"To this most extraordinary treatise on the history and making of perfume, Aftel… brings sheer delight in the bouquet of aromas in the natural world." –Publishers Weekly "[A] compulsively readable compendium of perfume legend, lore, and instruction." –San Francisco Chronicle For centuries people have taken instinctive pleasure in rubbing scents into their skin, using them to pray, to heal, and to make love and war. Yet in many ways perfumery, with its creative and sensual possibilities, is a lost art. In Essence and Alchemy, Mandy Aftel unearths a forgotten world of natural essences and its profound resonance with body, mind, and spirit.