The Museum of Scent (Hardcover)
Natural perfumer and author Mandy Aftel's latest bookThe Museum of Scent: Exploring the Curious and Wondrous World of Fragrance guides us through the different families of botanical fragrances in her Archive, with hand-colored antique depictions of each plant of origin. Special chapters focus on the rarest materials and artifacts — such as ambergris, hyraceum, and centuries-old handwritten perfume recipe books.
For a limited time we're including four 1.5ml spray vials of Mandy's natural materials with every copy of the book. Samples of bergamot, hinoki, labdanum and ylang ylang will let you smell-along as you read about them.
Mandy Aftel is an internationally known artisan perfumer and award-winning author. Anyone who's read the seminal Essence and Alchemy: A Natural History of Perfume is aware of the depth of Mandy Aftel's historical knowledge of perfumery and the richness with which she writes about it. She has participated in many exhibitions, panels and conferences on scent and food, and regularly collaborates with chefs and mixologists. She and her work have been featured in The New York Times, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Food and Wine, O, and Elle, on CNN, and in countless blogs. She lives in Berkeley, CA.
Published 2023 by Abbeville Press, 288 pages, hardcover
**Holiday 2024 Shipping Deadlines**
Get your holiday orders in by the end of Wednesday, **December 18th**, for delivery by December 24th.
We'll add complimentary shipping upgrades as necessary.
Note for West Coast Customers:
If you're running a day late, feel free get in touch up to **December 20th** to see if we can still make it happen!
Contact info@ministryofscent.com and we'll do our best to get perfumes to your people in time for holiday celebrations.
| Date | Day | Status |
| Dec 18 | Wednesday | LAST DAY for guaranteed Christmas delivery nationwide |
| Dec 20 | Friday | LAST DAY for West Coast only (contact us first) |
| ⚠️ CHRISTMAS DELIVERY CUTOFF ⚠️ | ||
| Dec 21 | Saturday | Orders placed will be delivered after 12/25 |
| Dec 22 | Sunday | No shipping |
| Dec 23 | Monday | Orders placed will be delivered after 12/25 |
| Dec 24 | Tuesday | Christmas Eve - Orders placed will be delivered after 12/25 |
| Dec 25 | Wednesday | Christmas Day 🎄 (No shipping) |
Fulfillment & Shipping
We provide free shipping for USPS orders $75+.
Ministry of Scent offers shipping to the United States through USPS Ground Advantage and UPS. We process and ship orders within 1-4 days, major holidays excluded. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at orders@ministryofscent.com
We do not ship on Sundays; Sundays are not included in our shipping window.
We are not responsible for lost or stolen packages. We will not provide replacements or refunds for lost or stolen packages. If you have a risk-prone address, we recommend you send to a safer locale.
First-time orders $125+ and all orders $200+ will be shipped with signature confirmation to ensure safe delivery. Customers may request "no signature confirmation" in the Order Note section of the Shopping Cart page, at their own risk. If the item is stolen after tracked delivery, the order cannot be refunded or replaced.
We cannot file claims or be held responsible for orders that have been designated as "delivered" by UPS or USPS (and/or signed for by recipient). We can file claims for orders that have be designated as "lost in transit" by UPS or USPS.
| Order type | Shipping Method |
Cost |
| Sample-only Orders (including Sample Sets) |
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(orders under $75) |
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| Free Shipping (orders $75 and over) |
USPS Ground Advantage* or UPS Ground (depending on destination) |
$0 |
| 3-Day Shipping |
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Variable |
*Ship times vary. All products ship from California, shipments can take up to 5 business days to the East Coast.
Returns
We do not accept returns of perfumes, simply because perfumes can't be resold once they've been opened and used. We encourage you to order samples before purchasing full bottles of perfume. And here's the good news — with every sample purchased, we'll send you a coupon code that allows you to redeem the cost of the sample and sample shipping if you buy a full bottle of the fragrance you tried (in other words, you get $10 off).
Please contact orders@ministryofscent.com if you have a question or issue related to your order or shipping.
Sample Orders
Samples are designed to help you evaluate scents you might want to later purchase as a full bottle. You may order one sample per fragrance, up to 15 total in a single order. Samples are non-refundable.
For sample orders, please check your packing slip for a special code that will allow you to redeem the price of samples and sample shipping when purchase full bottles of the scents you sample ($10 off full bottles).
Complimentary Samples
We provide complimentary samples with $75+ full bottle purchases. You may request up to 3 samples with any qualifying order. Please use the Order Note section on the Shopping Cart overlay to let us know which complimentary samples you would like. We'll try to provide the scents you've requested, but substitutions may occur if items are out of stock.