Aftelier Perfume Review

Hi there my sparkling beauties! A quick question, have any of you tried Aftelier's perfumes? If so tell me your fav's! Here I'm going to do my best to describe the Jasmine Solid perfume, Alchemy Solid and the Candide liquid perfume.

  First is Jasmine (pictured on right in a transparent container) solid perfume. Upon first sniff, I wrinkled my nose up. I wasn't liking it. I applied to my wrists to see what it would smell like when mixed with my skin. Keep in mind, perfumes smell different on every person. What works for some may not mix well with someone else's chemistry. In fact, some perfume can smell like a million bucks on one person and roadkill on another! It's kind of a hit or miss type of thing and that's why many people are forever on the hunt for their signature scent. I have one that I've been hooked on since my partner got it for me 5 years ago, but I've desperately needed a change, something to switch up with and have been on the hunt for a very long time.

   After giving Jasmine a chance to mix with my skin, I started liking it much better. Aftelier perfumes are very unique, different from anything I've ever used before. They're perfumes are all natural and that makes a world of difference in a perfume. The ingredients used are a bit wild crafted in my opinion, but skilled none the less.

  I occasionally prefer liquid perfume over solids since it solids are not near as strong. My sensitive nose and the fact that I'm prone to migraines, means that I have to be very picky with scents I wear so sometimes a solid is preferred and sometimes a liquid. 

  Jasmine is hard to describe, but I'll give it my best. Use your imagination! The website describes it as :

"Grandiflorum jasmine with blood orange and pink grapefruit. Jasmine flower is a very seductive scent; it will woo you. I balanced the heady, intense, narcotic floral aroma with the brightest of citruses. People enjoy being able to carry this perfume with them, applying it when they want to brighten their mood."

When I read the description, I was in love and desperate to smell it! It sounds so beautiful, bold and unique! 

My nose smells: The main thing my nose smells when it's been on my skin for the first 30-50 minutes is Japanese Cherry Blossom. There's something else that I've desperately been trying to put my finger on, but just can't. On my skin after a while, it takes on this scent of something soured and something sweet. It does have a rainy, fresh scent to it. 


The dry-down on my skin, is a light Japanese Cherry Blossom scent with a hint of strong beeswax. It's smells bitter when first applied, but the dry-down smells much sweeter. 


Jasmine is known for its uplifting "powers". It's supposed to brighten you up and I do see that. It's a positive scent and particularly good for those days when I'm down or stressed. It does seem to kind of sharpen my focus and lighten my overly emotional mood on a day like today. 

If you're a perfume fanatic, you may know about "layering" perfumes. It takes work and you have to have a good nose for it. I'm no expert, but I know what I like and I can appreciate a unique perfume. On my own skin, Jasmine mixed well with American Eagle's Seventy Seven was kind of nice. Seventy Seven is a strong perfume and to me, it smells cologne-y majorly, but using the roll-on to put a tiny dab on my wrists and spread Seventy Seven, then apply quite a bit of Jasmine ends in a pretty bold, but light scent that I enjoy! It helps tone down the manly-ness in Seventy Seven. 

                   Alchemy solid perfume

  Alchemy solid perfume was another one that caught my nose! Aftelier's description of Alchemy had me excited. Upon first sniff it did catch me by surprise as it was spunky. It took me a few hours to get used to the unique scent, but I'm really liking it!

  In the container, it smells strong, sweet and bitter all at the same time. For some reason, the scent reminds me of those candies that are pink and white I think they're called now and laters? Not the chewy things, but the ones that have been around at least my entire 21 years and come in a pink box. I also detect a hint of licorice. 

 Aftelier describes this on the site like this:

"Scent Family: Floral Oriental

A floral heart swathed in amber and vanilla, with bitter orange and black pepper top notes. Created early in my career from the most popular top, middle, and base notes from my custom work. I wanted to make a perfume using the finest essences, of aromas most people love dearly.

Featured Notes
Top: black pepper, bitter orange.
Heart: rose, jasmine.
Base: vanilla, amber."

I'm unable to detect vanilla until it's been on my skin for just a few minutes. After that it seems to get sweeter and sweeter! It's one of those perfumes that really draw you in and keep you sniffing. I describe it as mysterious, but pretty. The last few minutes I'm able to smell it on my skin, it has a very light, beautiful honey suckle scent!

When first applied, Alchemy is similar to Jasmine as it puts off that strong beeswax scent on my skin. I think my chemistry reacts very differently than most people's. It's still a nice smell, but the solid means re-applying very frequently to smell it. 


Putting my sniffer to the small container I get an intense headache, but wearing it, even heavily does not bother me at all. I'm strange. I do appreciate this as a solid perfume since I doubt I'd be able to handle it in liquid as it might be strong for me. 


The best way to describe the dry-down for my particular skin is licorice and sweet white chocolate and honey suckles. Like I said, mysterious! 




                                Candide


  Candide is a liquid perfume, a super unique one! I like Candide a lot. When sticking my sniffer straight to the little bottle, I get a whiff of something that I've spent all day pondering and asking others to "smell and tell me what you can compare this to?". Lol. I've yet to really find something to describe it. It's very earthy and bold. Pretty. For some lots of raw, chopped polk salad comes to mind when I sniff this. One way to describe it is "green".

  On my skin it has a very bitter scent with hints of orange peel. I occasionally make a facial mask from natural ingredients and will throw in the juice from squeezed orange peels and this reminds me a lot of that scent. I like it very much. It has a plant smell to it. It didn't smell very floral to me though. Aftelier's perfumes, the ones I've tried don't seem to carry much of a feminine touch to them which is perfect for those days when we don't feel so frilly and girly. 

  After about 20 minutes of wear, it kind of goes from fresh orange peel to pine sol and babies breath flowers then the dry down is very dark, light and smokey. Not quite like incensce, but similar to them or something sweet, vanilla, roasted and smoky. I love it!

Aftelier's site says this:

"Scent Family: Soliflore
Bright, uplifting floral, expressing its theme of optimism through sublime jasmine and age-old frankincense. Recent research in the Journal of Biological Chemistry finds that the scent of jasmine is better than Valium at calming and soothing. The sunny color comes from the orange shades of jasmine , pink grapefruit, and blood orange essences. The smell of jasmine is uplifting and cheerful in a sexy way – the perfect blend of high and low, sweet and dirty. The pink grapefruit is juicy and sweet; the blood orange smells of mouth-watering orange mixed with raspberries. The name is an homage to the great novel from Voltaire, with its theme of optimism.

Featured Notes
Top: black pepper, blood orange, pink grapefruit.
Heart: jasmine grandiflorum, Moroccan rose absolute.
Base: frankincense, oppopanax absolute, myrrh."

To me, Candide is an uplifting, optimistic, energizing perfume. It does sharpen my focus and gives me a slight feeling of energy which anything strongly orange scented tends to do to me. 

I am unable to smell rasberry on my skin with this, but more of an earthy, very full and healthy forest with huge oranges. The dry-down smells very different on me, like I said, it's very pine-sol-ish at first then beautifully smoky and sweet.


Aftelier perfumes are unique and I would suggest trying out different samples before settling on a purchase as they can get pretty costly. I enjoy them and they're a pleasure to use and see how my day slightly brightens and my stress is relieved. I'd love to try other the scents and certainly plan to do so soon. 


If you're a sweet and frilly fragrance type of girl only, then I don't know if these three I mentioned would quite satisfy your desires, but I think they're the perfect match for someone looking for something of high quality that is bold, unique and bitter. One who loves a very wild, earthy scent would appreciate these three. Alchemy and Candide smell nice when layered on my skin. I assume a lot of Aftelier's perfumes would layer beautifully.


You can order samples to try Aftelier's perfumes here.

I for one cannot wait to try more of the perfumes! I have a feeling there will be more than a few that grow on me! Keep a look out because I will review the ones I choose to order. :) In the meantime I'm dying to hear what other's think! Any suggestions, favorites?




*The products reviewed were provided to me for an honest review. See my honesty pledge at the top of the page*