In Search of Perfumes by Dominique Roques

£20.00

Bookseller review by Kath:

The perfume trade is secretive, but here is a book which takes the reader to far off lands to reveal the hidden worlds of farmers and producers tapping into ancient traditions to provide resins and oils for this little known world of perfume creation. In part a travel memoir, above all Roques pays homage to the unsung heroes who plant, harvest, and distill from the trees and flowers found in remote, often inaccessible regions of the earth. All to provide the West’s demand for the highest quality scents. Roques is an experienced traveller and highly knowledgeable. Climate change and fair pay, recognition of ethical sourcing – this most unusual of books will alter how you buy and wear perfume. At last, we have the backstory from an insider.

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Description

In Search of Perfumes is a fragrant journey across the world, revealing the beauty and mysteries of the perfume trade.

Fruits, flowers, spices, bark, leaves, and branches are just some of the natural ingredients from the plant world that are used in the creation of perfume. Dominique Roques, travelling from Andalusia to Somaliland by way of Bulgaria, Laos, El Salvador, Indonesia and Egypt, describes his search to find the best natural ingredients, precious to perfumers everywhere.

In Search of Perfumes demonstrates how the prestigious multi-million-pound perfume industry may begin its life as a single plant harvested by producers surviving on ancestral traditions and techniques and often risking their lives in the process as they combat the rising threat of climate change. Roques reveals the beauty and mysteries of a familiar trade; a return to the source of the world’s scents.