Holiday Mailing Deadlines

Christmas Eve traffic on O'Connor St. in downtown Ottawa..., originally uploaded by Steve Brandon.

Even Santa has deadlines, and Canada Post just put out their send-by-dates so that your gifts can make it by the holidays around the world. I'm only posting the regular parcel services (which is how much I charge on my website). If you place your order after that date, it will have to be shipped Priority (for an additional cost of course).

Canada - December 11th
USA - December 14th (must be shipped Xpresspost - might require additional shipping costs)
Asia, Europe, Middle East and the Caribbean - December 1st
Africa - November 23rd
Australia & New Zealand - December 7th (Xpresspost - might require additional shipping costs)
Central & South America - November 23rd

For more details on shipping options and cut-off dates for holiday mail click here.

Our holiday gift guide will be coming out soon in our next newsletter.

Wishing you all a stress-free pre-holiday season!

Stock Updates

For those interested in the stock market... We have very limited stock on some of our perfumes containing rare essences (i.e.: boronia, osmanthus) and do not know when we will be able to replace them and create a new batch.

Charisma - 2 x parfum extrait flacon, 1 x travel-size perfume-oil roll-on
Grin - 1 x parfum extrait flacon, 3 x travel size perfume-oil roll-on
Hanami - 4 x parfum extrait flacon
Indigo - 1 x parfum extrait flacon, 1 x travel size perfume-oil roll-on
Kinmokusei - 2 x parfum extrait flacon, 3 x travel size perfume-oil roll-on
l'Écume des Jours - 1 x parfum extrait flacon

And lastly, Black Licorice, or Halloween limited edition has only 1 bottle of extrait and 2 bottles of travel-size roll-on bottles left.

Liquid Fume

Frankincense, originally uploaded by galeriacores3.

Smoke is the origin of perfume: an ancient ritual of burning resins to create and purify mental space and exalt one’s soul to connect to the divine. By fire and alchemy physical matter (resins, spices) transform into spirit through smoke.

Burning loose incense is one of my most favourite ways to experience and enjoy fragrance. There’s something magical about the transformation of golden frankincense tears into smoke. Sparks fly when the charcoal is lit on fire, and that’s just the beginning of the excitement. Once the heat takes over the charcoal, a few precious resinous tears are placed on the ember. At first, they just rest quietly with their majestic dusted gold appearance. But soon enough, they can’t stand the heat any longer and begin to sweat their perfect aroma into the air, which turns from invisible vapours in the first few moments into smoldering smoke the next.

Frankincense has a way of affecting the human mind, coaxing it into relaxation and a meditative state of consciousness. The mere act of burning incense connects one to different elements of nature: fire, wood, metal. It gives me a sense of connection to my ancestors, the deserts of the Middle East and ancient rituals that were meant to bring people closer to themselves and closer to the gods. When I burn incense, a fransformation occurs in front of my eyes, taking over my space with its smoky perfume that is at once balsamic, sweet, woody, resinous, fresh and calming. All that remains to do is to let go and devote oneself to the experience this ancient perfume

With Liquid Fume I tried to create a perfume that captures the experience of burning incense, within the liquid medium of grain spirits. Without any matches or charcoal and real smoke, I tried to bring a sensation of warmth, dryness and the rich, resinous balsamaic odour of burning frankincense. I tried to imagine the most dense incense condensed in a bottle, with the warmth of embers and the dripping honey of melted frankincense tears… This is what I hope Liquid Fume will be for you.

Frankincense is of course the core of this perfume. But other notes were added for bringing out different qualities of an incense burning ritual: Virginian cedarwood and guiacwood were chosen for their smokiness, liquidamber for its molden-gold sweetness, helicrysum and labdanum absolutes for their rich, sweet honeyed and resinous qualities, and sweet orange to brighten everything up and remind us of the fresh, almost citrusy aspects of frankincense.

Top notes:
Sweet Orange, Virginian Cedarwood, Copaiba Balsam

Heart notes:
Liquidambar, Guiacwood, Atlas Cedarwood

Base notes:
Golden Frankincense, Labdanum, Helicrysum Absolute

Liquid Fume one-of-a-kind perfume is available on AyalaMoriel.com or via Etsy.

Bvlgari Black

Crushed violets, originally uploaded by oksidor.

“Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.” (Mark Twain)

In the summertime, Bvlgari Black wears like a molten asphalt and roof tar, underlined by purring black cat’s fur. Intense and linear, it grows on the skin until it becomes unbearable. In the cooler fall weather, it wears like a woolen sweater contaminated by the smoke escaping from the fireside. And a cup of Lapsang Suchong comes to mind. But this is only temporary: soon violets take over. Violent violets of the candid kind that you can find in the two Lolita Lempicka and the Au Masculin (both are also by Annick Menardo). It also is quite similar to two other masculines that played florals in a cheeky way: Joop! (Michel Almairac) and Le Male (Francis Kurkdjian) - a trend that most likely began with Geoffrey Beene's Grey Flannel (André Fromentin).

Lapsang Suchong, originally uploaded by Ayala Moriel.

Bvlgari Black is intriguing and quirky and reminds me of both the smoky tea of Dzing! And Tea for Two (both created by Olivia Giacobetti for l’Artisan Parfumeur). I’m still not decided which one of the three I like the best. The dry down of Bvlgari Black is a rich though not smouldering vanilla, reminiscent of Shalimar's counterpoint between sweets and smokes, confection and leather.

Twitter Draw Winner + New Contest Announcement

Thank you for all of you who tweeted about #ayalamoriel on Tweeter!

We have a winner!
Congratulations to ScentHive, who were randomly chosen via random.org to receive a roll-on bottle of my perfume. She gets to pick which one...

And you get another chance this month to win a roll-on bottle of your own!

As of today, I'm starting another contest for twitters. Here are the rules:
1. To be included in the lucky draw, you must include the topic #ayalamoriel in your tweets. I won't include anyone who tweets back @ayalamoriel in the draw next time
2. Tweets must express genuine opinions/impressions/experience and contain accurate information.
3. If you tweet about #ayalamoriel more than once, your name will be entered into the draw more than once as well.
4. All tweets dated no later than November 30th will be entered into the draw.
5. Winner receives a free roll-on perfume of their choice (excluding the exclusive line)
6. Winner announcement will take place December 1st.

Sniff or Treat Halloween Tea Party + Lucky Draw Announcement

Here are some of the highlights of the Sniff or Treat Halloween Tea Party that occurred yesterday afternoon. Hopefully the sights and the stories will convince you to be among our guests next time (if you happen to live or visit in the erea).

But first of all, let me announce the lucky winner among the guests who signed the guestbook - who will receive a 5ml travel roll-on perfume oil of Black Licorice perfume.
We numbered the guests based on the order they signed the book, and than got Random.org to pick them. The lucky winner is guest no. 8, who's no other than (drum roll)...

James Sherrett!

Congratulations James, I hope you will enjoy the sweet smell of Black Licorice and come to many more parties!Black Forest cupcakes (left) and Spider Eggs (right) which really are almonds covered with dates and rolled in roasted black sesame seeds.

Pomegranate tarts, with strawberry creme fraiche or lime curd; and fig tarts in a match-cream cheese filling.

Pumpkin tarts with lavender-orange shortbread crust.

Blue Cheese & Concord Grapes scones, Fennel & Golden Sultana scones, served with Devonshire cream and various jams and preserves, such as:
Bluebarb by Karin Brauch of Preserved BC Sunshine
(created with Vancouver unsprayed rhubarb, wild Cloverdale blueberries and married with a hint of Okanagan white wine).

Spiced Eggplant Confiture
(I made them myself based on a Morrocan recipe)

Raspberry Jelly by Naturally Rooted

Tea sandwiches: in the picture you see the tarragon-orange-fennel tea sandwiches, made with organic cream cheese and freshly grated orange zest and tarragon herb, and finely sliced fresh fennel bulb.
We also made cucumber-wasabi sandwiches, carrot-ginger, and deviled-egg-salad ones.

Fresh Mission figs and homemade biscotti (anise-almond; chocolate-hazelnut)

Kurogoma cupcakes, with black sesame cake and a matcha-cream-cheese frosting.

Teas served:
Hulnejan (the witche's brew)
Roses et Chocolat
Lapsang Suchong (ArtFarm)

And last but not least - the presentation touched on the connection between the spirit world and incense and plant essences; how incense was and still used to communicate with the spirit world and with loved ones that passed away, and smelling some of the essences of resins and woods used from ancient times for making incense: opoponax, myrrh, frankincense, costus, agarwood and more. We also smelled cade oil, which has a smoky, camp-fire scent and is similar to the Lapsang Suchong we drank in the party. And lastly, we burned a Japanese Kyara incense stick (the highest quality of oud) of the kind that is burnt on a daily basis in home-shrines for the family ancestors, and myrrh resin because of its connection to earth and embalming the dead in Egypt.

And below are some pictures of the guests at the party:

Night of Hallows

Halloween Special, originally uploaded by em`lia.

"Halloween is a time that reconfirms the social bond of a neighborhood (particularly the bond between strangers of different generations) by a ritual act of trade. Children go to lengths to dress up and overcome their fear of strangers in exchange for candy. And adults buy the candy and overcome their distrust of strange children in exchange for the pleasure of seeing their wild outfits and vicariously reliving their own adventures as children". (Richard Seltzer, "Why Bother to Save Halloween")

It took me no less than 11 years to start to slightly enjoy or even remotely appreciate Halloween. The notion of celebrating death is very foreign to me and how I grew up, and the scary and gruesome imagery of the modern incarnation of the holidays are off-putting to say the least. The Real Origins of Halloween make more sense of this special holiday and shed some light on the issues surrounding this holiday and how it is celebrated today. Perhaps we all need a little scare to bring us back to full life.

Death is really part of life. And because we live in such a sterile, generational-segregated society, death seems a lot more foreign and unknown and therefore even more frightening than it ever was before. Halloween seems to be an exceptional occasion where we can deal with our fears. But what is death is not scary at all? What if it is really part of life? What if we can communicate with the dead, our dearly departed ones who seemingly left our lives forever?

According to various pagan traditions around the world, it is possible to communicate and connect with the dead. For example, most people in Japan do this every day, burning incense in home shrines for the ancestors. And they are not the only ones. It is interesting that incense smoke or perfume is incorporated into different techniques of inviting the dead and the spirits to communicate.

Halloween is the best time of the year to do so, as the barriers between the world of the living and the world of the dead are thin and it is easier to travel in both directions. Spirits of the dead can visit our world and vice verse.

"And the clothes you left, they lie on the floor
And they smell just like you (...)" (Avril Lavigne, "When You're Gone")

We become greatly attached to the scent of our family members, friends and lovers. When we smell their favourite food or perfume or cologne, we immediately think of them or can even sense their presence. This is because the sense of smell has a direct connection to the part of the brain that processes emotions. Our smelling organ (the olfactory bulbs) are in fact part of the brain. And when a person leaves our life - because of death or other reason - it is usually their smell that we miss the most. With the absence of the person, their unique smell dissipates and there's no way to bring it back. Or is there?

People who were visited by the spirit or soul of a loved one have witnessed a familiar scent - a perfume or aroma that the person loved in their life in this world. The Mexicans, for example, burn copal resin as incense to attract the spirits of the dead, and also for protection. Rituals from around the world designed to invoke spirits of the dead often include burning incense. Incense has a powerful impact on the psyche - incense and agarwood, for example, both bring a person into a meditative state of mind. And also, the thick smoke from the incense served as a stage for the shaman/witches' imagination. Burnt incense, similarly to their essential oils, are mostly heavy "base notes". Resins and gums such as frankincense, galbanum, myrrh, opoponax and more. And since theyr contain a high percentage of essential oils, they really come out clearly over the embers or charcoal, even more so than the precious woods (sandalwood, agarwood). Considering that in ancient times, the alchemists believed essential oils to be the spirit of the plant, it is not surprising that these very same resins are to this day used for increasing spiritual awareness, and perhaps even communicates with other spirits than our own.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Eden Botanicals New Website

Pure essential oils supplier Eden Botanicals has just launched their new website. Besides looking so inviting and being organized and user-friendly, there are some additions to the content.

On the essential oil pages you can find some of the ad copy that your humble self has contributed to the site with introductions to each portion of the aromatic alphabet. Hopefully, having more educational and informative content on this website will contribute to the understanding and preservation of the arts of natural perfumery and aromatherapy.

It's been a very interesting project and there is still more to come, including several articles about the art of perfumery, detailed descriptions of the oils how to use them in perfumery and aromatherapy, and last but not least - formulas for using these precious essences for creating your own personal perfumes, scented body and home products and aromatherapy synergies and remedies.

Eden currently carries around 170 different oils, and completing the project of writing descriptions for all of the oils will take a while longer. Be sure to check the website for more updates in the future. They really are one of the finest suppliers of natural raw materials and are an excellent resource for smaller-scale independent businesses that want to incorporate pure, high quality natural raw aromatics to their product lines.

Pois de Senteur

Sweet Pea, originally uploaded by Jennie Anderson.

Pois de Senteur de Chez Moi (1927) has the attitude of a bygone era, when perfumers tried to capture the scents of impossible-to-extract bouquets of flowers. There is nothing light or cheerful about these sweet peas: they are so self-absorbed in their seriousness that they literally smell like they’ve been rotting in their own green leaves for a while once first inhaled.

Green hay note is dominant at first, alongside powdery and sweet-cloying notes that bring to mind old scented lipsticks and face powders from the 40’s, and flowery linden and lilac milled soaps. Like most Caron’s perfumes, it takes some time to unravel the density of what smells like an aldehyde boosted sweet pea absolute (if such thing was to be found). A spicy cinnamon-and-bay-rum note attempts to rise above the bouquet without much success, and only once the hay and aldehydes subside, the almond-and-vanilla of heliotropin nearly take over with very little floral bouquet or greens left. It is similar to Farnesiana but not at all a comfort scent, but a rather uncomfortable and complicated floral bouquet past its prime. Hours later, the orange blossom is revealed, but more as an aspect of heliotrope flower rather than on its own.

Notes include: Sweet pea, rose, hyacinth, bay rum, jasmine, orange blossom, linden, lilac, hay, vanilla, heliotropin, musk.