Washoe County Library System

No journalist has ever been allowed into the ultrasecretive, highly pressured process of originating a perfume. But Chandler Burr, the New York Times perfume critic, spent a year behind the scenes observing the creation of two major fragrances. Now, writing with wit and elegance, he juxtaposes the stories of the perfumes--one created by a Frenchman in Paris for an exclusive luxury-goods house, the other made in New York by actress Sarah Jessica Parker...

Handmade soap is made extra-special with the addition of milk! Soaps enriched with milk are creamier than those made with water, and milks natural oils provide skin-renewing moisture and nourishment. In Milk Soaps, expert soapmaker Anne-Marie Faiola demystifies the process with step-by-step techniques and 35 recipes for making soaps that are both beautiful and useful. She explains the keys to success in using a wide range of milk types, including...

"From one of America's most imaginative storytellers comes a passionate tale of love and treachery, spanning the days of Catherine de Medici's court to the twenty-first century and starring a woman drawn back, time and again, to the past. In 1533, an Italian orphan with an uncanny knack for creating fragrance is plucked from poverty to become Catherine de Medici's perfumer. To repay his debt, over the years Rene; le Florentine is occasionally called...

"For perfume makers, each smell carries with it a multitude of associations and impressions that must be carefully analyzed and understood before the sum of all its parts emerges. All perfumers have their own idiosyncratic methods, drawn from their individual olfactory experiences, for classifying fragrances. In Atlas of Perfumed Botany, virtuoso perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena leads readers on a poetic, geographic, and botanical journey of perfume discovery....

"When Andy Whiffler--aka Super Schnoz--first smells Strange, the world's most famous, celebrated, and mysterious perfume of all time, he falls in love. Strange's recipe is a highly guarded secret, but all Andy has to do is take one whiff and he instantly recognizes every ingredient in the mixture--except one. Now, he's on a personal mission to figure out the last ingredient, but so is the evil, greedy owner of the Francais Scent Company, Pierre du...

"In New York City everybody needs a side hustle, and perfumer Vic Fowler has developed a delicate art that has proved to be very lucrative: creating bespoke scents that evoke immersive memories-memories that, for Vic's clients, are worth killing for. But the city is expensive, and these days even artisanal murder doesn't pay the bills. When Joseph Eisner, a former client with deep pockets, offers Vic an opportunity to expand the enterprise, the money...

"Known around the world for her eponymous brand of fragrances and now her brand-new venture Jo Loves (soon to debut in the US), Jo Malone tells the remarkable and inspiring story of her rise from humble beginnings to beloved business success. Jo Malone began her international fragrance and scented candle business in 1983 from her kitchen, where she made bath oils as thank-you gifts for her facial clients. She opened her first store in London in 1994,...

"Former CEO of Estee Lauder, Leonard Lauder, shares the business and life lessons he learned while turning the company his mother founded into a multi-billion dollar enterprise"--

A struggling perfumer who has forged an unlikely friendship with Grace Kelly against a backdrop of the latter's high-profile wedding considers what she is prepared to sacrifice when she falls in love with a British press photographer. "Set in the 1950s against the backdrop of Grace Kelly's whirlwind romance and glamourous wedding to Prince Rainier of Monaco, New York Times bestselling author Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb take the reader on an evocative...

"In this intoxicating concoction of history, travelogue, and memoir, one of the perfume industry’s leading scouts of natural ingredients tells the story of the precious ingredients needed to make our favorite fragrances. Do you know how many flowers it takes to produce a kilo of rose oil? One million roses, each handpicked. When it comes to nature, Dominique Roques is a unique authority. He has spent the last thirty years working closely with local...