Fragrance Finder

• Scent Family: Floral Floral

A sheer, elegant floral, based on fine green tea absolute and sacred frankincense. The exquisite heart features Tasmanian boronia and the transparent watery floral blue lotus. Restrained yet sensual, Vogue.com calls this fragrance "addictive."  Sheer and reflecting light, Lumiere captures the experience of fine silk on the skin.

Featured Notes:
Top: phenyl ethyl acetate.
Heart: honeysuckle, blue lotus, boronia.
Base: green tea, ambergris.

• Scent Family: Soliflore

Bright, uplifting floral, expressing its theme of optimism through sublime jasmine and age-old frankincense. Recent research in the Journal of Biological Chemistry finds that the scent of jasmine is better than Valium at calming and soothing. The sunny color comes from the orange shades of jasmine , pink grapefruit, and blood orange essences. The smell of jasmine is uplifting and cheerful in a sexy way – the perfect blend of high and low, sweet and dirty. The pink grapefruit is juicy and sweet; the blood orange smells of mouth-watering orange mixed with raspberries. The name is an homage to the great novel from Voltaire, with its theme of optimism.

Featured Notes:
Top: saffron, galangal.
Heart: jasmine, Turkish rose, nutmeg.
Base: cardamom, myrrh.

• Scent Family: Soliflore

Beautiful honeyed floral, hypnotic with notes of honeysuckle. If there were a flower that smelled like honey, this would be it.

Featured Notes:
Top: mimosa, linden blossom CO₂.
Heart: orange blossom absolute, phenyl ethyl alcohol.
Base: ambergris, benzoin.

• Scent Family: Soliflore

Grandiflorum jasmine with blood orange and pink grapefruit. Jasmine flower is a very seductive scent; it will woo you. I balanced the heady, intense, narcotic floral aroma with the brightest of citruses.  People enjoy being able to carry this perfume with them, applying it when they want to brighten their mood.

• Scent Family: Soliflore

Like a bouquet of roses freshly picked from the garden,  Roses perfume reveals the voluptuousness of a warm rose in the sun. This luxurious modern version embodies all the different tonalities of rose -- honey, myrrh, musk, spice.  Beautiful, either on its own or layered over any other Aftelier perfume.

• Scent Family: Spicy Floral

The fresh and spicy fragrance of lilies in bloom, featuring the mysterious aroma of orange flower absolute. One of my favorite flowers is the oriental lily, a fragrance that fills my house much of the year. But alas, no natural essence can be extracted from it, so I set out to imagine a natural perfume of this fragrance. This crisp, elegant floral solid perfume evolves on the skin perfectly.  I chose the name “Orchid” quixotically, because that flower’s visual beauty captures the elegance of this lily scent.

• Scent Family: Spicy Floral

Inspired by an ancient Moroccan spice recipe Ras el Hanout or "top of the shop" referring to a mixture of the best spices a seller has to offer. Traditionally having many dozens of spices, I took creative liberty to include the ones that would blend beautifully in a perfume. My recipe is based on Bulgarian rose, a smoothing element that takes some of the edge off the spices, like galangal, nutmeg absolute, and black pepper; it massages them into a rounded softness, finished off with the freshness of bitter orange.  Built on a base of myrrh and cardamom, I layered the spices vertically throughout the perfume.

Featured Notes:
Top: saffron, galangal.
Heart: Turkish rose, nutmeg.
Base: cardamom, myrrh.

• Scent Family: Floral Oriental

Smells like the night air in Hawaii -- of sultry flowers, warmth and light. It almost shimmers. Parfum Privé was created out of my curiosity: when I finally managed to acquire ambergris, a rare and elusive substance derived from a secretion of the sperm whale, I couldn’t wait to use it. I wanted to balance the intense beauty of the ambergris with essences that could hold their own; botanical musk and redolent florals. I originally intended to make this lush perfume only for my own personal use, but the final perfume was too incredible not to share. Parfum Privé is the most extravagant perfume in my collection –- four of the essences cost over $10,000 per kilo: osmanthus, orange flower absolute, ambrette seed (a botanical musk) and the legendary ambergris.

Featured Notes:
Top: bergamot, pink pepper CO₂.
Heart: orange flower absolute, osmanthus, pimento leaf.
Base: ambrette, ambergris.

Same description as Parfum Privé liquid above.

• Scent Family: Floral Oriental

Secret Garden opens into roses and wood, brightened with mixed citrus. The jasmine sambac heart of the perfume, with its spicy indolic kick, paired with the jammy raspberry, lends the illusion of spice where there is none -- like the lure of a blind pathway in a garden. This intertwines with voluptuous Turkish rose absolute and the watery gardenia aroma of blue lotus.

Both the phantom spice and otherworldly blue lotus create a feeling of hidden mystery in this garden. The sumptuous balsamic base is rooted in beautiful deertongue (*not* an animal ingredient), which combines the sweet and powdery notes of tonka beans with the aromas of the countryside.

Secret Garden is named for the 1910 novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, about a young girl who herself blossoms after she discovers a barren secret garden and brings it back to life.

Featured Notes:
Top: bergamot, bois de rose, Geraniol, blood orange.
Heart: jasmine sambac, raspberry, Turkish rose, blue lotus.
Base: civet, castoreum, vanilla, deertongue (plant), benzoin, aged patchouli.

• Scent Family: Amber Oriental

An ambery lavender spray with hints of pink pepper and bergamot, in a base of organic grape alcohol. The warmth of the fruity sweet grape alcohol  and rich lavender absolute marries beautifully with the amber base. This fragrance is less complicated; easy to like for both men & women. -- "It is a truly unforgettable scent. You will wear and he will wear it; it will amaze you both." Beauty News.

Featured Notes:
Top: mandarin.
Heart: lavender absolute.
Base: labdanum.

• Scent Family: Amber Oriental.

Wear Muse alone, or layer this clean ambery musk over any other Aftelier Perfume to create a warmer fragrance. The rare botanical essence, rosemary absolute, smells like the rosemary flowers on the bush, with none of camphorous aroma of the leaves. Sweet Mexican lime at the top focuses the fragrance and lends a clean citrus sweetness.

Featured Notes:
Top: lime.
Heart: clary sage.
Base: labdanum, rosemary absolute.

• Scent Family: Amber Oriental.

Evokes the rolling hills of California -- The honeyed softness of sun-warmed sweet hay, dotted with wildflowers and a cool breeze of Mexican lime.

• Scent Family: Gourmand

Possibly the world’s most seductive form of chocolate, with jasmine and blood orange. I create the chocolate alcohol that is the foundation of the perfume. I tincture very aromatic organic cocoa beans from Costa Rica, hand-selected by master chocolate-maker Steve DeVries, along with  some very floral Tahitian vanilla beans. Using both grandiflorum and sambac jasmines, their richness marries well with the full chocolate base.

Featured Notes:
Top: blood orange, pink grapefruit.
Heart: jasmine sambac & grandiflorum.
Base: chocolate, vanilla.

• Scent Family: Gourmand

Jasmine sambac, fir absolute, and yuzu create the richness of ripe black figs. Without a true natural fig essence available, my fig contains no fig, but employs a sleight-of-hand based on a rare, almost fruity lavender from Spain, paired with the sweet and jammy fir absolute.

Featured Notes:
Top: grand fir, pink grapefruit.
Heart: pink pepper absolute, jasmine sambac.
Base: Africa stone, fir absolute.

• Scent Family: Sweet Woods

With its rich jam-like notes of forests and fir trees, this perfume is the perfect walk in the woods.  Fir absolute has an aromatic quality of stone fruit along with fir trees.  Beautiful on its own, Fir blends beautifully on the skin with Roses solid perfume, and also adds a cheerful, warm, uplifting sweetness when applied over any other florals.

• Scent Family: Dry Woods

Dark, resinous oud is the most expensive essence in the world - here 8 varieties are blended to get the desired notes. This is a perfume of great highs and lows, with no middle notes. It opens with the fresh citrus top notes of the finest hojari frankincense ("Luban" in Urdu) and resinous notes of elemi. Followed by balsamic notes of the faintly vanilla benzoin, the spicy-balsamic opopanax, and the fine cognac-like notes of aged patchouli. The drydown reveals the smoky choya ral and precious oud - intimate and softly animal, like a lover's body.

Perfect for layering with florals -- the oud brings an earthy richness that allows the florals to bloom on the skin.

Featured Notes:
Top: elemi, orange terpenes, blood orange, frankincense CO₂.
Base: oud, opopanax, choya ral, benzoin, aged patchouli.

• Scent Family: Dry Woods

Inspired by the “dance of love”, sexy and smoky, with roasted seashells and champaca; a heady floral with spice and honey notes. One of my most complicated perfumes, combining many botanicals to convey the naughty eroticism of a night of drinking, dancing, smoking. The deep rich floral champaca, and high-register wild sweet orange lifts the darker essences. --- “Tango reminded me that perfume is not just a business and not just a craft, but an Art.” Perfume Smelling Things.

Featured Notes:
Top: wild sweet orange, fresh ginger.
Heart: coffee CO₂, champaca.
Base: choya, blond tobacco, tonka.

• Scent Family: Fougère

Wild mushrooms, with animal undertones and one of the world's most voluptuous florals.  Wild porcini mushrooms and Italian tuberose play a mysterious and earthy duet. One of my more enigmatic perfumes, it has won many awards and fans. --- Chosen as one of “100 Perfumes Every Perfumista Should Try” by Now Smell This.

Featured Notes:
Top: bois de rose.
Heart: tuberose, Moroccan rose.
Base: cepes absolute, benzoin.

• Scent Family: Green.

Haute Claire is both crisp and soft, cool and warm. The fresh edgy greenness of galbanum is offset by the creamy floral of ylang ylang edged with honeysuckle. The green and floral notes harmonize in perfect pitch, with neither dominating the other. A warm base of vetiver and vanilla provides a soft finish of sweet grass.

Featured Notes:
Top: galbanum, Mexican lime, wild sweet orange, ylang ylang co2.
Heart: honeysuckle absolute, ylang ylang extra, clary sage.
Base: vetiver, ethyl phenyl acetate, vanilla absolute.

• Scent Family: Leafy Green.

Verdant pine absolute, leafy flouve absolute, and ambery clary sage contribute to this "very green" eau de parfum.  All shades of leafy green aromas ,wrapped around a tuberose heart that lends warmth and roundness to the gorgeous smell of pine needles.

Featured Notes:
Top: grand fir, tarragon.
Heart: tuberose, clary sage.
Base: pine needle absolute, flouve.

• Scent Family: Spicy Green.

Shiso is based on an old Geisha formula, combining  notes of shiso leaf and agarwood with precious turn-of-the-century spices oils clove and cassia. A modern twist on a classic Eastern blend of green and spice. Layers beautifully over Fig perfume.

Featured Notes:
Top: antique clove, green pepper.
Heart: perilla, kewda, geranium.
Base: agarwood, sandalwood, patchouli.