Parfum de Maroc by Aftelier

By Marina

To me, Parfum de Maroc showcases the characteristic that I came to love in Aftelier Perfumes and to recognize as a specifically Afterlier quality. I call it spicy booziness...There is something in each of my favorite Mandy Aftel's scents that has a mouthwatering, nose-tingling quality of a very piquant hard liquor...something dangerously drinkable...

Maroc has that intoxicating something in abundance. Its ripe rose is drunk on spices, fermented in cardamom, saffron and nutmeg...There is also galangal, which, Wikipedia informs me, has a "citrusy, piney, earthy aroma (...) its flavor is a complement to its relative ginger." It is supposed to be an aphrodisiac and, smelling Maroc, I believe it. The mix of roses, earth and spices has an aloof, dark sensuality that is irresistible.

I love when a perfume allows me to see itself in color. Parfum de Maroc does and it is flame-red. It has the texture of heavy raw silk, smooth and scratchy to the touch at the same time. Parfum de Maroc makes me restless, like beautiful things are often prone to do. I want to imprint it on my senses forever, to make my own, to drown in it...and it makes me anxious that this gorgeous orange-red silk will slip though my fingers....As Camus said (yes, it is a quote-Camus week on PST), "beauty is unbearable, drives us to despair, offering us for a minute the glimpse of an eternity that we should like to stretch out over the whole of time."

Available at aftelier.com, $45.00-$300.00.