FRAGments is/was an an indie, artisanal and underground event that pulled together spectacular brands from the West Coast and beyond! This event happened on 6/22 in the Highland Park in the San Fernando Valley in a cool little gallery of more than just wall art, but 3-D art displays as well. As one of the hottest days that spring, it was an intoxicating event.
What’s next in FRAGmnents Spring/Summer 2013? LOTS more to learn about from various fragrance lines. This was an amazing event and this is one way for you to partake in the event without spending a ton of money!
What happens when a fragrance creator/designer can’t make it there? They improvise. Ayala Moriel, a noted fragrance designer/indie fragrance creator, couldn’t make it that weekend. Instead of just ignoring the situation or catching a riff of my own, I reached out to Ayala and she was kind enough to agree to answer my questions about her career in fragrance and her latest scent TREAZON that was the fragrance she was featuring at the event.
This was Ayala Moriel’s fragrance display at FRAGments.
SW:”1) What was the inspiration or the creative impetus that got you enmeshed in Fragrance?
Why this specific niche of the beauty industry?
Ayala Moriel:
My passion is with perfume and the world of scent, because of its profound impact on emotions, and because this is the medium I feel most comfortable creating in. I’m fascinating with aesthetics and I feel we humans have an innate need to adorn our bodies and express ourselves through decorating our skin and hair – be it with flowers, mud, mehendi, clothes, tattoos, jewellery and perfumes! Otherwise, I have very little interest if at all in the “industry” of beauty.
SW: 2) Every fragrance is unique and each one makes a statement but since you have evolved into Ayala Moriel Parfums, what is the overarching statement about your brand that could sum up what your goal is with each fragrance?
Ayala Moriel:
Telling stories through the nose. As the stories changes, so does the fragrance, the materials chosen, and its style and structure – as well as the audience, naturally.
SW:3) Since you have been working in fragrance actively since 2001 — there’s quite a timeline there of what you have accomplished. What’s been the evolution of the inspirations for each collection or scent?
Ayala Moriel:
My style has shifted and evolved over the years, from creating very complex and quite ambitious perfumes at first, to more simplified soliflores over a certain period of time. These two extremes gave birth to what is my contemporary composition style – spacious and fluid, allowing for light and movement.
SW: 4) has there been any scents that absolutely were always on your mind to get them created? What made them so imperative? And which ones were they?
Ayala Moriel:
Not really. My perfumes are an immediate expression of the present, as I experience it.
SW: 5) Were there any scents that seemed to take forever to create to make it the way you wanted it to come out? if so which ones and why?
Ayala Moriel:
L’Écume des Jours. It took me 7 years to nail down its formula.
SW: 6) What is your protocol for creating a scent? You took a course or more. Everyone has a specific way they do things and they typically have a way of doing them so very very carefully (*botanically organic that the parfumer distills or others who buy scents and blend from that)
There is no “protocol”. Each perfume is created in a unique way, stemming from its inspiration: sometimes it is conceptual, other times I take on a technical challenge – as with my rather minimalist soliflore collection, or creating a perfume that has base notes only (Film Noir).
SW: 7) Is there a scent lingering in your creative closet that you want to create?
I always create – in my head, in my lab and just by breathing the sweet air that surrounds me.
Some of Ayala Moriel’s fragrances!
8) What is the story on Treazon? It’s so unusual…. and the spelling makes it distinctive.
Ayala Moriel:
It started with the name, and with studying the essence of tuberose and putting together a formula that brought forth its most controversial, divisive elements – medicinal, animalic and over-the-top rich and heady. For more details, please see the press release, and also the process of creating Treazon on SmellyBlog:
http://ayalasmellyblog.blogspot.co.il/2012/11/behind-scents-wtih-treazon.html
http://ayalasmellyblog.blogspot.co.il/2012/11/treazon-time.html
http://ayalasmellyblog.blogspot.co.il/2012/11/intoxicating-flowers-tuberose.html
SW:9) Where do you want your parfumery to go? What path or end results would you like to be doing?
Ayala Moriel:
I like it the way it is now – very flexible and allowing me to live a balanced life (I am a single mother to a teenager with autism, so balance and flexibility are uber-important to me). I have a vision about creating a space that is open on a more regular basis, but the concept for that is a secret for now, until it materializes.
SW: 10) Do you want more mass awareness of your brand? Others like to create one of a kind or couture fragrances- does that interest you?
Ayala Moriel:
Mass awareness does not interest me. I prefer to be able to communicate as directly as possible with my audience, and rather than try to satisfy the lowest common denominator in the perfume market – I am grateful to be able to continue to create personalized, distinctive perfumes that are authentic and true to my own experience and artistic expression and touch people from within. That’s partly why I don’t really feel I’m part of the “beauty industry” either.
SW:11) What do you want your fragrances to say about you and your creativity?
Ayala Moriel:
It is not my concern. Being true to myself and genuinely connect with my audience is important to me. Public image or what people think about me does not matter to me personally and will not result in better perfumery either.
SW: 12) If there is anything else you would like to share or feel I have missed in these questions, please feel free to share.
This spring I will be teaching a 2 week perfumery course for the first time! Usually, I run one week in the fall, and one in the spring.
This May, I offered 2 weeks back to back: Citrus & Cologne Week (May 19-23, 2014) and Oriental Week (May 26-30, 2014). The course is taught at my downtown Vancouver studio, in a very small group setting (up to 6 students) which allows for a lot of one-on-one attention.
Each day is divided into 2: theory, history & olfaction studies in the morning; and hands-on lab session in the afternoons so you can put to practice what you’ve learned in the morning!
Other events and workshops include
FRAGRANT SHORTBREAD COOKIES BAKING WORKSHOP
SPRING WELCOMING TEA CEREMONY
SCENTED BODY PRODUCTS PART I: BATH SALTS
SCENTED BODY PRODUCTS PART II: SUGAR SCRUBS
INTRODUCTION TO NATURAL PERFUMERY
PERSONALIZED PERFUME MAKING WORKSHOP
ICE CREAM WITH FLORAL WATERS
MIDSUMMER’S AFTERNOON TEA & PERFUME SENSORIUM
For information on dates for workshops, events, classes and more, please visit AyalaMoriel.com/Calendar
NOTES on TREAZON
Florals are often known for being undeniable feminine and quintessentially romantic, reminiscent of love affairs, sun drenched spring fields, and fresh-picked bouquets. Rarely do floral fragrances emulate a dangerous sense of intrigue or forbidden seduction. Conjuring up images of mysterious femme fatales and death kissed moonless nights; Ayala Moriel’s latest potion does just that with an intoxicating white floral blend, aptly named Treazon.
“Treason” as a noun means to violate allegiance to one’s roots or country. It’s a word with a dark and rebellious connotation. The word is soaked in shame and contempt and yet it is utterly seductive, and utterly appropriate as the name of Ms. Moriel’s newest fragrance. A surprisingly spicy scent, it contains notes of wintergreen, cinnamon, vanilla, and African Stone. However, the star and inspiration behind the scent is the narcotic blooming tuberose
Drawing inspiration from tuberose’s “almost disturbing” aroma, and from the flowers supposed history of being able to tempt one into lustful acts of treason, Ayala immediately recognizes how treason is an act that everyone commits on a fairly regular basis “We betray the people we love the most unknowingly by revealing something personal about them” says Ayala. “And to me, all those things associated with treason and treacheries have that toxic, bitter-sweetness of seductive poison, which is why I picked notes that are rather strange and unusual and controversial.”
The scent which has been nominated for the Indie FiFi Awards 2013, is already a hit with acclaimed fashion and beauty bloggers. As Gaia Fischler, from the “The Non Blonde” passionately pens “Ayala Moriel’s tuberose is a true femme fatale. She teases and tempts, all the while you know she’s nothing but danger.” As all who have tested the scent have concluded, this scent is anything but typical and is just as appropriate for day as it is for nightfall, with “an almost wine-y undercurrent” and “a distinct dark and almost animalic character that make the fragrance wonderfully sexy and addictive”.
Top Notes: Aniseed, Cinnamon, Wintergreen, Sweet Birch, Cassis
Heart Notes: Tuberose Absolute, Orange Blossom, Orris Root
Find TREAZON and other scents at www.ayalamoriel.com
Thank you to Ayala Moriel for her time and assistance on this interview. It’s not easy to be emailing back and forth on questions and never really hear the voice of the person asking them. Sometimes one wants to ask more questions, other times, not so much. Considering she was traveling for work at the time, I am very appreciative of her time!
Stevie Wilson,
LA-Story.com
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this is a beautiful story of perfume creation!