Description
Secret Garden was created during the Letters to A Fellow Perfumer series on Nathan Branch’s blog. Nathan suggested naming this perfume after the 1910 novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett about a young girl who herself blossoms after she discovers a barren secret garden and brings it back to life. Like fitting a key in a lock, when you inhale Secret Garden, you enter a redolent and sensual wild garden. To create the heady and exotic floral experience, it includes two historical animal essences: very old civet bought from a retired perfumer and castoreum tinctured from the beaver. Secret Garden was launched in 2011. The nose behind this fragrance is Mandy Aftel.
el.m16 – :
Mandy Aftel has made it on my list of things I love in 2016! Her perfumes tell me stories that I find in books/movies! Perfume needs to speak to me, tell me stories and hers does!
siper2010 – :
Aftelier does a great job of creating long-lasting natural perfumes that actually smell like perfume, and not just some simple earthy hodgepodge of lavender and patchouli. This perfume lasts on my skin nearly all day, and my skin amps it to the max, but without being cloying. I can keep sniffing my wrist over-and-over, and I always find it’s still there. Also, it doesn’t give me a headache, even though it’s strong. That’s a huge benefit of natural perfumes for me.
Secret Garden is a wonderful creation. It has a very addictive powdery vintage quality to it that would probably frighten folks who are into fresh, “young” perfumes. Nothing about it smells literally like a garden, but it does remind me of the book and movie Secret Garden. I can imagine Colin standing up from his wheelchair, and the world that the characters live in smelling like Secret Garden.
dal268speagoessenda – :
Yes, to the morphing mentioned by previous poster! This is a first for me. Fascinating to get this far in life and find a perfume that does something I’ve never encountered. The spray version was like a mini olfactory movie for me: the scent kept shifting scenes, smoothly but dramatically, for at least 20 minutes. Going through almost all the scent doors was enjoyable (except one but it passed quickly) and the surprise was part of the fun. The non-spray form is more linear but has breadth, as it contains all the layers. I’ve tried a dozen or so samples of Aftelier’s scents and found them all interesting, useful as lessons in what could be done. There are themes but they aren’t all bitter and astringent: try her Jasmine, the Cuir Gardenia, or my favorite, Orchid, for more simplicity, sweetness and light. This is my second favorite of hers, for it’s complexity and the drydown — spicy, sweet, dry and compelling.
Special note to those who have perfume sensitivities: these are the first I found, even among the naturals, that don’t trigger any problems, such as nausea or headaches. (Since then, the sampls of Strange Invisible Perfume and Vered didn’t either. I’m looking for more, so if it’s on my love list, and it’s a natural, it’s worth a try.)
Nice to be able to finally get beyond just wearing essential oils all the time and back to actual perfume!
wrovucruke – :
This is very, very good and probably my favorite Aftelier fragrance. It’s sweet fruity and floral with an element of some serious skank (the civet?). It lasts a surprisingly long 12 hours and is morphing constantly. The silage is modest but very present for the wearer. Surprisingly, because I did enjoy it, this fragrance clarified for me why it is, despite my admiration, that I rarely wear this line. I’ve tried five Aftelier fragrances and all of them were interesting, original and beautifully executed. All of them though have this kind of bitter vegetable sort of thing going on. It was different in all of them so I don’t think it’s that she has some kind of base she is always using. Rather I think it’s that what Mandy Aftelier enjoys in a perfume is a bit more of a complex and astringent kind of vegetable thing than I enjoy.
Lovely, but not for me.
nike67 – :
A beautiful concentrated sweet floral with a hint of powder. It’s heavenly. I only have a little sample vial but a little lasts a long time. Especially great for an evening out on a spring or summer night. “Honey Blossom” is also another wonderful sweet scent by Aftelier.
fandswefe – :
219) Secret (buried)pet garden – Fleur de Torpeur
SG est en ouverture un élégant bois de rose chaud, très doux jumelé avec de la rose poudrée et du jasmin sirupeux.
C’est capiteux et sensuel – un partenariat avec un fruit confituré exotique, une note qu’ Aftelier nomme “raspberry isolate”. La framboise transforme le jasmin et la rose, en quelque chose qui est si déconcertant qu’on ne cesse de se renifler. Il métamorphose des fleurs capiteuses en une unique fleur fantasmatique.
La base est juste un autre morceau de bravoure. Un duo de civette / castoréum sur patchouli terreux. La composition florale est disposée sur la peau d’un animal secrètement enterré dans le jardin et fraichement déterré.
C’est au final du pollen terriblement profond avec l’introduction de quelque chose de complètement décalé, mais très séduisant.
SG is in opening an elegant hot rosewood, very sweet paired with powdery rose and syrupy jasmine.
This is heady and sensual in association with a jammy exotic fruit, a note that Aftelier called “raspberry isolate”. Raspberry transforms jasmine and rose in something that is so disconcerting that one keeps getting sniffing. A metamorphosis of heady flowers in one fantasy flower
The base is just another piece of bravery. A pair of civet / castoreum on earthy patchouli. The floral composition is placed on the skin of a animal secretly buried in the garden and freshly unearthed.
This is ultimately a terribly deep pollen or honey, with the introduction of something completely shifted, but very attractive.
михась7777 – :
Gave this to my friend’s mother. She said it smelled like San Francisco of memory (hey now! the Victorian, Janis Joplin, upstairs Haight Ashbury part, not the Fisherman’s Wharf, Jerry Garcia, streetlevel Haight Ashbury part!). Lots of woody, bookish, mysterious old cedar trunk. One of the few scents from Aftelier with lasting sillage, but never overpowering (ie all natural). If the civit cat was wearing groovy lavender-tinted glasses in the “Main Notes” picture above, it would be more righteous.
p141kabyl – :
A warm, comforting, sweet smell. Definitely embodies its name.
Imagine a picturesque little cottage-garden next to a small house with a crackling fireplace. I feel this is more an autumn/ spring (maybe summer) scent.
Warning: it can smell “grandmother-y” to certain people used to very conventional perfumes.
Of course, like all perfumes, its scent changes and merges with its wearer, so try it–I love it and hope to purchase a full sized bottle soon.
Xeroximeyl – :
This fragrances are very-very nice indeed! Secret Garden is a very radiant fragrance (sweet floral and raspberry), usually natural fragrances sit very close to my skin.
The first and general impression is a flower garden in the sun, but at the same time it smells animalic. I like the raspberry note in it very much!
Oud Luban is a very comforting oud fragrance, it’s solid, so it’s smooth, for me it’s more about Frankincense (olibanum), than oud. A light orange sweetness at the beginning is amazing.