Curious by Mandy Aftel for Aftelier Perfumes 2017

Hi there Perfume Posse, Curious is a great name for a fragrance as Britney Spears could tell you. It was the name of Britney’s first fragrance and sold enormously well, still does. I’d like to introduce you to a horse of a different colour. Mandy Aftel, perfumer, writer, teacher and now museum curator has created a fragrance in honour of her fabulous Aftel Archive of Curious Scents.

From Aftelier: Visitors will be able to smell more than three hundred natural essences derived from fruits, flowers, trees, grasses, and other natural sources (and take three samples home). They will be able to compare essences that have been aged for a century to their modern counterparts. They will be able to pore over more than fifty antique books from my collection, retracing the amazing history of fragrance. 

Curious by Mandy Aftel for Aftelier Perfumes 2017

Curious Aftelier FragranticaFragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Tobacco, hay, smoke, orange leaf, woody notes, orange

Curious feels like a dream of a perfect spare afternoon. Imagine, it’s cool outside and lunch has just finished on a Sunday. You’re full and languid and decide to walk the dogs. They are due for their next bath but aren’t smelling yuk yet, merely lived in. In the morning the roads gutters were ablaze with fall leaves but now they are char, a couple still smouldering slightly. As you wander past you can smell the changes of weather from late summer to early autumn. People are chopping wood for their fireplaces (or if in a town they are carting in bags of logs) and you can smell the leaves as you kick them up in unraked yards.

After the walk you come home to the warmth and grab a book, sit in your favourite reading chair which might have been your old pipe smoking Grandpa’s favourite too. The house is warm and you can smell the fresh beeswaxed furniture as it heats up and that combines with the smell of warm dog. You’re home, comfortable, relaxed and happy. There’s no pressure to be anywhere till tomorrow and you can’t think of anywhere you’d rather be.

Though Curious doesn’t smell exactly like this perfect afternoon, it does make my mind go there. Somehow Mandy has tapped into some of my happiest memories from across decades and strung them all together with a fragrance.

Aftelier Perfumes

So how does Curious smell? Check the note list above, blend it and throw in some surprises, then add a whole lot of love. A slightly sweet, smoky wood fragrance with animalic undertones that smells like happy autumns.

Further reading: Ca Fleure Bon
Aftelier Perfumes has a great range of Curious product from $6

How do you like to spend spare afternoons?
Portia xx

  • AnnieA says:

    I was kindly given a sample of Curious which I would not have come across on my own. It smells of Listerine which cannot have been the intention.

  • aftelier says:

    I LOVE this review darling Portia — your description of the feeling tone evoked by the perfume was exactly what I had in mind! I am always trying to capture a feeling in my perfumes and you nailed it — you are the best!! ????? xoxo Mandy

    • Portia says:

      Excellent. Glad you love it Mandy.
      Thanks for commenting, it’s very exciting to have you dropping by.
      Portia xx

  • tiffanie says:

    As I read your thoughts of Curious and all it evokes, I thought of two lines from a poem: all the we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.

    Then I thought, I want to live there, dream there, and smell all those scents. And smell Curious as well.

    I am within a day’s long drive (roadtrip!) of the Aftel Archive. Here’s to hoping that I can make the pilgrimage someday.

    • Portia says:

      Hey Tiffanie,
      OMG! There is a plan for your next long weekend.
      Ahhhhhh POE! What a perfect snippet for Curious.
      Portia xx

  • HeidiC says:

    That museum sounds fantastic! Aftel uses all natural ingredients, yes? I really like her Cepes and Tuberose — it’s an earthy tuberose, but instead of a woodsy chypre, the cepes creates an earthy, loamy base. It’s super interesting! I’ve tried a few of her scents, but they don’t seem to last very long — how long did Curious last on you?

    • Portia says:

      Hi HeidiC,
      I think you’re right, Mandy is mainly a naturals girl.
      Can’t remember the longevity but it wasn’t so short or long that it was noted so probably 2-3 hours.
      Portia xx

  • Kathleen Smith says:

    You described my perfect afternoon perfectly! I love your post and review of Curious. Sounds like a fragrance I will love! Thank you for the post and I will search for s sample!

  • bevfred says:

    Another great review Portia, very evocative. I would love to go to the museum and sniff my little brain out. My ideal afternoon involves a good book, a glass of wine, some good music in the background and the smell of something slowly cooking for dinner. The room itself of course would smell delicious!

    • Portia says:

      Oh yeah BevFred,
      A good book and almost anything after that really.
      The museum sounds amazing. One day!
      Glad you like the review.
      Portia xx

  • shiva-woman says:

    I’ll have to wait a few weeks since I’ve already used up my scent allocation funds, but I’ve been…curious about this one. We plan on going to the tour since we are luckily a few hours away. And I’m definitely getting some of this. Several people have reviewed and it’s right up my alley; I think this may be a love.