The Ghost Perfumer: Creed, Lies, & the Scent of the Century Paperback – December 23, 2021

I love Creed fragrances and found this book to completely enlightening. It is well worth the read, particularly if you love Creed fragrances like I do.

This reads so much like a novel it's hard to believe it's not. The author does a good job laying the foundations of the industry and then interweaves the colorful histories of the "characters" over several decades, including an education on many big name fragrances, players and even chemicals along the way. There is truth and lies, love and betrayal, beauty and ugliness, high art and bottom lines, comedy and tears. Again, hard to believe it's a true story. One of the best books I've read lately.

And I look forward to more...he actually mentioned that there are a good many storylines out there for him to choose from - some "big picture" and others like this book with a more narrow focus - and I absolutely look forward to more from Gabe. Why? Well, his enthusiasm is palpable, he understands how crucial some research truly is for telling a good story, he thinks deeply enough about his subjects to ask questions that readers may enjoy pondering and answering for themselves, and he's talented and intelligent enough to improve his strengths and clean up some amateurish habits as time goes on.As far as this book goes it's a must read for any fragrance enthusiast, period. For those simply interested in one heckuva true story, you have found one, I promise. My main knock on this author/work: too much emotional negativity thrown at Olivier Creed with no voice from the other side to combat the onslaught...okay, so no Creed rep wanted to comment, I get it,and I also understand that Pierre Bourdon is Gabe's primary focus(rightfully so) BUT I would have enjoyed a more detailed look into how Olivier steered Creed to the very respectable pre-Aventus point the company had attained. An anonymous source was listed at an important moment in this book, and if that's what it would repeatedly take to learn more about Olivier, fine, I'll take that over zip any day. I have no affinity for Olivier, whatsoever, and I can tell the author is protective of Bourdon, but constantly alluding to Creed's physical appearance as an aging human being is a petty, bush-league, low blow. That said, this story could rile up just about anybody, kudos to Gabe for telling it, looking forward to many more.

Excellent, well written, well researched. The author definitely knows his stuff. I devoured the book in two sittings.This book is catnip for fragrance enthusiasts for sure, but should be of interest to anyone looking for a compelling read. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This has some very interesting insights and references into the world of perfumery. Some long believed truths as well as straight up rumors are also in, and overall, this is a good insight into the under-explored, vastly unknown depths of the fragrance industry.

I'm about halfway through with the book now and the quality of the writing has me questioning the quality of the information. The author seems to be trying too hard in places, and not trying at all in others. Strange comparisons or phrases, grammatical errors. An unneeded tale of a perfumer losing his virginity. Weird. The poor writing has me distracted as it makes me think the same quality and care was put into the research and information shared.

The last half of the book read like a long magazine article. Informative read.

I realize most people don't care who actually created the scents they use, but some do. Many perfumers are pretty anonymous; the business that puts the juice on the market gets the glory. But it's unusual for a person to put their own name on a bottle and actually claim they created it from the ground up the way Creed has done. Good sleuthing by the author.