Learn about the sense of smell with eight perfume oils and a variety of jars, mixers, and pipettes. Experiments range from fragrance extraction to composing your own perfume scents. My friend and I enjoyed one experiment where we prepared test strips of all the fragrances and then guessed which we were sniffing. I got two wrong and he missed five (Lemony and Mentha are freebies, since they’re unmistakable).
Reading the manual is a must — it’s well-written, with lots of fun scientific facts and historical anecdotes. I learned about human olfaction, the history and art of perfume composition, and how scents are analyzed and categorized. Thanks to this kit, I’m now armed with an understanding of the Fragrance Family Tree: floral, green, animal, and spicy/woody.
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