The Perfect Scent – Chandler Burr

In paperback from Amazon.com - $10.20

Buy it if: You love seeking out random information for which you have no context…and don’t understand how the f*#& they can charge $140 for three ounces of smelly liquid?!

Don’t Buy it if: You think perfume should be sold by the liter and cost about $5.95 a bottle…

Whilst walking through Manhattan this week I happened to pass by the Hermes boutique and was suddenly struck by this thought – I wonder if they still have ‘Un Jardin sur le Nil’? This is significant because until I finished Chandler Burr’s The Perfect Scent, I would have never have given such a shop a second glance. And I guarantee you that the words ‘Un Jardin’ wouldn’t be floating through my brain. Yet now I can’t help but notice the horse-motif near the entrance, a nod to the company’s beginnings as a saddle maker, while wondering if Jean-Claude is still crafting their marquis perfume.

This, to me, is proof of great writing. Burr, The New York Times’ resident perfume writer, (I know, who even knew such a position existed?!) managed to grab my attention and hold it rapt with tales of French perfume, the politics of Parisian design houses and – I wouldn’t have believed it myself – Sarah Jessica Parker. Like a great book on wine, food or travel, you’ll spend good portions of your time reading wishing you could experience all that the author is describing…the mark of truly engaging words. (In a thoughtfully synergistic marketing move that benefits the reader who confronts this desire, the paperback version of the book does come with a bookmark containing a sample of Sarah Jessica’s fragrance, Lovely.)

Overtly, the book follows twinned storylines: One follows along as Mrs. Parker attempts to design her own scent and bring it to market, eventually creating one of the most successful celebrity perfumes yet seen. The other is the old world journey of the aforementioned Un Jardin sur le Nil, a scent created by Jean-Claude Ellena, a renowned perfumier who’s been retained by Hermes as they attempt to stamp their mark on the startlingly cutthroat designer perfume business. And you thought it was all just putting nice-smelling stuff into a bottle?

Burr uses these two specific narratives to lay out an elegant tale of the entire industry. While I have to assume the business described is not unknown to some, I would be willing to bet the average reader – like myself – will find the journey of these combined molecules from inspiration to laboratory, from design to market, utterly fascinating. Perfumery is a true art that is delivered by science, and the process is simply astounding. The author provides excellent descriptions of precisely the right depth and length, enough to involve the reader and evoke curiosity, but not stall the book’s forward motion. The silver lining for those of you who eschew the knockoff perfumes and colognes in Target is the inclusion of the astronomical prices of some of the building scents used to create these olfactory elixirs. It’s oddly reassuring to know that the people tasked with building these scents can tell you not only that they prefer jasmine that comes from Grasse instead of India, but also why. And how the difference in price may be justified. You may still not feel that tiny bottle with the Dior label on it is worth $300, but at least you’ll know that number is not simply a company trading on its name for the highest possible margins.

The Perfect Scent succeeded – for me – as a piece of writing by taking a subject for which I have no context or familiarity and igniting an interest that grew steadily over the course of my reading. Chandler Burr gives you just enough information to be dangerous at cocktail parties, but also keeps your intellect involved to the point that you will continue to look down long, elegant perfume counters with a new respect sense of intrigue as you consider the long journey these liquids have taken. Dare I say it? Ok, fine, this one smells like a winner.