In 2001, Mandy Aftel changed the way the world viewed perfumery and natural ingredients with her ground breaking book Essence and Alchemy. I am fortunate to have bought the first edition. Ten years ago, Mandy co-wrote Aroma: The Magic of Essential Oils in Food and Fragrance with 2 Michelin star chef Daniel Patterson, and Scents and Sensibilities: Creating Solid Perfumes for Well-Being. After a hiatus from the publishing world, Many Aftel has written a new book that promises to be as ground breaking as her first, Fragrant: The Secret Life of Scent.
Cinnamon illustration from Mandy Aftel's Fragrant, the Secret Life of Scent
In her new book, which will debut in October, Mandy Aftel explores the profound connection between our sense of smell and the appetites that move us, give us pleasure, make us fully alive through five major players in the epic of aroma…Cinnamon, queen of the Spice Route, touches our hunger for the unknown, the exotic, and the luxurious. Mint, homegrown the world over, speaks to our affinity for the native, the familiar, the authentic. Frankincense, an aromatic resin, taps into our longing for transcendence, while ambergris embodies our unquenchable curiosity. And exquisite jasmine exemplifies our yearning for beauty, both evanescent and enduring and the book will be beautifully illustrated.
When I asked Mandy why return to writing, she said “It took me this long to read and research enough to develop the original ideas that I needed to write about in this new book. I went down a lot of blind alleys before finding a central spine for the structure of the book. The ways that the world of perfume has changed since I wrote Essence and Alchemy have dovetailed with the research I was doing. It drew me in and inspired me to write the new book.”
In addition to Fragrant, the Secret Life of Scent, a “smell along” Companion kit will be available for sale featuring the book’s main “characters”, Cinnamon, mint, frankincense, ambergris, and jasmine. The cinnamon and mint are not for wearing, but can be used in food – use a drop or two to flavor tea, whipped cream, olive oil, or vinegar. The frankincense, ambergris, and jasmine can be worn directly on your skin – you can layer them on top of each other to create your own perfume. I was fortunate to attend one of Mandy's lectures at the Musuem of Natural History, five years ago and it was my first time smelling ambergris. There is nothing in the synthetic world that could ever match this indescribable aroma.
Fragrant is available for preorder on Amazon.com
–Michelyn Camen, Editor in Chief
Source: Mandy Aftel