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Perfume
1 Perfumer Mandy Aftel on Food-Based Fragrance Trend
Holiday
2 How-To: Make Your Own Perfume Solid With Tips From Mandy Aftel
Tips
3 Four Tips For Choosing a Fragrance
Eco
4 More People Are Making Their Own Natural Perfume
Perfume
5 Aftelier Has Achingly Lovely Solid Perfume Compacts
Editor's Pick
6 Peek Inside a Perfumer's Atelier
In her work Essence and Alchemy, Mandy Aftel describes perfumers as the modern-day inheritors of the alchemical tradition, following in the footsteps of those men fervently obsessed with finding the Philosopher's Stone and turning base metals into gold. And when you visit the atelier where she mixes up her highly fragranced potions, you can't help but agree. There's something bewitching about the Read more
Meet my newest love: this beautifully rendered vintage solid perfume compact ($300) from Aftelier Perfumes. If you, like myself, have an extreme weakness for petite, elegant fragrance keepers, the luxe antique cases at Aftelier are worth more than a glance. They're also likely to make you stare longingly into your wallet wishing additional funds would appear there, but if you're looking for Read more
In effort to eschew conventional, overly potent synthetic scents, some people have been hitting the bottle. That would be the 190-proof bottle of Everclear or neutral grape alcohol, which are commonly used as bases for creating homemade scents. As ambitious as it may be, natural perfumery involves mixing or pressing together stems, herbs, and petals to make tinctures, and it's an art that is on Read more
Recently, I popped into noted natural perfumer Mandy Aftel's Berkeley, CA studio for a tour. I found it quite inspirational to see someone so passionate about her work. Seriously, the enthusiasm was contagious. So, when I told Aftel that picking a fragrance is a difficult task for me (as I'm sure it is for many of you), she gave me some cool tips I'll definitely be remembering next time I cross Read more
According to Allure, "The trend toward using natural ingredients was pioneered by perfumer and author Mandy Aftel." Well, guess what? Last week I had the pleasure of meeting with the famed perfumer in her Berkeley, CA studio. We covered everything from beautifully stanky scents to trends in the industry to advice on selecting fragrances. And when I asked her if she had any do-it-yourself ideas Read more
Last week, I met renowned natural perfumer, author, and owner of Aftelier Perfumes, Mandy Aftel, in her visually stunning Berkeley, CA studio. With wood built-ins, glass bottles lining the windows, and apothecary style furnishings, it was a little Frank Lloyd Wright with a pinch of Harry Potter. Topped off with the collective smell of essential oils and perfumes? Yeah, it was pretty much like Read more
This year, the Fragrance Foundation has nominated three of Many Aftel's fragrances for prestigious FiFi Awards. Mandy's fragrances are truly all natural, and most of her ingredients are organically sourced, so wearing them is a very different experience if you're used to synthetics the way I am. I gave all three of her FiFi finalists (Candide, Honey Blossom, and Lumiere) a wear, so to see what I Read more
Perfume-ophiles everywhere have been waiting with bated breath for the official announcement of the 2011 FiFi Awards nominees, and now they're here. Each year, The Fragrance Foundation holds its equivalent of the Oscars, awarding the best in perfumery in categories ranging from luxury to indie to mass market. This year, my picks are Candide, a gorgeous jasmine fragrance from the amazing Mandy Read more
The big trend right now in fragrance is gourmand, or food-based aromas, according to perfume expert Mandy Aftel. So what does it all mean anyway? Are you a floral kind of gal or does chypre do it for you? In case you're uncertain, check out six of some of the more popular fragrance category definitions below. Then, impress your friends with your olfactory group knowledge about the "juice" — Read more
