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Hanami: New Perfume from Ayala Moriel

Hanami Brings Together Poetry, Photography & Perfume at Blunda’s Natural Botanical Perfume Exhibition No. 2, April 18th 2009

April 14th, Los Angeles, CA & Vancouver, BC. In a unique exhibition of perfumery, poetry and photography, Ayala Moriel Parfums releases her newest perfume Hanami. Inspired by a poem by Ezra Pound, Hanami is a sophisticated interpretation of flower viewing in an urban landscape.

It all started with a poem: In March 2008, perfumer Ayala Sender was invited along with 14 other leading perfumers in the niche perfume industry to interpret a haiku-like poem by Ezra Pound, “In A Station of the Metro” for a project titled “Perfume In A Poem” Memory & Desire blog. One year later, Ayala Moriel releases the perfume at Bluda Aromatics in Los Angeles, in the 2nd of their 8-part Natural Botanical Perfume Exhibitions.

“As I was reading the poem, I envisioned a perfume that is subtle and urbane: flowers and dusty dirt”, says Ayala. She drew on her olfactory experiences in the metro stations in New York and Montreal, and the cherry blossom boulevard in Burrard SkyTrain station, which is the heart of the Cherry Blossom Festival (Hanami) in Vancouver.

“The challenge was to create the feel of concrete, asphalt and metallic surroundings using natural aromatics only”, says Ms. Sender, who used Haitian vetiver, cabreuva oil, French Cassie and Oleander to create the feel of metal, wet wood and concrete. These serve as a backdrop for the cheerful lightweight floral notes of sakura, mimosa and magnolia, creating a perfume that is ever changing, ranging from “sweet floral notes in the sunshine to cool dampness of concrete and steel”.


The exhibition at Blunda allows guests to experience Hanami with all their senses: you will experience the perfume, enjoy perfumed tea and chocolate truffles made by the perfumer; and view original photography of cherry blossoms that inspired the perfume. At 2pm, the perfumer will present the different notes of Hanami and demonstrate how the perfume was conceived and constructed. The presentation will be followed by Q & A.

Persephenie Snyder, the curator of the exhibitions and founder of Blunda Aromatics in Los Angeles wanted to present natural perfumery as an art form. “Perfumery, like painting, gives you freedom to go in many different directions”, says Persephenie. “the natural botanical perfumers’ scented organ offers materials with diverse qualities (…) and a supreme authenticity and richness which needs to be understood in order to appropriately work with the materials”.. Persephenie will be hosting 7 other perfumers in the Blunda Natural Botanical Exhibitions. Each exhibition focuses on one perfume artist and their body of work, and allows for interaction with the perfumer and their aromatic creations in various mediums.

What:
Natural Botanical Perfumery Exhibition #2: Hanami by Ayala Moriel

When:
Saturday, April 18th, 1-5pm
Ayala Sender will speak at 2pm

Where:
Blunda Los Angeles
304 South Edinburgh Ave.
Los Angeles, CA, 90048
RSVP: (323) 658-7507 or email: rsvp@blundaaromatics.com

Following the exhibition, Hanami perfume will be available exclusively through Blunda and Ayala Moriel’s studio @ #314-1230 Haro Street in Vancouver, and the online boutique www.ayalamoriel.com

For media inquiries contact:
Ayala Sender
(778) 863-0806
ayala@ayalamoriel.com


ABOUT THE PERFUMER
Ayala Sender, the Nose behind Ayala Moriel Parfums creates perfumes that are inspired by her deepest emotions and memories from her childhood landscapes of the Mediterranean. “My art stems from my love and longing for the Mediterranean natural and cultural landscape”, Ayala says, “It is strongly rooted in those ancient and colourful aromatic traditions”.

Born in Montreal and raised in Israel, Ms. Sender’s work is influenced by her eclectic background in fine art, music, philosophy, psychology and education. “Perfumery is my means for self expression, and where all my interest integrate into a beautiful whole” says Ayala. “My perfumes tell a story. They capture a moment in time, an emotion, a memory, and entice you into their world”. Combined with an intuitive understanding of each individual’s need for self expression through personalized fragrance, Ayala creates customized Signature Perfumes as well as ready-to-wear perfumes. “My perfumes have their own personality and evolve with time almost like real living people” tells Ayala. “When I make a perfume for a person, I help them to translate who they are into a beautiful perfume that is as complex and multi-faceted as they are”.

ABOUT BLUNDA
Blunda means “ to close one’s eyes“ in Swedish. Blunda Aromatics specializes in a wide range of Natural Botanical Perfumes, Essential Oil Pharmacopeia, Exotic Perfume Materials, Education, and Collectible Treasures. Blunda’s founder, Persephenie Synder, is a certified aromatherapist, perfumer and a visual artist. The studio offers classes and workshops in natural perfumery, aromatherapy, candle and incense making and more. The studio store offers select lines of renowned natural perfumers and rare essences from around the world.

Charisma Perfumed Tea

Ayala Moriel is pleased to announce the launch of Charisma tea - the 5th creation in our series of authentic perfumed teas made for us exclusively by Inner Alchemy Tea Co.


Of course, Charisma originates in the perfume of that name – a concoction of green tea, jasmine sambac, osmanthus, kewda and spearmint that creates a very distinct scent. But it also has another significance for me personally which I would like to reveal here.


Back home in my little organic village in Israel, we hardly ever drank proper “tea” from tea leaves – but only tisanes brewed from fresh herbs from the gardens or wild ones from the hills and meadows surrounding our homes. My favourites since childhood were lemon verbena, lemongrass and spearmint. The brewed fresh leaves are magically refreshing and calming. A true pleasure to the palette as well as the nose.


Inspired by my friend and colleague Dawna and the exceptional teas she has created for me, I set on experimenting with my own stash of herbs and tea to create a matching tea to my original refreshing and Charisma perfume.


Those of you who visited the studio in the past year are probably familiar with my “secret house blend”. I took my all-time favourite freshly dried herbs from my mother’s organic garden in Israel – lemon verbena, spearmint and lemongrass – and added an equal amount of authentic perfumed jasmine green tea, and a touch of dried osmanthus blossoms.


Wanting to share this beautiful blend with friends and clients around the world, I asked for Dawna’s help to refine the ratios and create a small batch of this beautiful tea. In her skilled and sensitive hands and with her expertise in the flavour and aroma profiles of teas and herbs, Dawna has transformed this beautiful tea into something out of this world. The jasmine tea was replaced with a rare pomelo blossom perfumed tea*, which seems to have captured the essence of Charisma more fully – including it’s rounded floralcy and pungent aroma from the kewda and spearmint. When I first tasted Charisma tea I felt like I was sipping an orchard in full bloom. It left my mouth with a tingling sensation and with butterflies in my tummy.


- Traditional ‘Pomelo Flower’ Tea, premium grade (Fujian region, China)

- Lemon Verbena Leaf, organically grown (Turkey)

- Spearmint Leaf, organically grown (USA)

- Osmanthus Blossoms, premium grade (China)


Brewing Instructions:

Bring freshly drawn water to a boil. Infuse 1 tsp. per 5 oz. cup of tea desired for 1 ½ to 2 minutes.

Allow to cool slightly to appreciate full taste profile. May be re-steeped up to 4 times.

* The reason why pomelo blossom tea is so rare is because pomelo trees don’t have that many blossoms to begin with. The pomelo fruit being so large, the tree can only burden itself with few fruits; and the blossoms are few to begin with.

The Lovely Collection

I just caught a sniff of Sarah Jessica Parker's new fragrance trio, that has just arrived to Shoppers Drug Mart in Canada.
The three fragrances are called Dawn, Twilight and Endless - and each is said to be inspired by lovely moments in SJP's life.

After the disappointment of Covet (original, but not something I would want to wear) and Covet Pure Bloom (which smells too much like others) I have to say I was surprisingly impressed with this collection, and with Twilight in particular.

My very initial reactions, based only on a paper application are:
Dawn smells like freshly cleaned and dried laundry. I still am not sure if it smells like the laundry detergent or dryer sheets or both.
Twilight is a sheer amber, and very similar to Ambre Fetiche (Annick Goutal) and in a way is what one might have hoped to get out of the solid perfume of Stella in 2 Amber.
Endless was a nice and a fruity floral on the more interesting side. It was crips rather than sweet.

All three deserve a skin test, and I am hoping to do this very soon and post more thorough impression of their evolution on my skin.

New: Roses et Chocolat Candle


Ayala Moriel is proud to introduce the 4th offering in our scented candle collection: Roses et Chocolat.

Capturing the essence of luxury and romance, Roses et Chocolat candle is everything Roses et Chocolat perfume was - for scenting your space with romance. To the soywax base we’ve added cocoa butter and scented it with cacao absolute, rose, nutmeg and more. The result - a gorgeous, voluptuous rose candle with undertones chocolate and spice. Like out other floral candle (White Potion), Roses et Chocolat is a soft and sweet candle that prefers small intimate spaces and will make any romantic evening complete from the dinner table to the boudoir...


Like all of our candles, Roses et Chocolat candle was created in joint collaboration with Nikki Sherritt of Garbriel’s Aunt, who lovingly hand-pours each candle to perfection. And of course it was her idea to add cocoa butter to the wax to create that creamy, melt-in-your-mouth chocolate texture to the candle’s overall fragrance.

Roses et Chocolat - The Complete Experience

The Complete Experience Gift Package of Roses et Chocolat includes all the good things: perfume, chocolate, tea and the new Roses et Chocolat scented candle, of course!


Experience perfume to the fullest with taste, touch and fragrance. The Complete Experience Gift Package includes our Roses et Chocolat perfume, scented candle, perfumed tea and our to-die-for Blood Truffles - our seductive 70% cocoa hand-rolled truffles flavoured with Turkish rose otto, saffron absolute and hot chili pepper to add some pizzazz!

All packaged in a beautiful, re-usable gift box with a hot-pink satin ribbon as the final touch.

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