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Wet Garden

Fragrance Garden by Ayala Moriel

It's been a wet day in Vancouver yesterday, but that didn't stop us from visiting the Fragrance Garden and White Garden at VanDussen and run a three-and-a-half hours course on the relationship between plants and perfume, the sense of smell, and a little bit about distillation process and perfume history.

Thank you for everyone who attended this class - it was so wonderful to have a diverse group of curious minds that are passionate about plants and aromatics. My next class at VanDussen will be dedicated to The Rose - aka the queen of perfume. It will take place June 22nd, 10:30-12:30pm, followed by VanDussen's annual rose show!

Join me then in the Rose Garden for two hours of exploring the subtle varieties of rose scents (and colours, sizes and shapes!). We will learn about the difference between European and Asian roses, distillation and extraction process of roses (plus photos from my trip to Grasse!), the main constituents of rose oil and absolute, and of course smell some classical rosy perfumes by some of the most renown perfumers in the world (i.e.: Sophie Grojsman, Jean-Paul Guerlain, Isabelle Doyen, Jean-Claude Elena, Christopher Sheldrake, Ralf Schweiger and more) who created timeless classics such as Nahema, Lipstick Rose, 100% Love, Bvlgari pour Femme - as well as from my own collection. 

Vetiver Salon at O5

The best part of Monday this week was spent at O5 tea bar, where we conducted a Vetiver Salon.
I brought all my vetiver oils and essences - 10 altogether, and from 7 different locales:
India (Vetiver essential oil, CO2, ruh khus, and co-distillation with mitti attar); and vetiver essential oils from South Africa, Surinam, Sri Lanka, Haiti, Bourbon and Indonesia.

Vetiver is used in many of my perfumes, but I brought 7 to create a diverse little collection that features vetiver in a prominent enough manner: Bon Zai, Hanami, Jasmine Pho, Megumi, New Orleans, Sabotage and Vetiver Racinettes and some of my OOAK vetiver perfumes: Vetiver Blanc, Wilde Vetyver, Vetiver Noir and Vetiver Rouge. And it goes without saying that there were some soap and candles involved...

And I also brought the dried roots, so that we can brew some warm vetiver infused tea. In the picture you can see the Anji Bai Cha - a Korean tea that is somewhere in between green and white. It brought out the nutty, sweet warmth of vetiver. We brewed it with another white tea - silver needles from China - to produce a more cool, clean, slightly grassy tasting liquor that would probably taste even better chilled in the summer. And our last experiment - vetiver roots with green pu-erh, which worked quite harmoniously, tasting fresh and not nearly as dirty-like and earthy as black pu-erh teas tend to be.

Hopefully this will be the beginning of semi-regular perfume and salons that I will be co-hosting at O5.
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