Create Your Own Perfumes: Using Essential Oils [Paperback]

Chrissie Wildwood (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1995

Gives the information needed for making your own aromatherapy perfumes. The different oils and their properties are described, with advice on which blend well together. The book also lists the necessary equipment and the different carrier oils needed, and provides perfume recipes.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Piatkus Books (October 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0749915331
• ISBN-13: 978-0749915339
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,668,574 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A nice companion, November 16, 2006

By 

Brian M. Shea (Chicago,IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Create Your Own Perfumes: Using Essential Oils (Paperback)

There is a lot to reccomend in this book. It is a nice adjunct to Mandy Aftels "Essence And Alchemy". This book predates Aftel's book by several years. It covers subjects that her book doesn't, I like how she gets into the effects of odors on the psyche, and the classifications of odor effects. I found the subjects of synethesia, aphrodisiacs,the narcotic properties of oils,and types of scents for types of people fascinating. However the largest flaw of the book is that Ms. Wildwood is an aromatherapist, and thus this book has that particular bent. Her array of oils is limited to the common aromatheraputic oils, other than some florals, and doesn't delve into any terribly exotic scents, which to my mind, are essential to a modern natural perfumers pallette. And this is the first and only time I've heard that tuberose absolute is toxic! I did like the section on Ayurveda, however. Her suggested blends sound interesting, I made one once, but not any others.

Personally, I find Aftels book a little more inspirational, but overall I think this would be a nice addition to a natural perfumers library.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars not bad, July 14, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Create Your Own Perfumes: Using Essential Oils (Paperback)

I got this in a flurry of purchasing perfumery books, and this is okay if you're not looking to learn much about a wide range of essential oils, but if you're looking for serious recipes it's like the rest of the books out there: good luck!

Still, this book does something that no other "current" perfume book does: it addresses the chemical compounds present in essential oils and comes close to driving home the point that these are active ingredients one is playing with.

My basic complaint is that it tries to be too much. I'm not an aromatherapist, and have no plans of branching into that, so I don't need to hear about that when I'm blending for purely aesthetic reasons. Nor do I need to read about ayurveda necessarily.

I recommend this book over the Aftel book, and indeed, can see where sections of that book found their inspiration in this volume. My hope is that Ms. Wildwood rewrites this and updates it with her current interests in mind, such as ethical harvesting of essential oils and sustainable agriculture of fragrant plants.