""I love ambergris. First of all, it's ambery. Which is a kind of warm, rich, soft smell that's somewhat like balsamic vinegar but not vinegary, kind of that warm dark thing that goes on that's slightly sweet," Aftel said. "But what it also has for me is shimmer, if a smell could shimmer or sparkle like sparkle eye shadow.""
""[Scent] has a very tangled, interesting history with us as people all over the world," Aftel said. "It makes us all similar, to me. It's where we all come from. It was used in every ritual - birth, death, getting married, getting knighted, people always relied on this stuff.""
The Aftel Archive of Curious Scents occupies a residential Berkeley driveway and displays ambergris, including a 50-year-old specimen and 100-year-old bottles of ambergris oil. Ambergris forms in sperm whales' gastrointestinal tracts and can contain squid and cuttlefish beaks. Mandy Aftel describes ambergris as warm, rich, slightly sweet and shimmering, noting it enhances other scents like salt enhances food. Aftel, age 77, has made natural perfume for 30 years and previously worked as a psychotherapist and author. Historical scent books dating back hundreds of years inform her collection and her 2001 book Essence and Alchemy.
Read at SFGATE
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