Curious
Aftelier (2017)

First of all, if you're into perfume enough to be reading reviews of obscure natural perfumes, you should definitely go to Mandy Aftel's Archive Of Curious Scents, a mini-museum of perfume ingredients where you can sniff everything from antique musks to the different aromachemicals derived from roses.

One of the things she has is a display of how Curious is made. You can smell the individual ingredients, as well as the top, middle, and base accords they create, and then the finished product. So, I ended up trying Curious on after seeing how it was made, which is really appealing to me as an ingredient nerd.

It's a complicated smell, especially seeing how much of it is the interaction of ingredients as opposed to the exact smells of the ingredients alone.

So what does it smell like? Well, the real standout is gorgeous natural jasmine, but it's surrounded by a thick backdrop of forest smells that begins dark and hinting at animalic, and ends up more like kitchen herbs.

In all, it's a fun wear, especially if you're fascinated by the idea of a nice jasmine in unique surroundings that aren't just your average floral perfume. I think I may be giving Curious a little bit of a better review having enjoyed the experience behind it than I would have smelling this blind from a sample, but it's a nice piece of work.