Natural Perfumery Textbooks and Workbooks of Dubious Value

Writing on the advanced workshops, now re-dubbed the NPA Master Classes, has become a several times a day thing. It's turning into another book. A good book, one with so much detail, and tons of 'and then's that I am beginning to obsess about it, dream about it. I find myself waking in the middle of the night to do research to prove some theory or another, furiously writing the theme or gist of the idea on bright, neon pink Post-Its. You should see my office decorated with neon pink on the walls, across the dry erase board, over the calendar, and stacked on the desk. Neon pink isn't even a color that I like, but it definitely catches the eye. Every so often, at least once a week, all of the pink notes are plucked from the walls and scrutinized, has this been introduced to the text of the new course? If yes, it is torn into confetti and tossed in the trash, if not, it is replaced on the wall or the calendar or the dry erase board, soon to be accompanied by many dozen more freshly scribbled upon neon pink Post-Its. 

Some of the research involves scouring my older writings, natural perfumery stuff that I wrote about years ago while in the throes of experimentation. This requires the Wayback Machine to accomplish, and it has revealed some stuff that is now deeply cringey to me. I won't go into too much detail as I feel like anything I wrote prior to today is somewhat cringey -- heck, tomorrow I'll be cringing over this! I am, after all, my absolute worst critic. What I found during my ride in the time machine was my very first textbook for natural perfumery, written sometime in 2009 or 2010, horribly done sh*t, actually, and I was selling that textbook for $175! And worst of all, it was selling! These were desperate times, apparently, for natural perfumery. The good part about that textbook was that it had loads of lovely pictures, black and white because I couldn't afford to have them printed in color, with full instructions and pics about how to distill. I'm not sure I have those pictures anymore as they were digitally stored away so many broken computers ago. And there was an accompanying workbook with some instruction and then loads of duplicated pages for trial work -- also a piece of sh*t, but necessary sh*t for the NPA students at the time (seriously considering revisiting this workbook idea for the NPAMCs and creating something much better and infinitely useful). The binding on the original print copy of the workbook was comb-binding, those weird toothy plastic doohickies holding the book together so it can be opened flat, perfect for scribbling in. I might have one or two of those in the garage somewhere, as well as at least one copy of each subsequent rewrite and self-publication. 

One thing that I absolutely refuse to feel bad about is the titles of those earlier books. I was deeply enthralled by Victorian-era style book titles, like The Woman Beautiful - A Practical Treatise on the Development and Preservation of Woman's Health and Beauty, and the Principles of Taste in Dress, or Perfumes and Spices, Including an Account of Soaps and Cosmetics. My lofty titling aspirations included a gem I called Botanical Soapmaking Or The Fine Art of Creating Beautiful Things. This book is a big textbook-sized thing, 8.5 x 11, but is as thin as a crepe.