Aftelier: The Aftel Archive of Curious Scents

Tucked away in a North Berkeley driveway is a tiny gateway into a vast universe of scents.

Strong Week Links 28

D.S. & Durga just announced that they're now producing samples of their lovely, complex scents. I smell the next test fest coming on.

If money were no object: this new Hermès furniture.

Solange Knowles just launched e-commerce on her site Saint Heron.  It's filled with (surprisingly affordable) fashion, beauty and even candy created by a group of diverse designers. If you love her totally on-point Instagram, you'll love the vibes and editorial shots. I'd be excited to try this prickly pear face serum (love everything prickly pear).

Coveting one of these super tall, super wide-brimmed Stetson hats designed in collaboration with photographer Tasya van Ree.

Totally obsessed with this song right now.

Image via Saint Heron

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On my holiday wish list this year: ridiculously fancy candles by Astier de Villate, specifically Rue St. Honoré, Oulan Bator and Namche Bazaar (their site is worth a visit for the design alone).

Serial is back. And because I love Tim so much, I'm waiting until we can drive around listening to it together as we did with season one, even though I spend hours in the car each week on my commute.

Maybe it's the holiday season, but I'm loving the idea of tuxedo details right now.

Inspired by this restaurant designer whose interiors are so sophisticated and whose methods are so DIY.

Super cozy winter recipe.

Majorly excited for this movie release. Pretty much planning xmas around it. Want a western hat with pom poms on it.

Different genre of pom poms, but love the exaggerated one on this cute winter hat.

Strong Week Links 23

Life has been on overdrive lately with a visit to LA, regular work and a last-minute work trip to New York during fashion week (see some of the street style snaps we got here and here). I'm majorly looking forward to our yearly trip to Joshua Tree and Palm Springs next weekend. I'm hoping to hit up our old favorites and try some new spots and sights too. Here are some of the things that have been on my radar.

Enjoyed reading about these unexpected inventions in the latest issue of T Magazine.

I've been a bit obsessed with this Vetements dress since I saw UK Glamour editor Natalie Hartley wearing it at NYFW. The back!

Apropos of where you can find Vetements, an interesting article on the backstory of cult boutique Totokaelo upon the opening of its new NY boutique.

My next visit to LA will warrant a visit here.

Definitely want to read this.

We're about to head out on our yearly roadtrip to Joshua Tree and I'm thinking maybe this is this year's addictive podcast? 

Photo via T Magazine

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We've been busy moving and painting our whole apartment. It makes me feel really accomplished to look at pristine, minimalist white walls (we lived with a bunch of colors we weren't stoked on for a long time), but omg is it time consuming. So here are some things from the past couple of weeks.

I ♥ podcasts. Here are seven fashion podcasts to subscribe to.

I really want to watch this documentary on Richard Neutra's Oyler house.

Stripes and turquoise: two things I can always get behind.

New perfumier Ex Nihilo is doing futuristic and amazing things with fragrance. They have a bespoke perfume-generating machine called the Osmologue and one scent, Bois D'Hiver, is described as an iron fist in a velvet glove. As a sometime philosopher, I love their name.

These cool candle holders.

Are you worried about what you're not doing? I often am.

Test Fest: Blackbird Ballard

It’s been a bit since the last test fest, but finally the perfect opportunity came up. My friend Alice recently bought a set of eight testers from Blackbird Ballard. Based out of Seattle, Blackbird’s line of perfumes, incense and other apothecary-type items are an offshoot of their (now defunct) menswear shop. Their scents are nontraditional, unique and often unisex, which is right up my alley. I decided to take a break from Byredo's Mojave Ghost for the day and test them out with Alice to see what they conjured up. Aside from Moto Oud, which was the first to pique her interest and how she found Blackbird, we didn’t read any of the descriptions until after we’d tested them out. From a rich hippie's house to juniper and money, read on for our impressions and hop over to their site where they are having a factory seconds sale (word has it these sell out fast).

Test Fest: Serge Lutens Ambre Sultan & Byredo Mojave Ghost

Lately I've been indulging my penchant for fragrances by buying testers. It's the perfect way to try out scents without the commitment or trip to a department store or boutique. I've found it interesting to try a few scents over the same period of time to play them against each other, tease out their different qualities or similarities, and to pick a favorite or even my next full-bottle purchase. 

This round, I sought out scents from two perfumers that are always popping up on cool girls' wishlists and beauty shelves: Byredo's newly released Mojave Ghost and Serge Lutens' Ambre Sultan. Byredo's Ben Gorham takes an approach to developing scents that's exactingly aesthetic and up-to-the-minute but also rooted in nostalgia and dreams. Serge Lutens is a French photography, beauty and perfume creative known for styling for the likes of Vogue and Richard Avedon (also a hero of Riccardo Tisci), and I was inspired to pick Ambre Sultan after my Q&A with The Cut's Editorial Director, Stella Bugbee, who's also scent obsessed.

I expected Mojave Ghost to be a musky, desert-y unisex scent based on the name and description, so I was surprised when I was met with the smell of sweet pear with my first spritz. I have to admit it was more feminine than I thought it would be, and it was so different from what I expected that I was put off. But of course with scents, you have to wait and see. When the tropico-floral top notes settled down, what enveloped me was a lighter, more subtle muskiness that said: refined; pulled-together; womanly; expensive; esoteric; bohemian; intoxicating.

Ambre Sultan I also expected to be musky, mysterious and unisex, and in this case it turned out to be closer to true. Without the floral aspect of Mojave Ghost, it was a straight-ahead but deep and moody  take on sandalwood. At first I thought it settled into whiffs of grandpa-cologne territory, but more and more it ended up feeling: feminine; powdery; rich; spicy; far-flung; powerful; soft.  

I'm not sure I could choose a favorite between these two as they offer very different and compelling moods. But I have a feeling I'll still be thinking about them both when the testers run out, and then time will tell.

Byredo Mojave Ghost

When it comes to scents, the more exotic, unisex and dusty desert-inspired the better, as far as I'm concerned. I'm still hanging on to my last bottle of D.S. & Durga's  Cowgirl Grass, using it slowly and sparingly on special occasions or whims, but ever since it became clear it's been discontinued, I've been on the hunt for something to replace it  So when I saw Byredo's newly released scent Mojave Ghost on both Vogue and Harper's Bazaar last week, I knew I had to try it.

Wary Meyers Candles

I've loved the designs of the duo behind Wary Meyers for quite a while. They do awesome, 70s-inspired interior design and art installations, and they also have a web shop where they sell rad original art prints and vintage books and things (like an amazing hammock chair, bullshit jeans, and a crazy wine tote). And now, apparently, they make candles. They're just as awesome, arty, and informed by the siren vibes of the 70s as their other projects, and they're hand-poured and made of food grade paraffin and soy wax with phthalate-free fragrances and essential oils. To top it off, the packaging and glass are made of recycled materials, and each glass holder is hand-painted with an adorable, one-of-a-kind, gold leaf emblem. Check out the far-out scents on offer:

"A deep, lush, Caribbean scent composed of beachy coconut, dark suntan oil, and fresh green cannabis. Takes you back to your beach chair when the hot day turns to hot night and you didn’t even realize it. Blissful and nostalgic."

"Farm-fresh milk and sweet cream with hints of brown sugar and a light cloud of warm leche. Has the creamy, cosmic mellowness of being poured by milk maids inside a warm honeycomb on the moon."

"The sweet fragrant smell of a ripe summertime watermelon drenched in salty seawater and sliced open on a driftwood table on a seaweed-lined beach. Sweet, salty and refreshing."

"The rough-hewn balm of cedar and woodsmoke, drifting low and winding its way through the deep Maine hinterlands. Undertones of native balsam, burning pine, and primitive musk. Manly, yes, but with a soft, close whisper of patchouli on the bearskin rug in front of the fireplace."

"The enchanted scent of heliotrope, yellow dandelions, and fresh summer green grass with soft floral notes of weeping willow, buttercups & fairy dust. The hot air shimmers and the dragonflies hum on a lazy afternoon of daydreaming in a light-drenched, butterfly-filled meadow. The sun is out, the birds are singing."

I'm pretty excited to get my hands on one of them — as far as fancy, artisanal candles go they're a reasonable $28 — but it's hard to choose. Am I more in the mood for a seawater infused watermelon? Or cosmic moon leche? Which scent/vibe would you go for?

Old Book Smell: Book / Shop

Old book smell. It's like the opposite of new car smell. Both involve leather and are exciting enough to invoke any number of fantasies though. As soon as I finish reading Infinite Jest and am allowed to buy new (old) books again, I'm excited to check out new Temescal alley spot Book / Shop, where you can get your old book smell two ways:

1. Old-fashioned, literally — Book / Shop's eclectic yet minimalist rotating selection of vintage fiction and nonfiction books on subjects from art to poetry to typography.

2.

In the Library by CB I Hate Perfume. (According to Science old books smell like grass and vanilla, which sounds lovely.)

Book / Shop also carries interesting and useful reading accoutrements like the craftsman Slotted System Bookcase above, totes both luxe and simple, and book marks, lights, and ends.

If you can't get enough of books even when you're not reading, they have a similarly curated collection of literary inspired art, too.

And last but not least, they offer what is essentially a literary concierge service. Hit them up for help finding something rare or out of print, a customized bookshelf, even a bespoke reading list (they're right, that could be a totally great gift for someone). And in that vein, be sure to check out their blog to find summer reading lists put together by all kinds of interesting people, and to keep up with events and new arrivals!

D.S. & Durga

On a recent trip to NYC I stopped by the rad little boutique In God We Trust. They have their own small collection of women's and men's clothing, an awesome wall of $15 sunglasses ("holy shit, these sunglasses are only $15!), and those little heart necklaces that everyone loves with the cheeky phrases engraved on them. But the one thing I just had to come back for is this amazing D.S. & Durga perfume (or is it a cologne? wondering is part of the charm), Cowgirl Grass.

D.S. & Durga is run by a fetching husband and wife team from Brooklyn — he concocts the complex, nostalgic, Americana-inspired scents, and she designs the pretty, botanic-apothecary vibe packaging. Names like Siberian Snow, Boston Ivy & Mississippi Medicine are paired with equally evocative descriptions that spin vintage narratives and list the rarefied ingredients that make up each fragrance. And if they sound dreamy, sophisticated and esoteric it's because that's how they smell. Like something very old and very modern.

Some of the scents are powerful enough to be challenging to wear, although the super friendly girl working in the shop that day said she wears Burning Barbershop, their strongest scent, but that "because she's a lady" she sweetens it up. Charming, and so true because scents can totally shapeshift depending on the wearer. They also make some less intense scents, which are easy to find since there's a little continuum guide from light-bodied to full-bodied for each fragrance.

Not only do I love the smell of Cowgirl Grass in and of itself, but for me it has that extra special associative power of scents to so strongly remind you of a certain time and place, and it will always remind me of my first trip to NYC!