Mandy Aftel

Mandy Aftel (born 1948) is an American perfumer. She is the owner and nose behind the natural perfume line Aftelier as well as the author of nine books, including four books on natural perfume and a cookbook on essential oils.

Mandy Aftel was born in Detroit and attended the University of Michigan, where she studied English and psychology in college, then earned a master's degree in counseling.

Aftel began her career as a psychotherapist in Berkeley, with a practice focused on artists and writers.

Aftel is also an author herself, publishing several books in the 1980s and 1990s including a biography of Brian Jones. She became interested in scent while working on a novel; envisioning her protagonist would be a perfumer, Aftel began collecting rare books on perfume as part of her research, but ultimately wrote a book on the history of perfume instead. The result, Essence and Alchemy, was published in 2001.Publisher's Weekly called the book a "most extraordinary treatise on the history and making of perfume" and praised Aftel's "sheer delight" in the material and her "irreverent sensibility."

Essence and Alchemy: A Book of Perfume has been translated into seven languages, won the 2001 Sense of Smell Institute's Richard B. Solomon Award, and has helped pioneer the trend toward using natural ingredients.

Aftel's 2005 book Scents and Sensibilities guides the reader through the history and creation of solid perfume. Fragrant, published in 2014, is organized around five ingredients: cinnamon, frankincense, ambergris, jasmine and mint.

Aftel's first fragrance line, founded with a partner, was called Grandiflorum; in 2000, Aftel launched her own line, Aftelier. As of 2016, the line offers a range of 18 fragrances, as well as an option for clients to work with Aftel to develop a custom fragrance. In 2016, Vogue named Aftelier's Fig perfume to a list of "10 Natural Perfumes That Are Changing the Fragrance Game" and said Aftelier was one of the brands "giving the Bay Area a new reputation as a beauty capital."Forbes reviewed the Aftelier scent Cacao as "mouthwatering...a marriage of lush and juicy notes."The Guardian described Aftelier fragrance Cepes et Tuberose as "like watching a flower bloom in slow motion. It opens with an overwhelming smell of dampness and earth, and a pink, sweet floral slowly rises up and conquers the darkness." In 2011, the Aftelier scent Honey Blossom was nominated for a FiFi Awards (the perfume industry's equivalent of the Oscars), the first time an independent, all-natural perfume has been nominated for a FiFi since the awards began in 1973.

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