From the New York Times perfume critic, a stylish, fascinating, unprecedented insider's view of the global perfume industry, told through two creators working on two very different scents. No journalist has ever been allowed into the ultrasecretive, highly pressured process of originating a perfume. But Chandler Burr, the New York Times perfume critic, spent a year behind the scenes observing the creation of two major fragrances. Now, writing with wit and elegance, he juxtaposes the stories of the perfumes -- one created by a Frenchman in Paris for an exclusive luxury-goods house, the other made in New York by actress Sarah Jessica Parker and Coty, Inc., a giant international corporation. We follow Coty's mating of star power to the marketing of perfume, watching Sex and the City 's Parker heading a hugely expensive campaign to launch a scent into the overcrowded celebrity market. Will she match the success of Jennifer Lopez? Does she have the international fan base to drive worldwide sales? In Paris at the elegant Hermès, we see Jean Claude Ellena, his company's new head perfumer, given a challenge: he must create a scent to resuscitate Hermès's perfume business and challenge le monstre of the industry, bestselling Chanel No. 5. Will his pilgrimage to a garden on the Nile supply the inspiration he needs? The Perfect Scent is the story of two daring creators, two very different scents, and a billion-dollar industry that runs on the invisible magic of perfume. “Filled with fascinating revelations about an industry built on illusions . . . entices you to marvel all the more at the power of fragrance.” ― The Dallas Morning News “ The Perfect Scent has drama, unforgettable characters, history, and location.” ― Los Angeles Times “An inside, Hollywoodesque account.” ― The New York Times Book Review “Burr winds his way deep into the secretive, dark, high-stakes world of perfumery, where following the scent can be hazardous to your career. . . . He smells the story in each bottle.” ― Associated Press “Passionate and captivating.” ― The Toronto Star “An appealing writer and an acute observer, [who] tells his two stories well.” ― The Wall Street Journal “Filled with fascinating revelations about an industry built on illusions.” ― The Kansas City Star Chandler Burr is the scent critic for the New York Times Style Magazine and the author of The Emperor of Scent: A Story of Perfume, Obsession, and the Last Mystery of the Senses . He lives in New York City. The Perfect Scent A Year Inside the Perfume Industry in Paris and New York By Chandler Burr Picador Copyright © 2007 Chandler Burr All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-312-42577-7 CHAPTER 1 I became the perfume critic of The Times in 2006 owing to a series of coincidences. No one was more surprised than I was. I'd studied in China and worked in Japan and gotten a master's in international economics and Japanese political economy, then — credit the haphazardness of life — became a science journalist for The Atlantic. This led me, after a chance encounter in the Gare du Nord train station in Paris with a biophysicist and perfume genius, to write a book called The Emperor of Scent about the creation of a new, radical theory of olfaction. I'd been talking to The New Yorker about possible projects — I'd proposed articles on Chinese and Indian economic development, Japanese politics — and one day they counterproposed, to (a bit) my consternation. They were interested in my writing a piece on the creation of a perfume. Its development, from the first instant to the launch. Behind the scenes, real time, full access. I'd never considered such a project. As a journalist, I was an Asianist, and I'd happened to do a book that touched on perfume; I assumed that that was finished. But OK, I said, I'd take a look. I started going to houses. Not one of them would do it. I proposed the idea to an American designer. I had a meeting in a midtown skyscraper with the designer's PR person. "We'd love to have six thousand words in The New Yorker," she said straightforwardly, then after assessing me for an instant added, "but it would contradict our entire public strategy, the myth that he makes his own scents." She said no. They all turned me down — Givenchy, Estée Lauder, Kenneth Cole, Dior, Jo Malone. The Burberry PR rep, baffled, whined repeatedly into his cell phone, "I don't understand, you want to watch them make a perfume? ..." Then, his neurons overtaxed, he simply hung up. Chanel considered the project seriously but then, radio silence. Guerlain reacted with shocked horror; it was unthinkable. Armani passed. Ralph Lauren's PR person never even bothered to respond. At one point someone mentioned Hermès. I dismissed the idea. The house struck me as far too constricted. Two months later, with little expectation, I took the project to Francesca Leoni, then the head of communications for Hermès in the United States. Francesca