The Art of Making Perfume

This book isnot hard to understand it also includes recipes on how to make perfumes. This boook is a good book for someone who wants to attempt making there own perfumes at home or someone who wants to try it as a hobby.Good book to start with not too wordy or too hard to understand.

Thanks a lot! The book is helping me to start my own online business. Aromatherapy with essence of plant and flowers.

she contradicts herself in more than one place in this book as far as ratios go (of essential oils to fixative to water/alcohol). She also claims that all natural means non-toxic which is not true. Some essential oils are photo-toxic and some will burn your skin if they are too concentrated and peppermint essential oil can cause a child to stop breathing. Writing those types of statements are very irresponsible. I have only been studying aromatherapy for 5 years off and on but things like that were definitely emphasized to me in the first course I took.Poisonous mushrooms and poisonous berries are all natural but they still kill. Also if you use an oil as a fixative and put the perfume in a spray bottle, you will clog up the sprayer, she doesn't mention that. The concentrations of essential oils that she recommends are way too high, aroma therapists generally do not exceed 3% concentration for application on the skin and even less when children, the elderly or pregnant women are involved. These type of generalized "all natural" is always good and can't be harmful statements makes everyone who practices these alternative and complimentary techniques look like incompetent quacks who should be hauled off and put into jail.

The Art of Making Perfume This is one of the books inspired me to go in business for myself So Thank You very Much From Paul

I got to page 36. I still have the book, and still intend to get what I can from it, but the indifference to grammar ("Citrus oils is expressed rather than expelled"), punctuation (sentences running on without clear breaks to clarify different thoughts), and an arbitrary capitalization of nouns as if they were proper nouns (Lemon, Orange, Sandalwood?) are all very distracting. It also damages the author's credibility as an expert, if plain writing is not worth her effort. Geez, I sound like Mrs. Grundy. If this negligence served the information in any way, by charm or humor for example, like Ogden Nash's poetry, it would be fine. But this is a book of instruction. Ms. Totilo is likely very competent in her field; and if so, a good proofreader would have protected her reputation.

Excellent

its okay

I dont understand the good reviews. This is a very slim book, like a manual almost. I order books on amazon all the time. This is the first time with a book I have felt ripped off. If you notice, the same information repeats itself throughout the book many many times! Its as though sections were copied and pasted to the next section to bulk up the slim material. It does NOT show you how to start a perfume business. I found much more information on making perfume on the internet for free.

This book is quite expensive for its size which wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't so awful.Much of the book is peppered with quotes from the bible. In fact, a couple of chapters appear to be nothing else. I have nothing against Christianity in particular or religion in general but if I had wanted a book of bible quotes then that is what I would have bought.Furthermore, some parts of the book are repetitive to the extent that it is almost comical and the whole thing is very badly written with nonsensical phrases such as "up to 3 or more". Surely I can add up to 3 fragrances or more than 3 fragrances - not both! It is also littered with typos and poor grammar.This book taught me nothing that I didn't already know. In fact, the amount of useful information it contained could have been covered on a couple of A4 sheets.My advice would be to give this book a very wide birth.

Hi, fellow readers,I wish I had peeked inside but I didn't and now I'm stuck with this book; it will be in next week's recycle.To qualify myself: I've made Natural Perfumes for coming up 10 years and taught a correspondence and two in-person courses in Natural Perfumer for coming up 6 years. I've been a participant in several global perfume challenges and for the last 4 years, have sponsored my own perfume challenges. I've been reveiwed on a worldwide level and I know my subject very well. Here we go...See page 37 Really! You want me to use alcohol and jojoba together in the same perfume. Yikes! They don't mix. I'm so disappointed that a book like this can even be published.She's using 3 ounces (90 ml) of carrier (alcohol and jojoba) and 20 drops of an essential oil blend. You can hardly even smell the aroma when the strength is this low. You can do the math yourself - 5 ml has around 100 drops... if there are 20 drops in 5 ml, the strength is 20%. Just go from there and you'll see what I mean.The top notes should last at least several minutes. The middle notes can last up to a few hours. The base notes will last several hours. Learning how to use fixatives solves the problem of a natural perfume lasting only a few hours.Making perfumes with potable alcohol is against the law and totally useless (she does mention this and that one should use perfumers' alcohol, which is 180 proof). If you use Vodka 50% (100 proof), you have 50% alcohol and 50% water. Your perfume will be cloudy - not the beautiful clear pristine shade it should be. 180 proof alcohol will dissolve anything.Fragrance oils are the worst thing you can use as many of them are made from synthetic petrolium-based chemicals and their aroma is sickening. Let's go green and go natural, please.page 61 - Perfumers' Alcohol is not a Carrier OILpage 66 - I think the two lists are very valid for healing and I'll give you a hint: (this is for an Anti-Depressant perfume)Sandalwood, Ylang, and Jasmine are base to middle notes. Ylang will completely take over your blend so use less of that. Geranium and Lemon Verbena are more to the middle notes. Both are very strong so use sparingly. Orange, Lemon, and Mandarin are the top notes and I would suggest equal parts Orange and Mandarin to the Lemon essential oil. ie: 2 Orange, 2 Mandarin, 4 LemonPage 97 - Rosewater is actually the floral water as a result of the steam distillation process and is sterile and will keep for several years in sterile mason jars in a cool dark cupboard where the temperature doesn't fluctuate. It's difficult (but not impossible) to get essential oils from a home-distillation unit but it's easy to get floral waters or hydrosols.Hope this helps the next person save your money.Sent with Love and Sincerity,Lyn E. Ayre, Natural Perfumerscent of nature dot net

I am not an experienced perfume maker, but I can tell when a book has not been properly edited or reviewed. This is basically just a collection of articles and recipes probably found on the Internet and assembled into a "book". For example, recipes on pages 72 & 73, though differently named, are exactly the same ingredients but in a different order! Not very thorough!