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In Celebration of Mothers and Motherhood

In Celebration of Mothers and Motherhood

Mother's Day 2021 Gift Guide 

Ayala Moriel continues to celebrate 20 Years of Perfumery & Incense Making this year - and I largely owe this to my mother and my grandmother being able to stand here before you today achieving what I did since starting this very fragrant adventure. 

The following gift guide is a tribute to the women who have shaped my life, and inspired some of my proudest fragrant creations that you can choose as gifts for your mothers, grandmothers and aunts. Happy Mother's Day! 

Happy Mother's Day! Ayala Moriel continues to celebrate 20 Years of Perfumery & Incense Making this year - and so I'd like to give thanks to both my mom and my daughter for experiencing what motherhood is all about from both the giving and receiving end. I'm grateful and honoured to be doing what I am doing, and it's all thanks to you!

My mother, Ada: thank you for instilling in me the love for plants and flowers especially, and for raising me close to nature, teaching me about the healing properties of the local plants as well as faraway spices. The loss of your the sense of smell also gave me the opportunity to sharpen my sniffing skills from an early age, to be confident with what I know, and to help her you navigate through this scentless world.

My daughter, Tamya: it was truly for you that I have founded this company and opened it for business. It enabled me as a young sole-parent to not only put food on the table, but also be happy switching to my motherly role at the end of a long working day. I always wanted to work doing what I love. And you gave me no choice but to accomplish this dream pretty early in life.

My Aunt, Liora: You lived your life to the fullest and fiercely defending what you believe in. I was fortunate you didn't become a mom till much later in life, and had you all to myself! You taught me discipline, hard work and determination, and standing up for my rights. I hope the next generations won't need to fight as much as you did for that!

And last but not least, my grandmother Ruth, who has sadly passed away just a little over a year ago: I'm eternally grateful for your inspiration, worldliness, attention to detail and the written language, and for always believing in me and giving me a strong foundation of confidence and support through the toughest times, and not any less - through the happy and triumphant times. I hope to carry your relentless optimism combined with an urgent lack of patience for any injustices, big or small, and to always put my actions where my words are. I really hope that I could still make you proud after all that this year has taught us in your absence. I also hope to be always able to be as generous and warm as you have been to me all my life.

🌊 P.s. Earth Day is maybe over, but the Mediterranean Oil Spill Cleanup Continues! 🌊 Reefs and underwater rocks still need professional and volunteer divers to clear away some bitumen that sank and stuck to rocks.  And so our fundraiser continues - donating to Zalul/Mediterreanean Sea People and EcoOcean proceeds from revenues of all our Beach or Sea themed fragrances

INDIGO
Velvety, deep aromas of aniseed notes with a warm base of woods and iris along with cool, green notes of violet leaf and boronia create an unusual, mysterious perfume of extreme individuality: enigmatic and reflective as the sky after sunset.
Indigo is a tribute to my mother, who is anosmic and when she could smell, enjoyed the scent of violets and anise. So this has all her favourites. Wearing it makes me feel wrapped in the indigo-coloured velvet of her hug. 

MOTHER'S DAY COFFRET 
Luxurious coffret of 8 of our beloved Language of Flowers perfumes, packed in a jewellery box lined with handmade almond-blossom paper. 
The fragrances included in this coffret are:
Kinmokusei, InCarnation, Lovender, Rosebud, Viola, White Potion, Yasmin, Zohar. 

INCARNATION 
Our mothers love us unconditionally. Carnations are traditionally given and worn on Mother's Day, symbolizing the purity and resilience of a mother's love. Those mourning the loss of their mothers wear a white carnation, and everyone else wear colourful ones. So what can be more perfect than a carnation perfume for Mother's Day? InCarnation perfume is peppery, fiery, sweet and seductive. It unfolds its voluptuous petals dusted with nutmeg and mace, and unleashes its scent with a spinning of a Flamenco dancer’s skirt.

Indigo-Dyed Lavender & Olibanum Soap 
Gorgeous handmade soap bar, with frankincense resin, lavender and dyed with indigo with golden mica pencil lines. Makes a truly stunning gift!

TAMYA PERFUME
Dedicated to my daughter, this is a tender and spring-like bouquet of ethereal flowers, and smells both innocent and youthful and sensually exotic: frangipani, hyacinth and jasmine sambac, arranged over precious woods - sandalwood and cedar from the Atlas mountains. 

KINMOKUSEI is an Osmanthus soliflore - a unique Asian flower, with a smooth and rich scent of green tea, apricot and suede leather. This osmanthus soliflore is unusually dark and rich, and is as soft as suede. It opens sparkling with apricot, peach, wild orange and raspberry undertones; rejuvenates like cool green tea, yet unmistakably smooth and floral. The base is surprising – musky and woody, with underlining leathery note of cured tobacco leaves. Kinmokusei is the Japanese name of osmanthus.

VIOLA is a Victorian-inspired bouquet with an up-beat, contemporary twist. Violet leaf and iris create a soft, powdery aroma that is both sensually feminine and refreshingly clean. Viola is the ultimate soiflore for the soliflore-phobic: It has a cheerfully simple beauty and at the same time is surprisingly full of depth.

PALAS ATENA INCENSE STICKS
Ayala Moriel's very own Nag Champa Agarbatti (incense sticks with a bamboo core) for easy use and transport. A little goes a long way. A festive and sensual fragrance, rich with exotic flowers, sandalwood and amber. Has powerful, sensual feminine energy of abundance and wisdom. 

VENUS PLANETARY INCENSE PASTILLES 
The beauty queen of the planets, Venus (the ruler of both Taurus and Libra zodiac signs) is the darling of most planet-gazers. However, it has more depth to it than meets the eye. Playfulness, freshness, beauty and love and all that is joyous in life must not be forgotten, especially for the serious types among us. This is especially crucial in the times we're experiencing right now world wide. Beauty can be soul-medicine. 

Miniature Zarzo Gift Baskets
Filled with fragrant surprises, these handwoven baskets from palm inflorescence make an elegant, sustainable and reusable gift for mothers while taking care of Mother Earth. Both size and contents can be customized. 

 

Musk Malabi Fundraising Campaign for Syrian Refugees


Musk Malabi, my fundraiser perfume to support Syrian Refugees, was launched a couple of years ago. There was only marginal interest in the cause, unfortunately, so I was unable to make any substantial contribution to this cause. 

Now that the refugee crisis has come to the forefront of the media - I hope you can help me raise enough funds to help sponsor refugees who are arriving to Canada in these tough times. For every 15mL bottle sold, $50 will be donated to a community-sponsored family; and from each mini bottle, $20 will be donated.

If you are in Canada, I urge you to find a community-sponsorship as well, or initiate one yourself in your community or workplace. According to Canadian law around sponsorship of immigrants, groups such as religious community associations (i.e.: non-profit NGOs) and community based organizations (i.e.: mosques, churches, synagogues, etc.) but also corporations can sponsor refugees, and any group of 5 or more Canadians that can provide a feasible settlement plan for the refugees. That is one way to guarantee the safe asylum of a family fleeing the horrors of the Syrian civil war, and much more meaningful way to invest smaller amounts of charitable money than to support a huge organization in which whatever contribution I could make will just be a drop in the bucket.

Of course, if you wish to donate to larger organizations - there are some that are more effective than others and which will utilize your donations more efficiently. Do your research first. For example, charities that are recommended for maximum help in the ground zero of the Syrian refugee crisis and that have a minimum administrative costs are listed in Charity Intelligence (Canada) and Charity Watchdog (USA).





Below is an excerpt from the original press release (March 2014) and the updates regarding pricing and donations policy.

Inspiring Peace & Harmony with Musk Malabi’s Olfactory Love Triangle
Vancouver, Canada, March 5th, 2014. Get caught in a love triangle with Musk Malabi Ayala Moriel’s newest limited-edition perfume Musk Malabi. Released to coincide with the spring equinox and Persian New Year, Musk Malabi is an intoxicating floral confection. Unabashedly feminine, subtly exotic and hopelessly romantic - the fragrance evokes the sensory experience of a passionate love affair.
Inspired by the traditional Middle Eastern dessert of the same name, Musk Malabi centers itself around rich, milky musk. Having grown up in Israel, the sights, sounds, and smells of the Mediterranean have always been a source of inspiration for Ayala Moriel, the company’s in-house perfumer. “What has always captured my imagination about malabi is its soft, evocative sounding name, and its unique fragrant combination of rosewater and neroli water”, explains Ayala. “Rose and orange blossom are such noble flowers yet oh so different.”

At the heart of the fragrance, neroli and rose come unexpectedly together with musk to create an unusual and mesmerizing triad. Musk plays cupid, pulling all the strings in between and drawing the lovers (rose and neroli) together. Designed to smell as close as possible to deer musk, the botanical musk brings an effortless fluidity to this magnetic fragrance. A company that prides itself on being all-natural and free of animal cruelty, all of Ayala’s fragrances are created using botanical essences.
With spicy notes of cardamom and coriander as the opening act for voluptuous rose and prudent neroli, the top and heart notes rest on a silky bed of atlas cedarwood, botanical musk and Tahitian vanilla. Light-hearted yet mysterious, Musk Malabi is a fragrance unlike any other and will transport one effortlessly to the exotic Middle-East, jet-lag free.
Top notes: Bitter Orange, Cardamom, Coriander, Blood Orange
Heart notes: Turkish Rose, Bulgarian Rose, Tunisian Neroli, Egyptian Orange Blossom
Base notes: Atlas Cedarwood, Botanical Musk Accord, Tahitian Vanilla

Available in eau de parfum 4ml ($69) and 15ml ($180) via www.ayalamoriel.com. For every 15mL bottle sold, $50 will be donated to a community-sponsored family; and from each mini bottle, $20 will be donated. 





Fundraiser for Tama Blough


Sad, sad news today :'-(

Tama Blough, the founder of the SF Sniff - a fragrant meetup and event in San Francisco, and also a perfume blogger and reviewer who's writing appeared regularly in CaFleurBon, is terminally ill with cancer.
The perfume community, although spread the world over, is tightly knit and some people become such an important part of our life even if only through the world wide web. Having met her a few times when I was in California for the Artisan Fragrance Salon, it is even more devastating to learn of her illness.

Tama's friend in fragrance Nina Zolotow has set up an online fundraiser to help her out in this tough time. Please lend a hand for a kindred spirit who's given much of herself to the perfume community. Let's give her something back, to make her last days on this earth as peaceful and comfortable as possible.



One Year Anniversary for Giving Gifts & Co. + Blue Heart Campaign

Giving Gifts & Co is turning one!
Help us Celebrate this incredible milestone by stopping by the co-op boutique (4570 Main Street & 30th Avenue):

When: Saturday, April 5th, from 11 am - 8 pm

What: Food, Beverages, Live Music and Tons of Sales throughout the whole store!

Why: All in support of our HUGE 'Traffic against Trafficking' Campaign. For every person who visits the store for the ENTIRE MONTH OF APRIL, we'll donate $1 to Somaly-Mam, an organization to help women in Cambodia escape Human Trafficking and re-build lives as artists & entrepreneurs.

We are donating all proceeds from our limited edition ORCAS candles (with a blue heart vessel) to support the campaign. Which is befitting, because we're decoraitng the store with wooden hearts, and for every $100 raised, we will paint one heart blue! In other words - if you buy the candle at the store, $100 will be donated to Somaly-Mam, to support her cause against human trafficking in Cambodia.   

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