Our Best Perfume Books to Learn from Perfumers

By Emmanuelle Moeglin, Founder & Perfumer  ·  Classically trained at ISIPCA, 20 years in fragrance

We are often asked about our favourite books on perfumery. There are plenty to stick your nose into, but these are the ones we return to. Rather than poetic perfumed prose, these are the most comprehensive titles written by perfumers and industry professionals, covering the art, the craft, the business and, of course, the ingredients. Real insight into the world of fragrance and the profession of a perfumer, not just pretty words about pretty perfumes. We hope they deepen your love of scent.

We return to these for real insight, not pretty words about pretty perfumes.

A look into the life of a perfumer

1. Jean-Claude Ellena, various titles. The revered perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena has several books worth your time: Perfume: The Alchemy of Scent (2011), The Diary of a Nose: A Year in the Life of a Parfumeur (2012), and the Atlas of Perfumed Botany (2022). Ellena has worked for a string of respected houses, from Van Cleef & Arpels to L'Artisan Parfumeur, spent many years in-house at Hermès, and later worked with Frédéric Malle.

The Alchemy of Scent offers a clear-eyed view of the industry and his working life, never too complex for the reader. The detail that he works from a palette of only around 200 ingredients tells you a lot about his understated style. The Diary of a Nose is more intimate, a year in the life of an artist rather than a craftsman, and closes with a "Summary of Smells" that any budding perfumer will love, listing everyday smells and how they might be composed (adding a little patchouli to suggest dark chocolate, say, or a trace of civet for a ganache). The Atlas of Perfumed Botany charts the botany, geography and history of perfume materials, with beautiful botanical illustrations.

2. Dominique Ropion, Aphorisms of a Perfumer. Co-written with journalist Marie-Bénédicte Gaulthier, this gathers notes and reflections from across Ropion's career and casts him as a composer, an arithmetician of fragrance. A master perfumer at IFF, his work spans Mugler, Lancôme, Paco Rabanne and Yves Saint Laurent, as well as one of Frédéric Malle's most treasured scents, Portrait of a Lady. Often called the master of flowers, he takes you through a floral bouquet of materials with generous olfactory insight.

Ellena works from a palette of only around 200 ingredients.

A window into the industry

3. Nez Éditions, The Big Book of Perfume. Written by over fifteen industry experts and edited by Jeanne Doré, this is an olfactory anthology for the ages, full of gorgeous illustrations and clean layouts. It covers the industry in depth, from development and manufacturing to distribution and marketing, with an excellent glossary and directory. We would also recommend Nez and LMR's The Naturals Notebooks, each devoted to a material such as jasmine sambac, orris, patchouli or vetiver, in a beautiful, digestible form.

A dive into ingredients and how they are used

4. Experimental Perfume Club, The Perfumer's Handbook. Our own had to make the list. I wrote it with a handful of fellow perfumers and experts, and it offers unique insight into how perfume ingredients are actually used in fragrances and formulae. It travels through the most-used materials in perfumery, from naturals like rose absolute and vetiver oil to cherished aroma-chemicals like Iso E Super and Calone, and famous accords such as Cassis Base. There is a section on the vocabulary of scent, a chapter on classification, and notes on the origins of ingredients, all beautifully illustrated. We designed it so you can read about a material and then smell it, for a full-circle understanding.

The history of perfume, A to Z

5. Elisabeth de Feydeau, Les Parfums: Histoire, Anthologie, Dictionnaire. A French historian, writer and fragrance expert, Feydeau has advised Chanel and Guerlain and teaches at the perfumery school in Versailles. Her book (2011), available only in French, is one I regard as among the most comprehensive ever written, more encyclopedia than book. It follows perfume from neolithic pottery to travel atomisers, from ancient Egyptian recipes on papyrus to industrial patents, exploring its links to myth and ritual as well as hygiene and industrialisation. A must-read for any French-speaking perfumer.

The chemistry of scent

6. Harold McGee, Nose Dive: A Field Guide to the World's Smells. A long read at almost 700 pages, it fuses technical detail with beautifully written anecdotes on food, spice and flowers, and is essential for anyone wanting to understand why things smell the way they do. Divided into primordial, animal, plant, land and water smells, and finally food and fragrance, it even reaches to the scent of space. With a gentle chemistry primer for non-specialists and whole chapters on plant families, mosses, trees and grasses, this is for anyone who wants a true schooling in the science of scent, and in developing their olfactory brain.

More ways in: read our guide to getting into perfumery, from enthusiast to perfumer, our beginner's guide to making perfume, or explore our online courses.

Frequently asked questions about perfume books