There’s been a flurry of attention around Mandy Aftel lately — what with Forbes naming her as one of the seven top bespoke perfumers in the world, and her currently ongoing Living Perfume exhibit at Henri Bendel in New York City.
Avery Gilbert, author of What the Nose Knows: The Science of Scent in Everyday Life (a book that anyone interested in perfumery should read), mentioned on his blog that “Mandy is famous for her passionate advocacy of artisan natural perfumery. In her books Essence and Alchemy, Aroma and Scents & Sensibilities, she eloquently promotes the aesthetics of natural materials–those “expensive, seasonal, and non-repeatable” essences whose tonalities are softer, more complex and changeable than those of synthetic materials.”
I’ve previously, and positively, reviewed a few of Mandy Aftel’s fragrances (Parfum Prive, Cognac and Cacao), so it was with some anticipation that I approached the three Aftelier samples I had on hand for today: Lumiere, Maroc and Blond Tabac.
LUMIERE: Lumiere is a new release from Aftelier. Composed of green tea absolute, boronia, blue lotus and frankincense, the fragrance opens with that icy, pure note that only real frankincense can hit, paired with a deliberate injection of leafy green tea that keeps it grounded just enough to prevent total lift off.
Boronia is an evergreen shrub known for its perfumed flowers, the essence of which is said to bring “clarity of thought and serenity of mind. Mandy Aftel herself writes that “Boronia absolute is as close to heaven as we on earth are likely to get . . . with a lasting odor of cassis, violet, apricot and … yellow freesia” — so it’s not surprising that the heart of Lumiere is like a cold flame rimmed with fructose. Toss in the narcotic scent of blue lotus, whose smooth, ethereal notes serve to enhance the rich clarity of the frankincense resin, and you have a recipe for a meditative sillage that will ring like a solitary crystal bell in your wake.
About four to five hours after application, Lumiere wraps things up on a green watery note, like a fresh lotus flower in still water.
***Note: Aftelier fragrances are 100% natural, with no chemicals, artificial colorings or synthetic approximations of natural essences.
MAROC: My first reaction to Aftelier Maroc was:
Patty at Perfume Posse agrees: “This is Tangier Souk as envisioned by Diana Vreeland at the height of her tenure at Vogue, the perfume version of a spread featuring camels, ruby-encrusted robes, red lips, kohl eyes, and tanned skin, a snake charmer and some jewel-toned afternoon light.”
Okay, Patty employs more adjectives and imagery, but the gist is the same. With listed fragrance notes of Bulgarian rose, galangal (“a citrus, earthy aroma, with hints of pine and soap”), nutmeg absolute, black pepper and bitter orange, Maroc hits all the right exotic notes, lending an air of the spice market without crashing the camel full-on into the ginger cart.
***Confession: nutmeg is a fragrance note I thoroughly appreciate, so I feel I have an editorial duty to admit a predisposition to Maroc’s charms.
There’s a pleasing dusty quality that underscores the citrus and pine notes, as if the nutmeg and black pepper were just freshly and finely ground, and I could swear a touch of clove comes through, even though clove isn’t mentioned as a note — that might be the nutmeg and orange combo leading my nose to believe I’m smelling the equivalent of a clove studded orange — and while the orange is noticeably present, it’s never overpowering due to Maroc’s precision counter-balance of dusty rose, ground spices and the edgy galangal.
Galangal is said to act as a stimulant, so Maroc could very well be an olfactory pick me up, making it totally the kind of scent you’d dab on before heading out to the open-air Farmer’s Market on a sunny Saturday — followed by an all-afternoon power-cruise through the thrift stores, of course.
BLOND TABAC: With a name like Blond Tabac, it’s not too much a stretch to assume that comparisons to Caron’s classic Tabac Blond are not only inevitable but welcome, yet while Mandy Aftel’s fragrances exhibit a rich, retro-character, her Blond Tabac is its own beast.
Allegedly a mix of tobacco, cedarwood and lime, I get a honeyed vanilla layered over tobacco leaf and dry cedar, instead — and not a whole lot in the way of lime. It’s not any more complicated than that, either: simple, warm, woodsy-sweet and eminently enjoyable.
However, all-natural perfumer Dominique Dubrana’s Tabac is still my favorite straight-up tobacco scent. Perfumer Dubrana himself describes it on a Basenotes thread in this way: “Tabac is unique among the Scents of the Soul by its complexity. From its eighteen ingredients, five of them (a quarter of the fragrance in weight) are complex bases of 10 to 25 ingredients each. This means that there are about 60 different essences and absolutes in Tabac, many of which are in very small amounts . . . This is a technique that perfumers use when they want to compose a perfume that can practically never be reproduced as good by others.”
No wonder I like it so much.
