Aftelier Honey Blossom Perfume

This is perfume like liquid gold sunniness warming up the cool that clings around us from the long winter we've just had. A sweet nectar-like perfume, based on the theme of linden tree blossoms, which will soon to be bursting out upon us.  I  think of those cool Spring evenings landing over the warmer days, causing a heavy mist that catches and holds that linden flower fragrance in the air.  Daytime cheeriness, night-time narcotic.  The perfume is indeed a good likeness as in portrait of warm honey on the skin, which is a perfume idea whose time has come.  Somewhat rarer a perfume idea in the past, now we want to bathe ourselves in its olfactory equivalent.  Not the sweetness of sugar that is in many very "young" fragrances but  floral nectar thickened by the sun, a much deeper and more relaxing tone of sweetness.

This is the natural perfume that is in the running with a good chance for the first time award in this category, as held by the Fragrance Foundation. I think they have invited Aftelier into this awards process in part to open up the mainstream fragrance industry to what is happening all over, that is, so much creativity and interest in  natural perfumes.  Mandy Aftel's book, Essence and Alchemy was the inspiration for many, including me, to get seriously interested in perfume. Her presentation of the traditional materials and ways of making perfume have exerted a great influence on natural perfumers in this country, and green thinking people who love the sensuality of fragrance.

Mandy Aftel was and continues to be a pioneer  in making natural perfume as something creatively far beyond the simpler presentation of  natural elements as simply themselves, but more in the form of metaphorical and allusive poetic beauties.  For example rose as not just a rose but an iconic Rose in solid perfume form, in a silver case beside a deep Fir solid perfume; the layering implied and accomplishing the summer and winter round of the year in physical and olfactory form.   I think her background as a psychotherapist and writer must influence that reach into the primal sense memories of us all.

I remember when the Aftelier perfume Tango, about that passionately dramatic dance and Shiso, about that singular Asian scent essence central to the geisha's way of beauty came out, those dark liqueur like fragrances were demonstrating a very personal direction and motivation for composition with natural essences.  The more specifically personal the perfume, the more creative and interesting, in my experience.  

There is a consumer vote in this category of natural perfume, so I encourage all to enter the site and vote for Honey Blossom.  This will support natural perfumes as a category and Aftelier as an independent perfumer who does everything on their own, but has successfully reached out across to the wider world.  Encouraging to all independent perfumers to see Aftelier opening up this gateway to the mainstream fragrance world for well deserved recognition, for natural perfumes generally and this singularly beautiful one in particular.

The voting will open in a couple of days, at which time I will post a link directly to the voting area.  Facebook will also have a voting area.  I look forward to voting and to seeing what transpires.

Above, Unter de Linden, 18th Century print of the famous avenue of flowering trees in Berlin; and the Aftelier Honey Blossom photo from the site.  See the letters on Nathan Branch for  more information and links to the process of creation.  I love that transparent golden heart filled with Honey Blossom perfume - $80.
Please note the vote is now open, and anyone can vote!  Follow this link:
http://fragrance.org/ballots2011consumer/login.php
Please help elect the natural beauty, Honey Blossom.  
You must also vote in the men's section, in order for the ballot to be accepted.  
(My choice was 1 Million,  mainstream but well crafted )

The Scent of Lithuania - Lietuvos Kvapas

Lithuania is a tiny country on the coast of the Baltic Sea, at about the same latitude as Sweden, with about 3 million people and a unique ancient language related to ancient Sanskrit.  Some of its landscape contains the last vestiges of the old fairy-tale woods of Europe; its primal forest, with native plants and animals no longer found anywhere else on the continent. A million years or so ago, a vast evergreen forest was submerged by icy northern waters and became the Baltic Sea.  The tree sap was pressurized and crystallized and to this day continues to be thrown up on the beaches as amber.  A dark past of invasions, massacres, and occupations finally gave way by non-violent resistance to independence in 1991, and renewal as a culture began.

People there are rediscovering and celebrating their traditions and unique aesthetic predilections and tastes, and also busy creating new ones.  It's a very green thinking population.  It was originally a peasant culture that worshiped domesticated nature.  The beauty of a bunch of flowers or a carefully cultivated piece of land is revered as the evidence of a beneficial matrimony of humans with nature,  a combination of human energy and the almost spiritual power of nature.  In the summer people go into the woods as often as possible, sometimes to gather honey from the wild bees,  for wild plants and herbs to season food  and to go mushroom hunting after the rain.  And of course to the Baltic beach.  This refreshes and balances the stresses of modern life and its worries with the energy the people can gain simply from experiencing their landscapes.  The scent of the fresh open air is especially important in this regard.

As a way of reaching out to the rest of the world, a private initiative commissioned a fragrance to carry this unique ambiance as an olfactory ambassador at large and for Lithuanians who may be far away from home.  In consultation with and in production by Galimard, the input of the citizens and visitors, the creative direction of  Mindaugas Stongvilas, and product designers Giedrius Laurušas and Juozas Brundza, an ambient spray was created.  It's a collaborative work.  I find it fresh and subtle, with a herbaceous, mossy, sandalwood and cedar uplifting tonic feel to it that seems to disperse and disappear in the air like a flock of birds turning together, but then it actually does remain without becoming tiring or overpowering.  There is a very faint touch of wood smoke.  It  seems to create a zone of woodsy freshness and ozone in the interior air of my place.  It is used to spray into the air or if you want it to linger, onto soft furnishings such as linens, pillows, curtains, rugs, or other soft home decor elements.

The notes are listed as
Top: bergamot, notes of a wild flower bouquet, ginger, raspberry, notes of red berries, grapefruit;
Middle: lily of the valley, lilac, rose;
Basenotes: amber, tree moss, cedar, sandalwood, patchouli, musk, and a tree smoke accord.

There are five national forests in this tiny country, and the woods are never very far away.


I like that this has already been distributed to diplomats and soldiers serving overseas, a little subtle reminder for them of some of the most pleasant aspects of a unique place.  It seems that candles and other scent diffusing carrier elements will be available soon.  I ordered online from the official site, for 28.67 Euros. Please visit the site for full information.  (This perfume was created on private initiative, and not by the government, who I suppose might find it falls a bit outside their budgetary aims and categories).   If you visit the country, you can buy it upon entry at the airport or at other cultural institutions like the tourist centers and museum shops.

Photos above taken from a travel journal of photojournalists/bicyclists traveling the world (Going Slowly), from part of their trip and adventures in Lithuania, with many more lovely photos of a beautiful meal, a walk through the woods, having a sauna and swimming in a pond, and gathering strawberries and honey with native friends at a cabin by the woods, while imagining a similar life transplanted to the countryside in the U.S; photo of Lietuvos Kvapas from the site which has much more information and a shopping link; photos of the Lithuanian coast and the capital city Vilnius Old Town  from the Baltic Travel Company. Photo of Lithuanian amber chips from EtsyLithuania, featuring crafts for sale directly from their makers.

Aftelier Give-Away Winner of Memento and Wildflowers

Ann Wooledge is the winner of Memento and Wildflowers-- and I see she is an aromatherapist who has said she will have an introduction to natural perfumes this way.  There could not be a better way -- the materials are truly beautiful and I think she will enjoy and appreciate these perfumes all the more because of that.  Congratulations!  Ann, please contact me at indieperfumes at gmail dot com with your address and I will request  Aftelier to send the perfumes to you directly. 

Thank you to Mandy Aftel for the generous give away, and good luck to her three finalist perfumes at the Fragrance Foundation Awards, Candide, Lumiere and Honey Blossom.

Celebrate! Giveaway - Aftelier Wildflowers and Memento

To celebrate my invitation to the Fragrance Foundation Awards Breakfast this Friday, April 8, 2010, Mandy Aftel has been kind enough to offer a give-away of a mini flacon of Memento, and a mini of Wildflowers solid perfume.  To enter, please visit my original posting on these two gorgeous fully natural hand-made perfumes and leave a comment at the original post:

Aftelier - Wildflowers and Memento  

This was the post I entered for consideration with the Fragrance Foundation this year for the editorial award for a fragrance blog. 

I will pull a winner's name out of my proverbial hat on and announce Sunday night April 10th.

Mandy Aftel has been nominated for her perfumes Candide, Honey Blossom and Lumiere. 

Good luck to us all!

Above vintage postcard image of French rose gatherers from the Aftelier site.

OLO Perfume

OLO of Portland, Oregon, made by Heather Sielaff, is a tiny fragrance line of gentle, intimate, earthy-fresh, subtle perfumes. My impression is of a youthful sensibility steeped in the air of the Pacific Northwest deep forests, their mosses, loamy earth, mists and soft rains. They are well worn with wool sweaters and cotton dresses, heightening personal skin scent tone into a more complex and poetically allusive version of your lightly musky self. They are abstract and delicate but certain notes arise over the course of wear that allude to archetypal memories and experiences, if you let them.

The abstraction allows for personal projections into each of the perfumes. They each have a strong identity but most do not really fall into the classical styles of incense or oriental or chypre. There are a couple (Dafne and Nationale 6/7) that are definitely florals but quickly move from something descriptive of petals directly to a blended sweetness that is more about energy and liveliness.  The more overtly masculine types (Erastus and Victory Wolf) have a strong smoky tobacco evergreen quality that I would wear regardless, but that's me, I am so drawn to their evergreen darkness.  I most enjoy what I find to be the more abstract ones (Foret, Dark Wave, Pauper, and in its own category, Violet Leather). They are elegantly understated, open ended, modern and natural enough to remind me and connect me to so many pleasant things.

I get the impression of past and present mixed together. Like the memory of my earliest reading of the Victorian classics suddenly arising during a typical modern-life work day, or talking the long way home through busy streets with scents arising on the evening breeze, or entering a modern house furnished with antiques. If you like the softly astringent beauty of strong black coffee, brisk walks in the cool damp air at night, the soft light of candle flame, leather and wood-smoke, standing on a porch breathing in the quiet morning air, this is a line to try.

Women and men could wear all of them and be perhaps even more intriguing to the opposite sex wearing one that would usually be in the other gender’s territory. This scent style bonds with nature of the wild, un-cultivated, kind.

I love perfumes that create a  personal ambiance that is non gender specific and not like what is usually thought of as “perfume-y”, but more an allusive aromatic experience that both enhances the skin’s own scent and builds an appealing personal ambiance, like a stylish cloak of scented air.  These do.  They stay closer in to the skin, so they are decorative of personal intimacy, and also won't get on the nerves of those who dislike a big sillage at work or social situations.
 
The perfumer takes inspiration from various life situations and personality types she has experienced. She makes the perfumes up individually in small editions, and develops them based on the reactions and comments she gets from wearing them herself.

The packaging is elegantly low key.  Embossed white paper labels with the name almost invisibly shadowing itself on the vials, with calligraphic font titles beneath. There are also exquisite hand blown flacons that look like elongated crystal rippled droplets made by a local artisan (Andy Paiko, fascinating work). They are sold filled with any perfume of the line you most prefer. 

The site is beautifully done, and there is a sample program, and gradated sizes as to price, making them affordable.  The special flacon is exquisite, hand-made in limited edition, and quite a bit more ($275) but comes with 9ml of the fragrance.  The perfumes are available online and also at certain special boutiques, such as Bird in Brooklyn, where I first encountered them. Here are some impressions on the line, with the predominant notes listed as on the site: 
  
Foret
Pine, juniper, cedar vetivert. Rubbed into the skin of my arms it blends with the skin scent, then the upper tang of the juniper and cedar and pine step forward to blend into their own herbal mint/freshness. It’s like a forest liquor or cognac made of evergreen substances, held close to the ground by the earthiness of the vetivert. I find blends well with my own skin scent so it shines through as part of the composition.

Erastus
Cedar, tobacco, oakmoss, silver needle. Immediately deep and dense, has a salty edge to the tobacco, which has been smoked, standing out in the open mossy evergreen air. 

Victory Wolf
Incredibly outdoorsy, a total bonfire experience, smoke, wood, tobacco, a camping trip in the forest. 

Dafne
Orange, ylang ylang, sampaguita (a type of jasmine). The high toned sweetness of a true floral modified by the brisk clarity of orange. Daphne flowers are the distinctive note of Spring in Portland, Oregon. I am not familiar with the plant in bloom but this is meant to bring the Northwest Spring season to everyone everywhere.

Nationale 6/7 
Lemon, rose, sandalwood, musk. In collaboration with a local vintage gallery/shop, the Victorian triumverate of rose, sandalwood and musk is sharpened up by the lemon which takes the lead and ushers it into modernity.

Violet Leather 

Violet, leather, rosewood. Scented soft fine leather gloves, drawn off the hands of a person who is just in from a brisk walk in the rain, so the leather got a little wet from brushing against the leaves while picking some greens. It’s more the breath than the full sweetness of violets; more the shrinking violet as an essential dark floral holding itself near the earth amid green camouflage. I love the inspiration: “Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.” -Mark Twain
 
Lightning Paw
Bergamot, vanilla, jasmine, patchouli, wood.  The jasmine and vanilla impart a soft comfort to a scenic landscape, a distant perspective created by the rest of the composition. More abstract than you would expect from this note list, they are so tightly bound as to turn into an entity that speaks through the filter of a citrus voice.

Dark Wave   
Notes are not listed, but I get cedar, smoke, mint, and a gentle herbaceous tang. This one is temporarily off the site but will be back soon, it was created for a special event but will soon be brought back by popular demand. I imagine a lot of lovely young people in a room together in the evening with the open windows bringing in the scent of moist leaves, tree created oxygen, and body heat generated by the press of the crowd.  
 
Valens
Inspired by Old Spice aftershave, warm and spicey, but this interpretation is far more subtle in effect, as if some got onto a flannel shirt kept in a cedar closet. I think the name may be a reference to Richie Valens, who died young in a plane crash, one of the early rockers who brought Latin sensibilities into American pop culture. A simple air of soft glow and warmth.

Pauper
An interesting collaboration fragrance, inspired by those, like many artists out there, with exquisite tastes and no money to indulge them. Getting a quiet and clean scent of the forest, against the backdrop of a high note, representing perhaps the intoxication of beauty, and a sense of longing. Absinthe drinking, watching the light fall through the branches, wearing silk. 

I like perfumes that aim to approximate ambivalent states of mind and feeling. It brings out the personality of the wearer. All those projections and imaginative musings.  That's why I think people should try the sample program, I know my impressions are very personal ones and everyone will have their own very personal reactions too.  It's not the kind of perfume that art directs your persona, but rather more a poetic suggestion and a sense of style; you make of it what you will.

 Coming soon - Leisure Nomad. Sounds like the distillation of the life I want to live.

As a friend of mine keeps saying, about all the new perfumers coming out, "There's so much creativity!"  Yes, and we're finally getting to see more than the tip of the iceberg; the internet has been a great thing for new perfumers.  It's wonderful to discover and try these beautiful things coming out from all over the country these days.  I feel so lucky to be witnessing all this creativity blossoming in American perfume.

Above photo Eastmoreland Lake by Monner from a historic photo archive of Portland. 
Remaining images from the OLO site, and the perfumer's blog gives more insight into her creative process, too.