Perfume Science

Science
Perfume Science

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 theyโ€™re unmistakable).

Reading the manual is a must โ€” itโ€™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, Iโ€™m now armed with an understanding of the Fragrance Family Tree: floral, green, animal, and spicy/woody.

"To oppose something is to maintain it." โ€“Ursula Le Guin

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