I'm on a mission to turn my passion for perfume into a business one day. I officially took step one today, since it was my day off. I made my way to the library to check out some literature on the subject. Even though the Tempe Public Library only has a few books on perfume, I was able to find a few good reads to get myself familiar with the history, the science and the business.
The first book I picked up is Perfume: The Art and Science of Scent by Cathy Newman (A National Geographic Publication). I've only glanced through the pages so far, but the photos of vast fields of lavender and women gathering bushels of jasmine petals are lovely. I also checked out The Scented Home: Natural Recipes in the French Tradition, which takes a historical and home-grown look at creating scent. One recipe that's peaked my interest is for Eau de Cologne, a variation of a fragrance that was created in Cologne, France more than 300 years ago.
In addition to the books I checked out, I ordered a beginner's perfume making kit from the California based website, The Perfumer's Apprentice. There are so many essential oils and synthetic fragrances used in perfume making that it would be very hard to even know where to start creating my own scent. The kit contains 12 fragrance oils, testing strips, bottles with roll-on applicators and instructions to help me get my feet wet.
I should receive my kit sometime next week, and I'll let you know how my experiments work out!
