beautiful people.(Perfumer Mandy Aftel)(Interview)

The Alchemist

Perfumer Mandy Aftel may have a master's degree in counseling, but she still harbors some compulsive tendencies. "I always wear the last fragrance I made for someone," says the owner of the Berkeley, California, company Aftelier Perfumes, which specializes in made-to-order natural scents. Since opening her doors in 1997, she has interpreted the fragrance personalities of hundreds of clients, Madonna (pink lotus and tuberose with antique sandalwood) and Liv Tyler (lavender blended with bergamot and bitter orange) among them. Aftel's focus is on one-off formulations made with rare, and often antique, ingredients, like boronia (a Tasmanian flower) or Madagascan vanilla, which can run $14,000 a kilogram. For the $600 she charges for a custom-made fragrance, clients undergo a 90-minute interview, during which she analyzes their reactions to the hundreds of scents in her studio. (Out-of-towners receive 18 small vials in the mail, covering all major scent groups.) Still, there are some scent requests Aftel won't honor: "I always say no to people who ask me to re-create a discontinued perfume," she says. "Many of the scents in them -- such as lily, gardenia, freesia -- can't be naturally distilled. And if it comes out of a test tube, I won't touch it."

By Jenny Bailly

Special Blends

Kate Hudson loves the jasmine solid perfume, and model Kirsty Hume prefers lavender and oak moss, but some of Aftel's clients are more offbeat than A-list. Boulder, Utah. Yup. The co-owner of the local trading post wanted a perfume that embodied this town of 250 people. Ingredients include seashells, ...