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Aftelier

post #1 of 9
2/18/13 at 5:26am
Thread Starter 
I'm thinking about ordering samples from Aftelier and would love some advise from those of you who have tried Mandy's perfumes. Reading reviews it is a bit hard to form an idea of what her scents are like.

Is there a house note/accord? If so, how would you describe it? Would you say her perfumes tend to be dense, light or somewhere in between? If you were to use 1-3 words to describe her scents, what would you go with?

I'm thinking about Haute Claire, Secret Garden, Cepes and Tuberose and Lumiere. I am still looking for my perfect rose perfume, so maybe I should also go for Wild Roses...?

Any help would be greatly appreciate!
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post #2 of 9
2/18/13 at 5:43am
Hi Plaisir. It's been a few years since I owned any Aftelier, but I found that they had pretty good longevity. Those I used were definitely not light...some I'd describe as pretty hearty. Most of the ones I once wore no longer appear on her website. I did try Tango and remember really liking it. Her website says that her perfumes typically last 2 hours on your skin but I remember some that lasted a good 8 hours on mine. As for house note/accord...I remember her perfumes smelling dramatically different from one another, unlike Strange Invisible Perfumes, for instance, which I sometimes have trouble telling apart. I've heard wonderful things about Secret Garden!

Hope someone with more recent experience can be more helpful.
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post #3 of 9
2/18/13 at 6:32am
Same here. Haven't tried one of those in a while. A lady friend of mine had Wild Roses on a while back. IMO it smelled nice on her.
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post #4 of 9
2/18/13 at 6:44am
Oud Luban is the crown jewel of the line, with Secret Garden being a close second for me. Mandy uses high quality ingredients, and her scents are unique, sometimes quirky, but always sophisticated. Lasting power for most is very short, like two hours. When I wear Oud Luban I use the solid like hair pomade, and it lasts all day.
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post #5 of 9
2/18/13 at 7:32am
I just received my first-ever samples from Aftelier, and I've done a brief test of each of the ones I ordered: Secret Garden, Candide, Lumiere, Honey Blossom, and Tango.

I agree that they are quite different from each other.
  • Lumiere is a delicate, sheer floral, but it's a little sharp in the opening. Once it warms up on skin, it's just lovely.
  • I did not have good luck with Secret Garden. With the big love that it has here on BN, I was expecting to love it, too, but on me, it's just a *very* powdery, light floral. It's a bit more "classical" in structure, I think. I much preferred Lumiere.
  • I really enjoy Honey Blossom -- it smells like the tiny flowers on honey locust trees in bloom, but it also has a very interesting edge to it that suggests the olfactory equivalent of bees buzzing around heavily pollinated flowers. This one had more presence than either Lumiere or Secret Garden, but it still wasn't hefty in the way that Tauer or Sonoma Scent Studio is hefty.
  • My favorites of the ones I ordered are Candide and Tango. Candide is a very pretty, warm jasmine with just enough orange blossom to make things interesting but not enough to create the vinyl shower curtain effect I usually get when jasmine and orange blossom are combined. Candide is similar in presence/weight to Honey Blossom.
  • Tango is just plain sexy. Boozy, smoky, and warm. For me, Tango had the most presence/weight of all of them.

Having said that, all of them were completely gone in 4 hours and mostly gone in 3. One of the disadvantages of natural fragrances, I suppose, but they are *very* nice before they go.
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post #6 of 9
2/18/13 at 8:46am
I agree with thebeck, Oud Luban is a wonderful scent but you must like animalic oud because it's the 'real deal'. I own the solid perfume which makes it easy to apply just the right amount. Now, she has a perfume also, which I have not tried.

When I bought my OL I also asked for a sample of Cepes & Tuberose which is very wild: Mushrooms and white florals. Reminded me a bit of Bolt of Lightning by JAR Perfumes, but gentler. It impressed me.

FYI: she also sells food essence oils. Sort of fragrant/flavor enhancements that you can add (1 drop at a time) to recipes, etc. I bought the Coffee one and it's fantastic. Highly recommended if you're a foodie.
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post #7 of 9
2/21/13 at 7:43am
Thread Starter 
Thank you everyone! I think I will add Tango to the list now :-) Oud Laban sounds interesting but considering I don't normally go for oud heavy fragrances I will probably pass on this one for now. Still undecided on Wild Roses.
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post #8 of 9
2/21/13 at 7:52am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeperez23 View Post

FYI: she also sells food essence oils. Sort of fragrant/flavor enhancements that you can add (1 drop at a time) to recipes, etc. I bought the Coffee one and it's fantastic. Highly recommended if you're a foodie.

Thanks for the tip!
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post #9 of 9
2/22/13 at 5:16am
check out the Ancient Resins body oil, it is an amber and incense mix, it was originally comissioned by Leonard Cohen but us mere mortals can also buy it
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