Jo's Scent Notes: Aftelier Patchouli Noir (featuring 100-year-old patchouli...!)

People often ask me about natural perfumes – but the good ones are, alas, so far and few between. Many natural materials lack the brightness and zing which, even in small doses, can add a shaft of sunlight to a fragrance, or alternatively make it last for longer on skin.

However, the true master of natural perfumery is Mandy Aftel, who is based in Berkeley, California, who seems to overcome those challenges with grace and ease. Should you ever be passing (or desire to make a piligrimage), she even has a museum at her atelier of all manner of natural materials (including ambergris), historic fragrance books, measuring equipment. A visit to the Aftel Archive of Curious Scents can be booked online here, and is most certainly on my bucket list for a future visit to the States (possibly under a future administration, however…)

Mandy Aftel’s most recent fragrance, Patchouli Noir, pushes all my patchouli-loving buttons. She kindly sent me a mini eau de parfum (and a sample of the solid fragrance), and I’ve been quietly swooning over it ever since. This is one naughty fragrance, with a red velvet, smoke-hazed nightclub vibe, and a pulsing, smouldering sensuality.

There’s a jigger of cognac, as well as ambergris, blood orange, cedarwood, a touch of pine tar (for that smokiness), as well as an intense concentration of ylang ylang – and of course, that patchouli. But what a patchouli! This isn’t in the least ‘hippie-dippy’, for those who have such prejudices about this leaf extract (which smells so confusingly woody). It’s dark, daring, smoky, based on four different patchouli essences: patchoulyl acetate (a natural isolate), patchouli essential oil, patchouli absolute and a super-rare, ‘one-of-a-kind, 100-year-old patchouli.’ I don’t know if that’s what gives this a vintage feel, but it does feel like something that’s been kept in an archive, and is now enjoying its moment of glory.

But if you’re not a patchouli fan, don’t click away – because there are so many different styles of fragrance and so much information to explore on her website – not to mention in Mandy’s books, because she has written more insightfully (not to mention lyrically) about naturals in perfumery, and the history of perfumery itself.

I can recommend a whole stack of Mandy’s books, in fact – you’ll find the links below – but we chose her reissued, updated book Fragrant in our round-up of the best Christmas books, a brilliant primer in natural perfumery, and a deep-dive into a handful of its most fabled and fascinating names. But you might also enjoy…

The Museum of Scent – a ‘virtual’ visit to Mandy’s archive, and so much more, with its fascinating tales of rare and special ingredients, of perfume equipment and ephemera from her collection.

Essence & Alchemy – probably my favourite of all of Mandy’s books, subtitled ‘A Natural History of Perfumery’, featuring the fabulous back-stories of many ingredients, and recipes for making up blends. There are insights, too, into how the psyche and aroma connect, and it is quite exquisitely written.

And if, perchance, you fancy making solid perfumes – which is not as mystifying as it sounds – you might want to get your hands on a copy of Scents & Sensibilities: Creating Solid Perfumes for Wellbeing, which is full of her wisdom and how-tos. I’m not sure you’ll come away being able to create something as magical as the solid perfume of Patchouli Noir which Mandy sent me, in the form of a tiny and truly bewitching sample – but if you can get your hands on some 100-year-old patchouli, who knows…?

Patchouli Noir/from $65 for 8ml eau de parfum (samples also available, priced from $8) - buy here

Patchouli Noir Solid Perfume/$395 for 8ml solid perfume (samples also available, priced from $8) – buy here

FYI, Mandy’s perfumes can be shipped to the UK, at a price – but be aware there’ll be customs duty to pay, too.