Perfumes, Splashes & Colognes: Discovering and Crafting Your Personal Fragrances (Paperback)

by Nancy M. Booth (Author) "When I was eight years old, I was given an F.A.O. Schwartz Christmas catalog with instructions to pick out a gift for myself..." (more)
Key Phrases: Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Annick Goutal (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
We live in a world surrounded by scents, some pleasant and some not always to our liking. Homemade natural scents can provide a pleasing alternative to commercial products. Booth, a teacher of perfumery, provides recipes for perfumes and other scented items using mainly essential oils, spices, herbs, and fruit extracts. A description of perfume ingredients and correct use of scents is included. Practical line drawings typical of this publisher accompany the text. A good selection for crafts collections.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description
With Nancy Booth's easy instructions and "Personal Scent Profile Quiz," readers will learn how to create customized perfume blends and re-create favorite commercial perfumes at a fraction of their retail price.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC (January 11, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0882669850
• ISBN-13: 978-0882669854
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #57,027 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

69 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful, easy to understand introduction to creating scent, December 1, 1997

By	[e-mail] (NYC) - See all my reviews

Nancy Booth has taken what can sometimes seem a confusing hobby, creating your own fragrances, and broken it down into easy to understand language. Her brief description of the history of fragrances was interesting and informative. I also appreciated the list she provides categorizing many popular scents on the market today. The quick and simple quiz included allows you to pinpoint what types of fragrances you or your friends are most drawn to. Her descriptions of the various scent profiles also helped me pinpoint which fragrances would appeal to friends and relatives. In addition to all of this she provides numerous, easy to follow recipes for perfumes and colognes that can be created quite easily at home. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in creating their own fragrances.

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Little Treasure, February 18, 2002

By	Patty Carncross (Bad Axe,, MI United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Perfumes, Splashes & Colognes is an education in fragrance. This is a great book for the unschooled reader. The author takes you through many aspects of fragrances, their classifications, the crafting of fine perfume, and the history behind fragrances.

The recipes are informative with a description of the type of scent it will make along with the instructions. Resources for obtaining ingredients are included along with suggestions for storing, and gift giving. I have throughly enjoyed this book.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice recipes, but..., February 11, 2004

By	Margaret Jackson (Montreal, Quebec, CANADA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I rated this book a 3 because it wasn't really what I expected. While it was very helpful to have the various scent classifications, the history of perfume and the Q&A test for finding your personal scent categories, this simply took up too much of the book. I guess my problem is that I was looking specifically for a "recipe book," not a page-after-page listing of designer perfumes and what scent category they fall into. Not quite sure why the author devoted so much of the book to this when the book is supposed to be about crafting your own perfumes and scents. Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of great information here and it is well presented, it just wasn't really what I had in mind when I bought the book. :)