Sacre Bleu by Aftelier Perfumes NEW! NEW! NEW!

Hi there Posse Perfumistas. Mandy Aftel’s latest package arrived and the feeling is always joyful. Mandy has single handedly inspired a generation of perfumers. Almost all the modern natural perfume houses pay at least some tribute to Mandy’s help and guidance. Her books are bestsellers and every new tome is given the same kind of feverish excitement as a blockbuster film. Upon opening I discover that her new fragrance is called Sacré Bleu. Such a cool name. Sacred Blue.
From Aftelier site: “The inspiration for my Sacré Bleu perfume is the marriage of sacred blue lotus absolute with divine hundred-year-old Mysore sandalwood oil. One of our most precious offerings, Sacré Bleu is luminous, honeyed, transcendent, and mesmerizing.”

Sacré Bleu by Aftelier Perfumes 2024

Atelier gives these featured accords:
Antique Sandalwood, Blue Lotus, Ambergris, Boronia, Black Tea, Mimosa, Beta Ionone, Methyl Anthranilate

Mandy brings together sacred, healing ingredients used for millennia around the world to create a perfume so intensely, viscerally profound that I found myself smiling with joy. HA! I know how that reads. Like such stupid, overblown, ridiculous hyperbole. It’s also true. Sacré Bleu is entrancing and I was a little overcome on my first wear. Definitely not what I was expecting.

This is the most natural smelling of Mandy’s recent releases. It starts out sweet, like raspberry cordial and honeyed roses growing near a healthy compost heap that’s just been turned. Hot grasses, domesticated farm animals and bosky, earthy goodness. My nose also senses an incredibly soapy jasmine. I’m completely unaware how blue Lotus should smell so cannot comment on it. As that opening burns off I have a very Australian bushwalk smell. Brushing past fragrant native plants, kicking up the leaves and breaking twigs as we pass. Dappled shade and that sharp eucalypt smell at the first drops of rain.

The heart warms through with a golden, treacle like, resinous sandalwood. It’s been overshadowed by the major opening players till now and it comes in like sunrise. While the two are miles apart, at this point I’m reminded tangentially of my oldest bottle of Guerlain Samsara extrait. The same rush of caramelized creamy sandalwood that is almost bubblegum white floral. Sacré Bleu is so beautiful, rich and at the heart feels like communion with a higher plane.

Let’s quickly look at some ingredients:

Blue Lotus was the symbol for Ra and Osiris, sun and underworld.Sandalwood has been used in cremation and burial ritual since the ancient Egyptians.
Ambergris was burned as incencense
Boronia used by Australian Aborigines as a fragrant medicine for aged and very young
Tea has a nearly 5000 year history dating back to Emperor Shen Nung
Mimosa has been part of an hallucinogenic Brazilian sect only documented since the Portuguese arrival
Beta Ionone multifaceted fragrant inclusion smelling of raspberry, iris, woods and violet leaf
Methyl Anthranilate grape smell found in many white flowers (that is a bird repellant)

Mandy has sent me a sample of the perfume. It’s close wearing and remarkably long lived for a natural. While not a bombastic scent it does leave an admirable scent trail. I’d really like to get my hands on both a bottle of the EdP and the extrait to wear together.

Do you ever smell a new perfume and wonder what it would be like to wear a signature scent? Eschewing all others. These crazy thoughts have been banging around my head as I’ve worn Sacré Bleu over the last two days.

This is a perfume I urge you to try.
Does it read like it might float your boat?
Portia xx