120,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock πŸ‡³πŸ‡Ώ

Celebrate NZ Book Shop Day this weekend! Check out our blog for more details πŸš€

The Case Against Fragrance

3.8 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating.
( 512 ratings, 142 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
The Case Against Fragrance by Kate Grenville delves into the pervasive influence of synthetic fragrances in our daily lives. Through personal experience and scientific exploration, Grenville examines the potential health effects and environmental impacts of these chemicals while encouraging readers to reconsider their everyday choices.
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$2200
Elsewhere:
$2400
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you're curious about the unseen impacts of everyday scents on health and environment. The author combines personal experiences and scientific research to explore the unexpected effects of fragrance in a compelling and insightful manner, appealing to those with an interest in science and nature.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

A beautifully written, clear-eyed investigation of the science of scent and the power of the fragrance industry, from one of Australia's greatest writers

A beautifully written, clear-eyed investigation of the science of scent and the power of the fragrance industry, from one of Australia's greatest writers.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

A beautifully written, clear-eyed investigation of the science of scent and the power of the fragrance industry, from one of Australia's greatest writers.

Kate Grenville had always associated perfume with elegance and beauty. Then the headaches started.

Like perhaps a quarter of the population, Grenville reacts badly to the artificial fragrances around usβ€”other people's perfumes, and all those scented cosmetics, cleaning products and air fresheners. On a book tour in 2015, dogged by ill health, she started wonderingβ€”what's in fragrance? Who tests it for safety? What does it do to people?

The more Grenville investigated, the more she felt this was a story that should be told. The chemicals in fragrance can be linked not only to short-term problems like headaches and asthma, but to long-term ones like hormone disruption and cancer. Yet products can be released onto the market without testing. They're regulated only by the same people who make and sell them. And the ingredients don't even have to be named on the label.

This book is based on careful research into the science of scent and the power of the fragrance industry. But, as you'd expect from an acclaimed novelist, it's also accessible and personal. The Case Against Fragrance will make you seeβ€”and smellβ€”the world differently.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Kate Grenville's The Case Against Fragrance is praised for its engaging and personal exploration of the fragrance industry. Reviewers highlight the book's ability to interweave scientific investigation with personal experiences, offering an eye-opening exposΓ© on the potential health effects of synthetic fragrances. The book is described as intelligent, accessible, and thought-provoking, raising important questions about the chemicals in fragrances and their largely unexamined safety.

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781925603477

Publisher: Text Publishing

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 02 April 2018

Country: Australia

Imprint: The Text Publishing Company

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 208

About the Author

Kate Grenville is one of Australia's most celebrated writers. Her bestselling novel The Secret River received the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Miles Franklin Literary Award. The Idea of Perfection won the Orange Prize. Grenville's other novels include Sarah Thornhill, The Lieutenant, Lilian's Story, Dark Places and Joan Makes History. Kate lives in Sydney and her most works are the non-fiction books One Life- My Mother's Story and The Case Against Fragrance.

Also by Kate Grenville

View all
  • Unsettled
    What does it mean to be on land taken from others? What does it mean to be on land that was taken from other people? Now that we know how the taking was done, what do we do with that knowledge? Kate Grenville is no stranger to the past. Her success and fame as a writer exploded when she published...
    Paperback
    $4100
    Elsewhere:
    $4500
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Elizabeth Macarthur's Letters
    Elizabeth Macarthur's Letters by Kate Grenville is a captivating collection, serving as the inspiration for her bestselling, award-winning novel A Room Made of Leaves. These letters formed the foundation for Kate Grenville's acclaimed novel, A Room Made of Leaves. They inspired the depiction of her imagined Elizabeth Macarthurβ€”shrewd, subtle, and passionate. Through these letters, we get a glimpse into the...
    Hardback
    $3600
    Elsewhere:
    $4000
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Secret River
    After a childhood of poverty and petty crime in the slums of London, William Thornhill is transported to New South Wales for the term of his natural life. With his wife Sal and children in tow, he arrives in a harsh land that feels at first like a death sentence. But among the convicts, there is a whisper that freedom...
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • A Room Made of Leaves
    The first new novel in almost ten years from award-winning, bestselling author Kate Grenville. What if Elizabeth Macarthurβ€”wife of the notorious John Macarthur, wool baron in the earliest days of Sydneyβ€”had written a shockingly frank secret memoir? And what if novelist Kate Grenville had miraculously found and published it? That's the starting point for A Room Made of Leaves, a...
    Hardback
    $4400
    Elsewhere:
    $4800
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • A Room Made of Leaves
    Kate Grenville's latest bestselling novel, now in a beautiful paperback edition. What if Elizabeth Macarthurβ€”wife of the notorious John Macarthur, wool baron in the earliest days of Sydneyβ€”had written a shockingly frank secret memoir? And what if novelist Kate Grenville had miraculously found and published it? Marriage to a ruthless bully, the impulses of her heart, the search for power...
    Paperback
    $3400
    Elsewhere:
    $3700
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • A Room Made of Leaves
    Kate Grenville's latest bestselling novel, now in a smaller format and featuring a beautiful updated cover design. What if Elizabeth Macarthurβ€”wife of the notorious John Macarthur, wool baron in the earliest days of Sydneyβ€”had written a shockingly frank secret memoir? And what if novelist Kate Grenville had miraculously found and published it? Marriage to a ruthless bully, the impulses of...
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Restless Dolly Maunder
    Restless Dolly Maunder is shortlisted for the 2024 Women's Prize for Fiction. An exquisite portrait of Kate Grenville's complex, conflicted grandmotherβ€”a woman Kate feared as a child, and only came to understand in adulthood. Dolly Maunder was born at the end of the nineteenth century, when society's long-locked doors were starting to creak ajar for women. Growing up in a...
    Hardback
    $4500
    Elsewhere:
    $5000
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Restless Dolly Maunder
    Dolly Maunder was born at the end of the nineteenth century, when society’s long-locked doors were starting to creak ajar for women. Growing up in a poor farming family in country New South Wales but clever, energetic and determined, Dolly spent her restless life pushing at those doors. Most women like her have disappeared from view, remembered only in family...
    Paperback
    $3600
    Elsewhere:
    $4000
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Sarah Thornhill
    From the beginning, Jack and I were friends. Somehow our way of looking at things fitted together. He never called me Dolly, the way the others did, only my full and proper name. Sarah Thornhill is the youngest child of William Thornhill, convict-turned-landowner on the Hawkesbury River. She grows up in the fine house her father is so proud of,...
    Paperback
    $2700
    Elsewhere:
    $3000
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Dark Places
    This is Albion Gidley Singer at the pen, a man with a weakness for a good fact. The first fact is always the hardest: you have to begin somewhere, and such is the nature of this intractable universe that the only thing you can start with is yourself. Dark Places, a companion novel to Lilian's Story, is the tale of...
    Paperback
    $1799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Lilian's Story
    Listen, I told myself, and heard the waves against the harbour-wall, a gull being peevish, the white tapping stick of a blind man against the stones. Listen, I told myself, this is history. Loosely inspired by the legendary Sydney bohemian Bea Miles, Kate Grenville’s much-loved debut novel recounts the life of the irrepressible Lilian Una Singer: from wealthy middle-class girlhood...
    Paperback
    $1799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • A Kindness Cup
    I told them to go into the scrub and disperse the tribe. Disperse? That is a strange word. What do you mean by dispersing? Firing at them. Two decades after a massacre of local Aboriginal people, the former residents of a Queensland town have reunited to celebrate the progress and prosperity of their community. Tom Dorahy, returning to his hometown,...
    Paperback
    $1799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks

More from Science & Nature

View all
  • Raising Hare
    THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2025 SHORTLISTED FOR WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024 SHORTLISTED FOR THE HATCHARDS AND BIOGRAPHERS' CLUB FIRST BIOGRAPHY PRIZE A BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR THE HAY FESTIVAL, SUNDAY TIMES, THE TIMES, FINANCIAL TIMES, SPECTATOR AND iNEWS 'A beautiful book' - ANGELINA JOLIE 'I...
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Nuclear War
    The Sunday Times bestselling non-fiction thriller that has to be read to be believed. Baillie Gifford shortlisted, a favourite of Steven Bartlett, with an average reader rating of 4.6, sure to be a mass-market hit. Up to now, no one outside of official circles has known exactly what would happen if a rogue state launched a nuclear missile at the...
    Paperback
    $2500
    Elsewhere:
    $2800
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Anxious Generation
    A powerful argument for reclaiming childhoodβ€”and all human relationshipsβ€”from the online world, from the influential social psychologist and international bestselling author. Jonathan Haidt has spent his career speaking truth and wisdom in some of the most difficult spacesβ€”communities polarised by politics and religion, campuses battling culture wars, and now the mental health emergency hitting teenagers today in many countries around...
    Paperback
    $2299
    Elsewhere:
    $3000
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Prisoners of Geography
    Prisoners of Geography looks at the past, present, and future to offer crucial insights into one of the major factors that determine world history – because if you don’t know geography, you’ll never have the full picture. Originally published in 2015, this completely revised and updated edition brings it up to date with the events and trends of the past...
    Paperback
    $2899
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Ultra-Processed People
    Launching the runaway bestseller with ambitions to be the biggest non-fiction paperback of the year IT'S NOT YOU. IT'S THE FOOD. "If you only read one diet or nutrition book in your life, make it this one" - Bee Wilson "You've got to get this book in your life . . . Completely compelling . . . Read a page...
    Paperback
    $2500
    Elsewhere:
    $2800
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Kitchen Confidential
    The classic bestseller from the star of Parts Unknown and No Reservations: 25th Anniversary edition, with a new introduction by Irvine Welsh. BEFORE THERE WAS THE BEAR, THERE WAS BOURDAIN. β€˜Elizabeth David written by Quentin Tarantino’ β€” A.A. Gill β€˜Fantastic: as lip-smackingly seductive as a bowl of fat chips and pungent aioli’ β€” Daily Telegraph After twenty-five years of sex,...
    Paperback
    $2500
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Sapiens
    Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari is an extraordinary exploration of humanity's history from the dawn of our species to the present day. Harari delves into our evolution, offering insights into the cognitive revolutions that allowed Homo sapiens to rise above other animal species. Traversing through various stages of human development, he examines the Agricultural Revolution, the unification of humankind through...
    Paperback
    $2500
    Elsewhere:
    $3000
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Talk
    A Harvard professor shows how we can become better talkers - and why effective conversation will help us all thrive. Conversation is at the heart of our relationships and decision-making, but the science behind our everyday interactions, and how to improve them, is little known. In Talk, Harvard Professor Alison Wood Brooks provides fascinating insights into the power of effective...
    Paperback
    $3000
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Clean & Green
    Simple swaps and innovative ideas for cleaning and maintaining your home that won't cost the Earth. Learn how easy it is to make simple swaps in your cleaning and tidying methods for a more eco-friendly home. This beautifully illustrated black and white guide with 101 hints and sustainable, natural cleaning tips and hacks will help you take small steps that...
    Paperback
    $2999
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Genetic Book of the Dead
    From one of the world’s great science writers, a book that explores the deepest principles of evolutionary history. In this groundbreaking new approach to the evolution of all life, Richard Dawkins shows how the body, behaviour, and genes of every living creature can be read as a book – an archive of the worlds of its ancestors. A perfectly camouflaged...
    Hardback
    $4900
    Elsewhere:
    $5499
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Coming Wave
    The instant Sunday Times bestseller from the ultimate AI insider - the only book you need to read on this subject. An Economist, Financial Times, Guardian, Prospect and Sunday Times Book of the Year Shortlisted for the FT and Schroders Business Book of the Year This is the only book you need to understand our new world - from the...
    Paperback
    $2500
    Elsewhere:
    $2800
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Breath
    Discover the transformative power of breathing in Breath by esteemed journalist James Nestor. This revolutionary book delves into the science and history of one of the most fundamental human activities - breathing. From the bustling streets of SΓ£o Paulo to the serene temples of India, Nestor embarks on a global journey to uncover the secrets of ancient breathing techniques such...
    Paperback
    $2100
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.