Mandy Aftel is a preeminent artisan perfumer, educator, curator, and author on natural fragrance and flavor. As the founder of Aftelier Perfumes, she has been hailed as one of the fragrance industry’s “most prolific talents” by Vogue and an “angel of alchemy” by Vanity Fair, and listed as one of the top seven bespoke perfumers in the world by Forbes.
She is a founding advisor of The Institute for Art and Olfaction, which created the Aftel Award for Handmade Perfume in her honour. In 2022 the IAO awarded her the Septimus Piesse Visionary Award for her lifetime achievements.
She is the author of five books on natural fragrance and flavour, including Fragrant, Scents and Sensibilities, Aroma, The Art of Flavor, and Essence and Alchemy: A Natural History of Perfume, which helped spark the natural perfume renaissance and has been translated into 17 languages.
In 2017, she created the Aftel Archive of Curious Scents in Berkeley, California — the first museum in the U.S. dedicated to the history and experience of natural fragrance, showcasing her collection of one-of-a-kind antique artifacts. It has received thousands of visitors and been covered in NYT Style, Goop, Vogue, O: The Oprah Magazine, Art News, and Sunset.
