LUCA TURIN is a perfume critic, biophysicist, popular lecturer, and author of several books on science, perfume, and culture, including the original Parfums : le guide (in French); The Secret of Scent (Faber & Faber; Ecco); Perfumes: The A–Z Guide and The Little Book of Perfumes with Tania Sanchez (Viking/Penguin; Profile); and Folio Columns: 2003–2014. Also the subject of the award-winning BBC documentary "A Code in the Nose" and the book The Emperor of Scent, he has lectured at TED, TEDx, Futurefest, and Google TechTalks, among others. He considers his finest hour (actually two hours) to have been a broadcast of his selection of classical music on BBC Radio 3 Saturday Classics.

Nearly awarded France's prestigious medal of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres for his work as a writer, his nomination was abruptly rescinded when it emerged that he was, in reality, a scientist. Known for controversy, he is on record (Fantastic Man magazine) as in favor of the practice of wearing socks with sandals. His favorite song is "Wichita Lineman," his favorite film, "Vanishing Point," his favorite perfume, Mitsouko, though Brut is a close second. He has been awarded both the Prix Jasmin (France) and the Jasmine Prize (UK) for perfume writing. He currently conducts research in olfaction, anesthesia, and brain disorders from the Biomedical Research Sciences Center Alexander Fleming in Greece. Though he has Italian citizenship, he was born in Beirut and has lived in France, Switzerland, Italy, the UK, the US, Germany, and Greece.

In 2008, Turin and Sanchez up-ended the world of fragrance with their critically acclaimed Perfumes: the A–Z Guide, one of Amazon’s best books of the year, described by John Lanchester in the New Yorker as “ravishingly entertaining,” by India Knight in the Sunday Times (UK) as “one of the best books I have ever read,” by Hilary Mantel as “opinionated, knowledgeable, sharply written and surprisingly comprehensive … a purely enjoyable book,” and by Philip Hensher as "a work of the highest criticism, one which elevates writing about perfume to the best sort of writing about wine or rock music." Ten years later they bring their inimitably passionate, erudite perspective back to the hugely changed world of fragrance, to sort out which of over 1,200 new individual perfumes deserves celebration (and which condemnation). The 2018 guide includes all new content, including - “Ten Years Later,” looking back on the last decade of fragrance - “The Shifting Shape of Fragrance 1918–2018,” describing changes over a hundred years of - fragrance history - all new Frequently Asked Questions - over 1,200 individual perfume reviews: masculine and feminine, mainstream and arcane, from the latest Guerlains to a five-star masterpiece by a small, little-known Malaysian firm - an expanded glossary - top ten lists, this time including not just top masculines and feminines but the best introverts and extroverts, the best retro, the best citrus, the best oud, and more