What is that smell?

Luca Turin is a biophysicist and scholar of smell. In his 2008 book Perfumes: The Guide he writes a brief history of perfume, his top ten lists of scent and a rating system (five stars is a masterpiece and one is "awful") of 315 pages of perfumes. He pulls no punches, and the writing is highly descriptive, such as this review of Nanette Lepore (one star) "...the most intensely sweet,cloying, syrupy fruity floral possible, radiating all the way down the block and lingering for years...Vile, yes, but somebody in a jeweled cardigan has been waiting for it all her life." The fragrances he likes though, he raves about, like Cuir de Russie from Chanel. This perfume rates a half a page and five stars and prose like "This superb fragrance still smells exactly as it should: to me, just like the interior of my stepfather's 1954 Bentley Type R...this rich leather effect is achieved by mixing things that have noting to do with tanned animal skins: ylang ylang, jasmine, iris,...this is the real deal, an undamaged monument of classical perfumery, and the purest emanation of luxury ever captured in a bottle." Whew, makes you want to smell it! Whether you just are interested in perfume history or are contemplating a purchase, this is a great read. MLis