Aftelier Cuir de Gardenia Extrait : Perfume Review
Elisa talks about gardenia, tiare, and leather as she reviews Aftelier Cuir de Gardenia Extrait.
Searching for a natural gardenia perfume is a little like hunting for unicorns – gardenias, notoriously, don’t release a natural oil. As Victoria once put it, “gardenia, temperamental flower that she is, does not give up her essence to any distillation methods.” Accordingly, gardenia in perfumery is necessarily a re-creation, using other materials to approximate the flower’s scent: sweetly tropical, but with an earthy element often likened to dirt or mushrooms.
I was surprised, then, when I heard that Mandy Aftel of Aftelier Perfumes was releasing a gardenia scent, since Aftel is known for her all-natural creations. As it turns out, Cuir de Gardenia is based on the Tahitian gardenia, or tiare flower, which can be made into a (costly) enfleurage (termed monoi when using coconut oil). Aftel has bolstered this material with jasmine and benzyl acetate, an isolate that occurs naturally in jasmine and ylang-ylang and is also used as a solvent in plastic and resins.
Glyzel Guey in Spring Perfume Round-Up: Scents in Bloom for Every Budget: What a lovely selection of spring blooms you’ve captured the season’s lighter, fresher side beautifully! I’m always hunting for new floral and green scents this time of year, and I… June 11, 2025 at 12:36pm