Ajne, an all-natural line of ready-made and custom perfumes based in Carmel, California, debuts at Henri Bendel's in New York City this week. Through July 9, stop by and they will do a "computerized analysis that will compare your chemistry to thousands of ingredients to find the best match" For more information, see the Ajne website.
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These sound beautiful. I read about them in this month's Natural Health.
But have you seen those prices, R? I'm gagging myself, but I am tempted to order some samples or those pretty little mini-hearts. :):)
Hugs!
My goodness, those are some lovely bottles, no? I'm glad to see that sample sets are made easily available to those of us who aren't able to shop in store. Thanks, R, I don't know how they'll smell, but it sure sounds and looks interesting.
R, no, I didn't even look — am still on vacation so computer time is limited, but will check out the website when I get back this weekend. Although now I suppose I should be afraid to look! Hugs to you
Is it just me or did it still seem overpriced? Would love to hear what anyone thinks when they do get a sniff….but $500 for a custom blend!!! eeek!!
Have peeked at the website: pretty bottles, high prices. Natural perfumes are often higher than synthetic due to the cost of raw materials, of course.
Just saw this notice, R. Seems Bendel's (the former Coty headquarters) is going for naturals in a big way. Mandy Aftel's boutique will debut there in Sept (under construction now), and the Ajne line looks wonderful! Lots of time, effort, and heart (pun on the bottles
obviously went into this launch. Mazel tov to her.
Hey, good for Mandy Aftel, I didn't know that!
Wonderful for Mandy. When she was in NYC for the Fragrance Foundation panel on naturals, she was able to meet with the architect on the project. Naturals are taking off in a big way.
Just returned from Carmel and stopped in at the Ajne store. Wow. It truly is an “apothecary” with mysterious bottles, oils and potions lining the shelves.
You can take this computer test which determines what state your various “chakras” are in and then they help you identify which perfumes will best assist you in the development of those areas. The biggest surprise for me was that everyone of the perfumes I smelled was REALLY strong. I had a hard time liking any one of them at first, but once they dried down, they were fabulous. Very little alcohol in these perfumes, and they LAST. (They should, for the price.)
But the store and the philosophy is wonderful. THe one I got was Dans l'amour–unusual combination of grapefruit and rose–the grapefruit is really strong at first, and then dries down and the rose is what lasts…and I'm not a rose person. It's soft and feminine, but you have to wait!
Lucky you…both to be in Carmel at all, and to visit Ajne
Interesting, that is how I felt about the (also natural) Strange Invisible Perfumes: difficult starts, lovely dry downs. Glad you found one you love, and hope I'll get to try these some day.
So right–total boondoggle in Carmel; DH covering the car show there-wow, what a scene. Had never heard of Ajne, but saw a blurb in the Carmel Attractions book–very tourist of me! It's a hard shop to find–way back in a little alley. I smelled SIP and couldn't get past the start–guess I was more patient in Northern California! Yeah, man…:-)
Carmel would certainly make me more patient! I found that the SiPs required more patience than the average person is likely to give. I love Black Rosette, but only after a couple hours. The one that strikes me as most “accessible” is Lady Day, which oddly enough isn't in the collection at Barneys.
I don't remember them, as I was pretty turned off from the first sniff. Actually, that's a good thing. My perfume collection grows exponentially, especially at this time of year, for some reason. How many perfumes are too many, anyway??? And there are always so many more to discover…seems it's a never ending quest for the “perfect” scent…just when I've found one I love I find another one in a matter of weeks and I'm on to the next one…yikes!