The Perfect Scent: A Year Inside the Perfume Industry in Paris and New York

Chandler Burr deviates from his past books and approaches perfume differently in "The Perfect Scent." The New York Times perfume critic teaches the reader so much about scent, human nature, the perfume business and other interesting things that the book is hard to put down (or turn off as we listeners might say). This book is a glamorous travel travelogue through the industry and the development of scents.

The most interesting story Burr follows is the development of a scent by Sarah Jessicah Parker. The detail, sensitivity to people and circumstances, and story telling ability are just great.

Though Adam Gollner's "The Fruit Hunters" was different in approach, it makes an interesting companion listen to "The Perfect Scent." Where Burr informs about scent, Gollner approaches fruit and those who search the world for it.

The book is well written and read. If you are unfamiliar with the fragrance industry and are looking for something that will inform as well as entertain - this volume just might be for you. Burr kept my ear lobes in his hands for hours!

I'm glad I didn't let the comments about the narrator's French pronunciation scare me way from buying this audiobook. The narrator has a soothing and clear voice. Often his French sounds like it comes through a mouthful of marbles, and sometimes it's downright wrong. If your best French is high school level, like mine, it won't bother you much. The book itself is fun and interesting.

Like the others, I enjoyed learning about the "industry", particularly as Un Jardin sur le Nil is one of my personal favorites.
However, the narrator's total lack of preparation to pronounce occasional French words and phrases is unforgivable. Not everyone knows foreign languages, but why not at least tutor him in what he needs to say? It was painful . . .

I loved this book because it is interesting and practical. No doubt that author has an expertise in this area. The book gave me an idea about the perfume industry from the insider's point of view. I learned about the interrelationship between the fashion houses, the process of perfume creation, and the money involved. Perfumers stay in the shade of brand names and celebrities, but they are the true artists behind our attraction to the "perfect" scents. It also listed the most famous perfumes, which I found very surprising. It described some of celebrities in relation to creating the scents. I love the "Sex&City" series, so I was happy to see Sara Jessica Parker outside the screen.
Narration was very clear, very easy to listen to.
If you want to know your perfume, this is a book for you!!!

I was pleased to see that I was not alone in appreciating Chandler Burr's outstanding book, which has me looking forward to being alone in my car, while deploring its narration. But indeed, the gargling sound that represents the narrator's attempts to render French text are grating beyond belief. They are included to capture the nuance for those of us who speak the language, but it was completely unintelligible, and I found myself just tuning out as much as possible and waiting for the English translation!

Fascinating account of fragrance and the path from concept to the shelf. Hearing about the creation of a Hermes perfume by Jean-Claude Ellena was delightful. However, as mentioned in the previous review, the narrator made frequent errors in French pronunciation glaringly obvious even to one who has only had French in school. These errors distracted greatly from the listening experience--like fingernails on old-fashioned blackboard--and they occured almost every time he narrated anything in French. I finally gave up listening about half way through and got the book to read. Compare to Julia Child's and Marcella Hazan's recent biographies which contains a lot of, respectively, French and Italian, and were both pleasures to hear. I hope when Audible chooses future narrators, it will pay more attention to the narrator's fluency in whatever foreign language the book includes.

I did like this book. I listened to this book while driving from Portland, OR to Boise. I sure know now a bit about the perfume industry. I'!m still not happy about paying so much for my Gucci.

This was a very interesting book on perfume, the making, marketing and enjoyment of it. I was fascinated by the details of perfume history, how it is developed and how it is marketed. Not being much of a tv watcher of "stories", I had no idea who Sarah Jessica Parker was, but am now a fan of hers (although I am still not sure who she is except I would recognize her perfume lines).

Very well written, until Chapter 10, when he seemed to descend into crudeness, which I did not expect or appreciate and it kind of turned me off on the whole book. I am not going to apologize for not appreciating the crudeness, it was absolutely unnecessary.

Some areas went into too much detail, but I as fascinated the New York Times has a "perfume specialist" and I will watch for his articles!

This opened up a whole new world to me, which is what I enjoy about books like this.

I find the making of perfume a very interesting topic but I never realized how complicated the creation, packaging, distrubution and maketing was until I listened to this book. It was 99% entertaining and informative with the one drawback of the reading of a few lists of compounds in a specific perfume. Had I been reading the print version I would have quickly scanned the list but having them read to me was more I needed to know. The sections dealing with the creation of the Hermes perfume "Gardens of the Nile" and the Sarah Jessica Parker celebrity scent "Lovely" were especially entertaining and enlightening.

I studied Spanish, so I'm not bothered by the French. The book was interesting, and I'm glad I listened to it.