Mom’s Review: Listening to Scent
Listening to Scent, by Jennifer Peace Rhind, takes the reader on an incredible journey of aroma discovery and scent exploration.
I purchased Listening to Scent: An Olfactory Journey with Aromatic Plants and Their Extracts after a colleague mentioned it. I have to admit, I was foolish to let it sit on my bookshelf for several months before I actually began to read it. It was in good company, perched right next to Jennifer Peace Rhind’s book Aromatherapeutic Blending. But, it should never have sat there waiting for me to become absorbed in its pages.
And that is exactly what happened. Once I opened the book it was very difficult to put down!
Each short chapter is a morsel, providing a single serving of information. This reduces overwhelm and makes the information easy to absorb, despite the complex topic.
In her conversational voice, Jennifer makes the biology of aroma detection and processing easy to understand. The numerous olfactory exercises cement the information provided and make for a fun way to engage in learning.
“…there are always more scents to explore… Fragrance can become part of us, our way of being and relating to the world.”
~Jennifer Peace Rhind, Listening to Scent (2014)
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Getting to Know Your Essential Oils
Listening to Scent provides a guide for recognizing and categorizing aromas in a way that allows us to educate our noses and enhances our ability to discuss and describe aromas. The exercises presented help us develop our aroma appreciation and olfactory memory. Jennifer calls these exercises “celebrations of scent which offer us a chance to play, appreciate and create.”
Aromatic and scent identification exercises include:
- Scent aging comparison
- Scent identification and differentiation
- Aroma description
- Aroma associations to memory and emotion.
A full half of Listening to Scent is dedicated to the olfactory profiles of 45 essential oils categorized by scent family. Each profile includes aroma characteristics, notes, nuances, and Jennifer’s specific notes on the extract, its uses, and comparisons with other aromatics.
Getting to Know Aromatic Blends
The book wraps up with sample aromatic blends (perfumery accords). These blends further our scent exploration. They allow us to appreciate how perception of scent changes when aromatics are combined. This exercise illustrates how truly infinite aroma can be.
With its multiple group activities, Listening to Scent would provide a fantastic opportunity for a book club to explore aroma detection and description together. The final activity is using herbs in cooking to appreciate the connection between smell and taste.
Pick up a copy of Listening to Scent at your local bookstore or from Amazon for store-to-door delivery. Other great reads on a variety of topics can be found in Mom’s Library Favorites list on Amazon.
To fully appreciate individual aromas, scent strips are recommended. When experimenting with accords, Jennifer recommends blending into Jojoba oil and storing the accords in amber vials for easy evaluation over time. Find scent strips and 1ml amber vials in Mom’s Aromatherapy Containers and Tools on Amazon.
Also by Jennifer Peace Rhind
- Aromatherapeutic Blending
- Cooking for the Senses: Vegan Neurogastronomy
- Essential Oils (3rd Ed): A Comprehensive Handbook for Aromatic Therapy
- Fragrance and Wellbeing: Plant Aromatics and Their Influence on the Psyche
- A Sensory Journey: Meditations on Scent for Wellbeing (Card set)
- Title: Listening to Scent
- Author: Jennifer Peace Rhind
- Publisher: Singing Dragon (July 21, 2014)
- Language: English
- Paperback: ‎164 pages
- ISBN-10: 1848191251
- ISBN-13: 978-1848191251
Chris P | Author, Certified Aromatherapist, Natural Skin Care Formulator
Chris (“Mom”) enjoys formulating bespoke aromatherapy, skin care, and herbal products to support her family, pets, friends, and clients. She also loves experimenting with recipes in the kitchen. An avid reader, writer, and lifetime learner, Chris enthusiastically explores research rabbit holes and then writes about her discoveries.💚 (Learn more >>)
