Your stunning new book Symbolorum has me absolutely ELECTRIFIED! An endless treasure trove of an unseen world. - Douglas Little, Heretic Parfum

This "literary cabinet of curiosities" is full of unexpected visuals and thought-provoking reflections; each image is a mysterious universe unto itself. Aftel introduces us to emblems in this curious compendium, melding past and present through 100 detailed images and inscriptions from a 1654 edition of German botanist Joachim Camerarius the Younger's exquisite emblem book. Each engraving has been hand-painted by Aftel, who also includes her own commentaries as a perfumer and scholar of alchemy and mythology. - Hyperallergic

On the surface, Symbolorum may not seem like a fragrance book, because it isn’t about perfumes, but it still speaks to the same symbolic and sensory creativity that are hallmarks of Mandy Aftel’s botanical fragrances. Reviving the 17th‑century emblem tradition, the book draws on bestiaries, fables, and philosophy that informed early aromatics and distillation. She painstakingly hand‑colored every illustration, with the same beauty and artistry she brings to her natural fragrances. - Michelyn Camen, CaFleureBon

Mandy Aftel's Symbolorum revives the Baroque emblem book, a 17th-century form that wove image, motto, and meditation into a single contemplative device. Neither purely literary nor purely visual, emblems were meant to be lived with and studied slowly, sensed intuitively, and returned to over time. In this way, they feel like a long-lost cousin of the tarot, the artist’s book, and the symbolic systems many of us turn to now for meaning-making beyond linear reason. Aftel's background as a perfumer and historian of scent subtly inflects the book, reminding us that knowledge once moved through the body as much as the intellect. - Philosophical Research Society

This Symbolorum is a stunning achievement, and a book that is most certainly worthy of your collection. Mandy Aftel's extraordinary undertaking, in writing about Baroque emblems, is articulated with precision, but in a very approachable and edifying way. If you are at all curious about the iconography of the extraordinary emblems discussed in this book, then you will be utterly delighted from the first page turn to the last. - Lola Seciento, Lola's Secret Beauty Blog

In many ways, Symbolorum can be seen as a divinatory and life counsel tool, similar to the Tarot, which was extremely popular at that time. One may open it to any random page, read, and uncover a life lesson to ponder. Symbolorum is a repository of salient virtues, caveats and admonitions, yet it is so much more. Minuscule pearls of truth pepper its pages with practical guidance. Many of the virtues extolled concern living a life of considered moderation; an admiration for circumspection and balance in all things; and the realization that, in order to achieve further development of our character and obtain wisdom, the path is frequently arduous but well worth the effort. Some of the principles which reoccur are these: a) Be clever – but not too clever; b) Master your emotions and do not be ruled by them; c) Never underestimate the small. Overall, Symbolorum praises perseverance, hard work, and self-mastery. - Ida Meister, CaFleureBon