Perfumery: Techniques in Evolution
by Arcadi Boix Camps
second edition of the book available now
read excerpt here
with some interesting comments on the difficulty of the current perfumer's palette meeting numerous, and often hindering, restrictions.
An analogy is drawn ... what if (name your favorite painter) was restricted from using red (hurray! say the red haters). I take it further, though. Many materials in original paints turn out to not always be so healthy, especially if they saturate your skin or you put the paintbrush in your mouth (not uncommon amongst painters).
So, while the painters were not restricted from using colors per se, except perhaps by clients who had patented colors for their brand of heraldry, there are those who may not have been sad by an artist's demise ... it ups the value of the collectible.
Of course, perfumery has another set of problems on the plate ... and the palettes ...
I'll leave you with a memory from In Like Flint starring James Coburn, a film from 1967. The tongue in cheek plot reveals women gone bad using beauty spas, treatments and hypnosis to take over the world. New Age, anyone?
Illustration: Dancer goes Wild Lura Astor
