I find Grenville problematic. Her fiction is very whitewashed because of how she depicts First Nation Australians and I find her research to be flimsy and anecdotal. For this reason, I'm skeptical that her research is accurate when it comes to science and perfume. There is a lot of anecdotal evidence and anecdotal evidence is worthless to the scientific community. I really need to stop myself from clicking request when I see Grenville's name because I know I'm going to be disappointed. This is from testing and method reproduction. My statement here is more accurate than some in the book.

I am so glad I came across this book and the information inside.
I have suffered with breathlessness from perfume and scented products for a long time now but have never seen it discussed in magazines or elsewhere. It was only through reading this book and Grenville's research that I now know how common this is. The book also reveals the reason why it is so common and the hidden secrets in perfume production. A truly fascinating book.
I was given this book by NetGalley and the publisher. This is my voluntary and impartial review.

What a thought-provoking and interesting book this is, one which opened up for me a subject about which I was totally unaware – sensitivity to fragrance. When Kate Grenville began to get headaches, she discovered it was because she was reacting adversely to any sort of artificial fragrance, including perfumes. So she set of on an exploration to find out exactly what goes into fragrances and what might be at the heart of her sensitivity. It’s an extremely well-researched account, written in a lively, accessible and anecdotal way and it’s a book that has actually changed the way I think. Or rather made me think for the first time about the perfumes and fragrances that we are daily subjected to and whether these might be detrimental to our health. This is an important book and one which I hope will be widely read.

“It’s not a question of whether the ingredients are carcinogenic, but whether they’re carcinogenic (enough).”
I realize I’ve been waiting for this book my whole life. I never felt I was crazy for being allergic to scents, as the author mentions, but I did wonder how prevalent it was. Reading this during allergy season makes it all the more imperative. On the other hand, I don’t know how to review this without the inherent bias of being one who greatly suffers from exactly what this author warns about.
This book flows so much better than most science-y non-fiction I’ve read recently, probably because it’s written by a novelist. The writing is much smoother—friendlier—than other fact-based books written by actual scientists. This is a huge plus, as despite an intriguing topic I generally give up in those. This was an easy read in comparison.
This is probably the most important line in the book, especially for those who don’t believe there’s a problem: “Even if you don’t like what’s in the air, you can’t choose to stop breathing.”
What’s most interesting is that, after making a huge case against perfumed products and especially the non-caring individuals who make them for profit, this book is still very optimistic. There’s one phrase where she explains that it’s possible that us who have these allergies are the lucky ones, compared to those who don’t get immediate symptoms and don’t know something is harming them. Just one allergy attack belies that, but the thought is appreciated. What I really liked was the allusion that many years ago no one would have thought something as powerful as the tobacco industry would be forced to adjust their products, advertising, and influence, and the same could happen to the perfume industry.

selected this because it was something I had never though about: fragrance and how it affects us all. It was incredible, and I could tell as I was reading it was making a lasting impact on me. I was already buying fragrance-free products for laundry use. I will now make a concerted effort to broaden my use of fragrance-free products. The amount of chemicals we are putting on our bodies and out into our air, often with no idea of the contents or effects, is staggering and honestly frightening.

Recommended for any one and every one with skin.

I have for several years told my doctor that fragrance, especially florially smells trigger my migraines. I suffer a minimum of 20 days a month. This book is going with me to my next doctor visit. Thank you for this helpful book.

As someone who works in healthcare, as well as someone who has a low tolerance for strong fragrances, I've always been conscious of how fragrance may affect others. This was an interesting look at how many others experience detrimental effects from fragrance. The book gives one food for thought regarding what fragrances may be doing to one's health, as well as research to support, so that informed choices may be made as to whether to use products with artificial fragrance vs. those without. The book is science-based, however, very readable.

As someone who only wears perfume on special occasions, this book made me realize that fragrance is so much more than that bottle on my dresser. It is the candles burning, the wall plugin, makeup and even the laundry detergent that I use. It made me appreciate that I can tolerate fragrance without getting ill, but also more mindful to those who can't tolerate it.

Australian novelist Kate Grenville developed a problem. During her book tours, she began suffering crippling headaches and other symptoms of illness that she deduced were connected to scents. She suffered terribly and realized she was highly intolerant to artificial scents and fragranced products. Scent is certainly everywhere, and even if we choose to use very little of it ourselves, we're still breathing in and affected by the scents used by those around us.

And scent really is everywhere around us nowadays. I remember when I discovered that scented tampons existed. I'm still astounded. Who do those benefit? When would you ever...why would you need...when does anyone notice...my mind goes in circles trying to make sense of them. I can't imagine the benefits (a tampon that smells perfumey when you unwrap and insert it, I guess? Really when else is its scent important?) with the risks (exposing unknown chemical fragrances not only to some of the most sensitive skin on your body, but inside it.) But no matter, scent has plenty of opportunities to accost us.

"There's a downside to fragrance - to do with our health - that you don't hear much about. This book aims to balance things out, not by trying to persuade, but by presenting some of what's known about fragrance. Armed with a bit of information, readers can make up their own minds. Using fragrance is a choice, and my hope is that this book might give people the chance to make that choice an informed one."

I was so excited to find this book existed. A few years ago, my headaches evolved into migraines, and they're either triggered or made worse by certain environmental factors, scent being a major one. I contracted one day a week at a company where an employee would blast herself with perfume at midday in the bathroom. If I'd left my coat hanging in the closet, it would reek of her perfume when I picked it up to leave. Often it was enough to give me a headache, just spending a minute in the bathroom grabbing my coat before I left. I can't imagine if I'd actually had to work with her all day, every day. She probably experiences "olfactory fatigue," a condition Grenville describes when you can't notice a smell anymore so in the case of a nice smell, you add more to get the desired effect back again.

I get headaches or nausea when people sit down near me on the subway doused in perfume, or even if they smell too strongly of cigarettes. In Europe, this has been a bigger problem than it ever was in the U.S., both the perfume and the cigarettes.

But we know cigarettes are bad, and we know secondhand smoke is also dangerous (even if Austrians, who I currently live amongst, will aggressively defend their cigarettes and argue about it, secondhand smoke or otherwise. Fact is considered opinion here.) But what about perfume? Isn't it just a case of some people preferring it, or preferring certain scents, and others simply preferring an absence of it? No inherent danger in something you only smell?

Absolutely not, argues Grenville. And science. Science argues it too. In this book she shows how.

But you can barely tell people this - they might understand and accept that you don't like their preferred scent, but most refuse to believe that scent itself is intolerable or can affect some people so strongly and detrimentally. "Rubbing salt in the wound [of anywhere public being potential trigger for illness, allergic reactions, and migraines] will be the fact that many other people won't believe the problems are caused by fragrance."
But it's, and unsurprising, because as Grenville shows, there's a lot of bad stuff mixed up in fragrances. There's secrecy involved, so sometimes we don't even know how bad some of the chemical ingredients are for our health. And that's legal.

"The extent of government safety regulations these days can feel like overkill...Yet in other ways - ways just as critical to our safety - the protective shield of regulation is strangely absent. We're exposed, every day, to powerful chemicals in fragrance. They're largely untested, mostly unregulated, and, in many cases, not declared on the label...This seemed so strange and so inconsistent...Surely there are experts who aren't just labeling or assessing fragrance, but are making sure it's safe? Well, yes, there are. The only problem is, they're the same people who make it."

GASP! Twist! What the hell? How is that possible? Part of it has to do with trade secrets, so if fragrance producers revealed what creates their signature scents, they'd be damaging their profits as others could easily copycat the mixtures. The solution? They don't have to disclose potentially toxic, dangerous, sensitivity-creating, allergy-inducing chemicals. Perfect! 

One woman defends her collection of vintage perfumes, many of which had their formulas reworked due to dangerous chemical compounds, like nitro musks, used within. She writes: "When people find out I collect vintage perfumes the usual question is 'Do you really wear those old perfumes?' Well of course!...I too have had some minor allergic reactions but nothing to deter me. I've also read the warning on some of the ingredients such as the nitro musks...I say, experiencing perfumes that haven't existed in decades, from bygone days, is worth the risk.

Wow. What power does perfume have over us?

Harsher chemicals are used in products not meant to have contact with skin, like fragrance diffusers, room sprays, and the like. I knew that already, but the extent is shocking. And as Grenville and science argue, we're still breathing those things, and they can still affect us, as evidenced by those of us who are more sensitive and experience adverse effects through allergies or illness symptoms. I don't like to read things that make me paranoid about products that I need, like skin creams or soaps and shampoos, but as Grenville says, it's important to be aware of the reality of industries that we possibly trust too much, and to make informed decisions as much as possible.

I've been reading labels closer, recognized some horror chemicals mentioned in this book, tossed products out and spent more for fragrance-free options. This idea particularly struck me: "Unfortunately, you can't run your life twice, to see which of the choices you made were the ones that damaged you or your children." She likens the necessity of being informed to taking out insurance policies on homes and possessions. We hope nothing happens, but we should make informed decisions in case something does.

As interested as I am in this topic, the scientific sections and study results are admittedly dry. That's disappointing, I'd hoped with a novelist's eye they'd be a little more palatable, but I didn't find it so. However, Grenville's writing talents still come across strongly and effectively, as she's expert at distilling the important points and weaving them into readable format. You have to slog through some statistics and lots of chemical compound  info to get there. I understand it's important, it's the whole point, really - I just hoped for something more readable.

Still an eye-opening, honest, well-researched and game-changing book on a topic ignored and diminished for too long.

I just realized that I'm not the only person who couldn't stand fragrance. I thought it was just me and this book gives me a good understanding about the danger of fragrance chemicals. The Case Against Fragrance (Paperback) by Kate Grenville is well written and well researched, I recommend for everyone to read this book.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.