Clean Well’s Foaming Hand Washes are nature-based, germ-fighting cleansers that make use of botanical essences in a two new, intriguing ways. First, they feature scents created by the well-known natural perfumer Mandy Aftel of Aftelier. Second, they introduce a component called Ingenium, “a patented formulation of essential plant oils proven to kill 99.99% of the germs that make you sick.”
According to Clean Well’s website, the primary antibacterial ingredient in Ingenium is thyme oil, a natural substitute for triclosan or other chemicals. The other ingredients in the Foaming Hand Wash include aloe, white tea, and oat extract as skin conditioners and — oops! — a dash of sodium lauryl sulfate as lathering agent. The Hand Wash’s fragrance, however, is completely natural…
Read the rest of this article »
Posted by Robin
on
8 April 2007
The Canadian magazine Flare recently published a feature on the "synthetics vs naturals" debate in perfumery; the article features interviews with Mandy Aftel of Aftelier ("There is a place for both naturals and synthetics, and I think the consumer has a right to know which is which.") and perfumer Christophe Laudamiel of IFF ("In the minds of the public, natural means better. That's not true."). You can download pdf files of the two page article at Artisan Natural Perfumers Guild. Thanks to Anya for the link!
To say that Mandy Aftel took the world of natural perfumery by storm is hardly an overstatement. Little over a decade ago, while doing research for a novel, she found herself immersed in a collection of ancient perfume books. It was the start of a lifelong passion for natural essences: she put her literary ambitions on hold, and eventually established her very own perfume studio. Her current business, Aftelier, is a flourishing operation based in Berkeley, California. We take a closer look at her book Essence and Alchemy, which played a major role in the recent popularization of natural perfumery…
Read the rest of this article »
Posted by Robin
on
8 June 2005
Thank you to Natalie and Anya for finding this article in the San Francisco Chronicle about Mandy Aftel, whose next book, Scents and Sensibilities, is due out this month.
Posted by Robin
on
2 May 2005
There were two perfume-related articles in the Sunday New York Times Magazine yesterday. The first, by Chandler Burr, explores attitudes towards perfume in Japan, "a culture whose relationship to fragrance is more ambivalent than perhaps any other on the planet."
The second article is about the cookbook Aroma: The Magic of Essential Oils in Food & Fragrance, released last year by perfumer Mandy Aftel of Aftelier and chef Daniel Patterson:
...the two connect in their longing to marry scent and taste. ''There was no template for cooking with essential oils,'' Patterson says. So they decided to create one. First came chilled carrot soup, with fresh ginger and a drop of ginger essential oil. That led to blood orange sorbet; mojitos with spearmint oil; crab salad with coriander oil; and white chocolate with sweet fennel and the essence of tarragon, which pushed the boundaries of chocolate as a comfort food. ''I remember being knocked out by how they just transformed things,'' he says.
The article includes three recipes.
