Indie natural line Aftelier has launched Sacré Bleu, a new blue lotus fragrance…
You don’t just smell an aroma; you fall into it
“You don’t just smell an aroma; you fall into it,” writes artisan perfumer Mandy Aftel. And entering her exquisite small museum, the Aftel Archive of Curious Scents, tucked into a backyard in Berkeley, is to fall into an ancient, mysterious world. Amid centuries-old books, bottles and curios are natural fragrances that come from the secretions of civets and the bowels of sperm whales, as well as from resins, rare flowers, roots and so much more. We talk to Aftel about her collection, the art of building a fragrance, and her new book, “The Museum of Scent: Exploring the Curious and Wondrous World of Fragrance”.
— Listen to Mandy Aftel at Berkeley Perfumer Mandy Aftel on the 'Curious and Wondrous World of Fragrance' at KQED.
Aftelier Hey Jude ~ new fragrance
Indie natural line Aftelier has launched Hey Jude, a new rose fragrance…
Aftelier Boheme Confection ~ new fragrance
Indie natural line Aftelier has launched Boheme Confection, a new gourmand fragrance. Boheme Confection is available as a solid perfume, or as a limited edition liquid…
Aftelier Joie de Vert ~ fragrance review
We recently marked the winter solstice in my part of the world, and I’m so relieved that we’re now slowly edging towards the “longer” days and milder temperatures of spring. I’m already extracting as much sensory value as possible from every brief outdoor errand, despite the grayness, the wind, and the ongoing threat of Covid-19: sniffing the air in local parks when I’m alone and can remove my mask, turning my face to catch a ray of winter sun, taking close visual note of evergreen trees and any lingering greenery in my neighborhood.
I’ve reread a few favorite works of children’s literature over the past year, including two that employ secluded, leafy spaces as symbols of renewal and transformation. One is Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden (1911), in which a pair of lonely children observe the arrival of springtime in a long-forgotten garden…