Writing about fragrance is a lot harder than writing about other beauty products. It’s more akin to reviewing music, wine or visual art than a lipstick because it’s about trying to translate the sensorial experience of smell into feelings and words. Thankfully, the Fragrance Foundation Jasmine Awards run courses for beauty writers and I was lucky enough to attend one last week.
My tutor for the afternoon was Will Andrews, Principal Scientist at P&G Prestige, and the topics covered included the history of fragrance, the language of scent and natural vs. synthetic ingredients. I found it all absolutely fascinating and the fragrance world is definitely one of those subjects where the more you know the more interesting it becomes. My passion for perfume is now well and truly ignited and I’ve since bought a couple of books to fuel my interest. The first is The Essence of Perfume by Roja Dove. It’s a beautiful coffee table book packed with information and stunning images. It’s the best £20 I’ve spent in a long time. The other is Perfumes: A-Z Guide by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez which is a mixture of essays and reviews, many of which are very funny and acerbic.
To help promote the joy that well-loved fragrances brings to our lives, there’s National Fragrance Day on 21st March. To coincide with this, the Fragrance Foundation have have set up a site for people to add their #scentmemories and where you can read the contribution...