Perfume A century of scents

Review by Booklist Review

First published in the UK in 2015, Ostrom's look at 100 different perfumes both perfumes intended for women and cologne intended for men is more of a memoir, rather than an encyclopedic overview of a century's worth of fragrances. Ostrom, a perfume expert, has chosen 10 perfumes for each of 10 decades from 1900 through 1999 and gives them each a few pages of backstory (especially delightful is the open letter from Drakkar Noir, lamenting his meteoric rise and fall) and her own personal musings on each. Readers will recognize the many famous fragrances (including Old Spice, White Shoulders, Wind Song, Charlie, Giorgio Beverly Hills, Poison, and CK One) and will delight in the perfumes they relate to most, generationally. In the introduction to each decade, Ostrom reveals interesting history and trivia (a 1912 rumor claimed actresses would inject perfume under their skin; in the 1920s and '30s, women used to perfume their cigarettes). Readers with an interest in perfume and general history of the various time periods will enjoy Ostrom's fragrant reminiscences.--Vnuk, Rebecca Copyright 2016 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Library Journal Review

British perfume blogger Ostrom (-odettetoilette.com) does what many would say is impossible: she describes scents and perfumes in an accessible way. This title does so much more, though. It also glides through the 20th century, touching down on Paris in the Twenties, London in the Swinging Sixties, and the United States in the form-fitting Fifties, with historical tidbits sprinkled throughout. Charmingly and never cloyingly, the author presents 100 fragrance profiles, organized by decade, each with a brief historical overview of four to five pages. Each era is assigned exactly ten perfumes, but more often than not there are mentions of other smell-alikes of the times and knowledgeable references to certain scents' forebears. The entries are delightfully short, some poetic, some tongue-in-cheek, one a pastiche of a 1960s spy movie. -Ostrom has nicknamed every elixir to perfect effect (a few favorites: "Poison, the pollutant perfume"; "Hai Karate, the self-defence fragrance"; "Joop!, the boyband perfume"), and her musings about celebrity scents (-Céline Dion has 16!) and the online perfume community are on the nose. VERDICT Some Britishisms may sail over U.S. readers' heads, but this pleasantly illustrated scent sampler will send perfume lovers and fashion historians over the moon.-Liz French, Library Journal © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

A British perfume aficionados breezy tour of some of the 20th centurys most popular scents.In her debut, Ostrom examines 100 years of fragrance history, dividing the text into 10 chapterseach of which discusses 10 different perfumesthat cover a single decade in the 20th century. The earliest decades saw a turn from all-natural floral scents to those like Le Trfle Incarnat, which incorporated such synthetic molecules as coumarin and vanillin. At the same time, perfume began to seep beyond its traditional home among royalty and the aristocracy and become a novelty for popular consumption. The 1920s and even the Depression-era 30s saw a dazzling profusion of scents. These perfumes were sold as part of an elegant and liberated (for women) lifestyle, of the kind suggested by Chanel No. 5, which was declared a classic from the moment it was unveiled in 1921. World War II brought with it a scarcity of production and shift away from France as the sole center of fragrance production. American perfumes like White Shoulders began to arrive on the scene. With the 50s came a return to elegance, but without the free-spiritedness of the 20s. Change and rebellion characterized the scents of the 60s, which ran the gamut from classics like Shalimar to the hippie favorite, patchouli oil. The 70s were an era of blockbuster perfumes intended for mass consumptione.g., Love's Baby Soft. In the decade that followed, scent grew in volume to become an extension of female and, increasingly, exposed and glorified male bodies. After the excesses of the 80s, the 90s brought a refreshing unisex simplicity and youthfulness, of the kind found in CK One, Tommy Girl and Joop! Homme. Witty and informative, Ostroms history reveals the way fragrance speaks for historical eras while also evoking them.Light, pleasant reading for both lovers of perfume and popular culture. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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