Amber Tapestry

Mandy Aftel's Amber Tapestry is my second try from her house Aftelier Perfumes, and like Vanilla Smoke that I tried earlier, Amber Tapestry is a powerful and provocative concoction. An amber-dominant experience that blends both creamy and animalic aspects of the accord. The animalic, spicy base actually doesn't come out for me any more in the dry down than in the opening, its mix of castoreum, coumarin, and ambergris fostering a sense of nuance, though, that pervades the fragrant experience from beginning to end. Predictably a strong winter-ideal performer in the EDP strength I've tried, I imagine its pure perform concentration to be heavier and more powerful still, and at roughly four times the cost, it's enticing but certainly would expect the perfume to go the extra mile beyond the EDP. I already own an animalic amber fragrance in Parfum d'Empire Ambre Russe but certainly Amber Tapestry has its own angles, its own points of intrigue that vary from Ambre Russe, yet categorically it might feel a little redundant anyway. Mandy's works is clearly lovely, but admittedly pricey, at $180 for 30ml of the EDP that I tried, and the same price for just 8ml of the perfume that I did not try. Still, this is great work. 8 out of 10

Ambergris at it's finest. Musky salty ambergris in it's soft state, very addictive and quite cleanly animalic as it's almost soapy and clean. It has bits of jasmines, benzoin, heliotrope, orange, and castoreum. The colder, the soapier it gets. This creates an ora of ecstasy around you, very delicate, naughty, and fully sensual. This is vintage at it's best. Incredible. Edit (13th Feb 2021) I came back to Aftelier blends this week, and now I am applying "Amber Tapestry" on my arm.. At first I thought it begins soapy clean and settles "Chanel #5" or "Cuir De Russe" , but after few thoughts I realized that this one is almost identical to "Grand Cuir" by Retro, and "Mon Cuir" by Ramon Monegal but less leathery and bit more floral with a touch of sweet almond. "Amber Tapestry" is a leathery clean ambergris blend that mixes a soft animalic with leather and clean Musk with some sweet notes. Beautiful indeed.

Mandy Aftel produced two new perfumes in 2016. Memento Mori, as the name implies, is a contemplation of mortality and consequence. Amber Tapestry is the salve for a wounded spirit. Given the conflict and vitriolic tenor of American politics in 2016, the two perfumes are poignant bookends to the year. Did Aftel create Memento Mori and Amber Tapestry as commentary on the state of political strife? Doubtful. But do they suit the times? Do they offer an opportunity to make sense of them? For me they do. Memento mori are images of death. As reminders of impermanence and mortality they are reassuring to some, terrifying to others. Perfumery is a durational art form and transience is inherent. What better form for a memento mori than a perfume? Aftel creates a memento mori very different from the either the classical skull symbolism of portraiture/still life or the bizarre staged Victorian postmortem photographs. The former is cliché and the latter is gruesome to the modern eye, but both ask the viewer to consider mortality by looking at death. Aftel's perfume focuses on the nature of relationships and the brevity of life by making us think about skin, the shell that contains us, the handle that we use to hold onto each other. Skin is durable and fragile, beautiful yet commonplace. It is an outward sign to others (and to ourselves in the mirror) of the passage of time, aging and death. Aftel presents skin in its entirety. Memento Mori ranges from the musky sweetness of a baby's softness to the seductive floral quality of mature, knowing flesh. It has acrid flashes---the skin of effort and struggle---but is grounded in the buttery intimacy of commingled bodies. The sense of skin pervades every bit of Memento Mori but it is still a perfume. It has all the attributes and aesthetics of perfumery and doesn't try to create a false authenticity by overemphasizing realism. I struggle for the right word to capture Memento Mori's representation to skin. Depiction? Portrayal? Tribute? I'll stick with adjectives. It is loving and honest. Fragrance's language is elusive. It has to do with tone, not facts. Even if you can't put words to the qualities you find in a perfume, you can hear what it has to say. Creating a memento mori through fragrance is an ideal use of the olfactory medium and makes such sense that I catch myself nodding yes as I bring my nose to my wrist. Memento Mori has the distillation that I attribute to an artist's thorough understanding of her process. The last part of daily yoga practice is an extended savasana, or corpse pose. It's an opportunity to think about your eventual death as you compose yourself and conclude your practice. I had a yoga teacher who used to say without a trace of irony, "OK. Now lie down and die." This is how I experience Aftel's perfume. The concept of the perfume is deep, but the experience is accessible. It's a balance that suits the subject perfectly. * Amber Tapestry is a big, cruisy floriental that fits late 2016 to a T. It satisfies my need for beauty as a rational response to the emotional and cognitive dissonance of the American election year. Tapestry is an apt metaphor for the perfume. A jasmine/resin accord is the weft that holds all the other notes woven through it. The putty-like density of heliotropin matches the hum of cinnamon to create a matte finish that allows the gasoline edges of the jasmine to ignite. A choreographer I used to work with had a wonderful, looping bit of material that we used to dance because it felt so good. It was juicy and lush, with suspension and release that you could manipulate with all sorts of satisfying dynamics. It was called The Feel-Good Phrase. Amber Tapestry has the same sensibility. Engagement, pleasure and satisfaction. No small things these days. (from scenthurdle.com)

Amber Tapestry is an incredibly unique scent, but one that I just couldn’t get in the end. It’s equal parts jasmine and amber, and a weird accord of the two. It’s almost entirely ‘borderline’, if that makes sense. The two dominant notes jostle against each other, and the third category, the accord (if you will) is what prevails. Almost like a debate between two ethnicities about which has the best cuisine and the children of mixed parentage (of the two) winning. But this brings some strange effects – the sickly-sweet indole from the jasmine comes to the fore, and kind of dominates the profile, along with the luscious, resinous beauty from the amber (benzoin, mostly). I get the wonder base elements sort of ruined by the cloying floral elements, which is where this scent falls down, at least for me... Mouth watering resin tainted by indolic white floral, and it just does not work well enough for me...

When I saw that Mandy Aftel had crafted a new amber fragrance, I had to try it because I just knew it would be unique. And it is. The resin factor here is medium, and is the channel through which come facets of earth and smoke; not incense but woodfire. It is more floral/animalic than other ambers I've known and at its base reminds me much of Aftelier Honey Blossom. The melding of pear with jasmine and mandarin, enhanced with ambergris and castoretum lends it a unique complexity. A fruity floral animalic amber, refreshingly free of much vanilla sweetness. What little there is comes from heliotrope and it is only a whisper. It is rough around the edges, and I love this about Amber Tapestry. I would call it a woodland amber, and its intrigue lies in the lightly resinous amber core, gilded with flora and strengthened by fauna. This will have to be my next purchase.