When Mandy Aftel announced her latest fragrance, Aftelier Amber Tapestry, she billed it as a “comfort scent.” I heard “amber” and “comfort,” and I anticipated a real snickerdoodle of a perfume — a thick, golden, spicy, chewy scent cookie. (Not that this is bad! Set me in front of a pile of snickerdoodles and watch me go.) Yes, Amber Tapestry is warm and resinous with a touch of cinnamon, but cookies don’t pack jasmine, and lots of it. This could be a floral perfume lover’s new favorite oriental fragrance.
Amber Tapestry’s notes include yellow mandarin, jasmine grandiflorum, jasmine sambac, pear, heliotropin, labdanum, ambreine, cinnamon, coumarin, maltol, benzoin, ambergris and castoreum. Just to head off concerns, the pear isn’t discernable as fruit salad, and the cinnamon, while faintly noticeable, doesn’t give Amber Tapestry a gourmand vibe.
Amber Tapestry’s foundation is sweet warmth with a bare hint of dirtiness grounding it, like tasting a few coffee grounds at the bottom of a smooth latte, or sussing out the animal when smelling a leather glove. It’s smooth and baby-skin-soft, with the slightly chewy texture benzoin gives.
Woven into this foundation are thick swaths of jasmine. Sometimes jasmine is tingly and diffusive, but here it smells almost grass green, as if Amber Tapestry’s body absorbed the jasmine’s vaporous bits to leaven it. As a whole, the fragrance holds together in a pleasant alto range with a bit of the resonance of castoreum’s baritone. Unlike many amber-centric perfumes, Amber Tapestry has enough floral "space" in it to wear well in spring, too.
Amber Tapestry Eau de Parfum lasts about two hours on me before I feel the need to boost it with another spritz. Yesterday at work, I carried the sample vial in my pocket and sprayed it on a few times during the day. It was lovely and grounding, but not obtrusive. And, yes, it was comforting.
What kinds of fragrances comfort you?
Aftelier Amber Tapestry Eau de Parfum is $180 for 30 ml, and Amber Tapestry Parfum is $50 for 2 ml and $180 for 8 ml. For information on where to buy it, see Aftelier under Perfume Houses.
This sounds like something I need right now,a comforting scent.I love the name too,evokes memories of classic fumes and “the good old days” somehow.I have found comfort in a variety of perfumes these past few weeks.My favorite standout is Kilian Love ,Don’t be shy,which I thought would be kinda sexually charged,but NO!Sweet,comforting,it really does envelop me with love.Then Shalimar!On my cocooning days when it rained so much I worried I’d need to get my Jetski out to go buy milk,it was like a soft cashmere sweater,hugging me with just enough tenderness and awesome vanilla “fluff”!Loved it.Comfort and Strenghtening of my backbone to face the world?Why Portrait of a Lady,there you are my sweet old companion.A long walk through and early Fall parkway through the fallen leaves,catching up with my bestie,pondering about the past few weeks’s happenings and what the next step might be.All the way in my rose-patchouli-cocoon-of a drape!Lovely.x
Love PoaL so much. But for me, it’s a date night frag. It’s interesting how scent affects people so differently.
It’s a big fragrance, but I can see the comfort in it, too. Hey, maybe comforting AND a date night scent! Sounds like the perfect date to me.
What wonderful fragrance descriptions! I love Shalimar, too, on rainy days, especially. It’s so comforting.
Aaahhh, sounds lovely Angela! Thanks for the lovely (and tempting) word pics.
My comfort scents are Cuir Beluga and Oriental Lounge.
It’s as if the “Lounge” in Oriental Lounge says it all.
You are welcome!
Sounds delicious. Hypnotic Poison is very comforting.
A classic comfort scent. Definitely.
That sounds lovely, but at that price I’m happy to walk away. Yikes! $50 for 2 ml of a perfume that lasts about two hours? Holy frijole.
Oh and lately I’ve been using Cuir de Lancôme or Bois Farine when I’m in need of a little comfort.
I haven’t smelled Bois Farine in too long! Must remedy that.
Great choices – I love them both.
You need a healthy pocketbook to afford it, that’s for sure. I know the materials are topnotch, though.
I also blinked at the price. It sounds wondrous though.
I admit that with my slender bank account, I won’t be buying a bottle, either, but I feel lucky for my sample!
My thoughts exactly.
The EdP is less expensive, but I understand!
Looking at the notes it kind of makes sense to me now why so many of the Afteliers don’t work for me…castoreum and ambergris…nope I will pass
Today I got a lot of comfort from Berdoues OUd Al Sahraa…not too heavy on the oud but very billowy and balsamic with a touch of fruit…perfect for this cool day….I also like Tibetan Mountain Temple for a dose of comfort…
Both of those sound so exotic!
Amouage Beloved is like a warm and beautiful fur stole. But this evening I’m wearing another warm and enveloping scent, Clinique’s 40th Anniversary Perfumer’s Reserve edition of Aromatics Elixir.
Angela, I thought you reviewed the Perfumer’s Reserve edition and described it as a warm hug, but I’m not finding any review at all on NST. I wonder if I’m remembering a comment, or a review somewhere else.
I can’t find the review I was thinking of, but I do love this by Christos on Memory of Scent:
“Aromatics Elixir Perfumer’s Reserve is the portrait of a lady. This lady used to be fierce and uncompromising. She was rebellious and opinionated. She enjoyed the pleasures of the flesh as much as anyone but approached them always with a free spirituality, reminiscent of a flower child or a Maenad, one of Dionysus’s enraged followers. The lady is still alive and well but she is now a recluse in a house lost in the forest, by a river. She realised that the 21st century is not for her and that by the time she would have explained her point of view to her new acquaintances she would have already been bored of them. So she moved to the country where her loyal friends can always find her. Her family was slightly relieved by this decision: they wouldn’t have to explain her idiosyncrasies to their business associates and their social entourage. They organised a huge farewell reception in her honour and, as anticipated, much to everyone’s delight she didn’t even bother make an excuse for not showing up. Instead the family had placed a monumental portrait of her in the entrance of the house. And everyone could not help but admire her beauty and declare how much they already missed her.”
A whole storyline! She sounds irresistible.
No, I haven’t reviewed it. I remember, though, trying to find it in Portland and coming up dry.