Interview with Ayala Sender from Ayala Moriel Parfums

10/11/07 02:11:14

Ayala Sender is a perfumer and founder of the perfume house Ayala Moriel Parfums, based in Canada. She is devoted to the art of natural perfumery and all her fragrances are hand-made of 100% pure botanical extracts. In cooperation with top designers Ayala Moriel created original bottles and packages for her perfumes. Besides the 60 prêt-à-porter fragrances created by Ayala Moriel in the past two years, this house creates original personal fragrances that suit wishes and personalities, what enables each of her clients to be directly involved in the process of creation.
We spoke with Ayala Sender about her perfumes, her views and thoughts about the wonderful world of fragrances.

Fragrantica: What is your earliest fragrant memory?

Ayala Sender: The first time I smelled snow, and the scent of tangerine orange peels in a Hammam (a Turkish-style bathing house). Both memories are from Jerusalem, before my family moved to the countryside.

F: What are your favorite smells and which ones do you dislike?

Ayala Sender: I grew up in the countryside, and so most of my scent memories are scents of nature and aromatic plants: the first rain after it clenches the thirst of the dry sun-baked earth, the scents of goats herding on the mountain herbs, carob blossoms, fresh guavas from the tree, and many more (too many to count, really).

Some of my favorite scents which I grew up with translate into building blocks (AKA raw materials) which I particularly enjoy working with, such as lemon verbena, labdanum resin, costus root, hay absolute, oakmoss, rose, jasmine, narcissus, orange blossoms.
As a perfumer, I can’t say I have the ‘least favorite smells’ because each of the notes has a purpose and can be utilized in a beautiful way in the right proportions in the appropriate context.

F: Do you believe that every woman/man should have a signature perfume?

Ayala Sender: I can’t say I believe everyone should have a personal scent. Of course, some people don’t like to wear perfumes at all, and others are perfectly happy wearing a perfume that is widely available for others. What I do believe is that every person should have the opportunity to do so if they wish to express themselves through fragrance.

I try to offer this with my line by providing a wide range of original perfumes that are all handcrafted from natural essences, and I provide personal fragrance consultations to help each individual pick the scents that best match their personality and fragrance needs.
And for those who want to be part of the perfume creation, and develop an exclusive perfume, I offer a bespoke service. I design signature perfumes and involve the client with every step of the process, from developing the olfactory vision and name for their fragrance to picking the specific raw materials.

F: What power do perfumes have over people, in what way can they influence them?

Ayala Sender: First and foremost, perfume brings pleasure, and as such I feel that it is a very positive influence. They can make us feel more in touch with ourselves, and comfortable and in-tune with our emotions.

Perfumes are very strongly connected with mood and feelings. Sometimes it can be quite challenging to separate the two, because we have developed strong conditioning of fragrance and emotions. Familiar aromas connect us to our past, while new, unfamiliar scents, connect us to the future as they expand our olfactory repertoire and new associations are created.

F: Where did you find the inspiration for creating your new perfumes, Roses et Chocolat and Coralle?

Ayala Sender: Roses et Chocolat was created as a limited edition for Valentine’s Day. The concept was to combine two romantic symbols in a parfum flacon: decadent chocolates and a bouquet of red roses. These two materials don’t work easily together and it was a matter of finding the exact proportions and which other notes will bind them together to make them smell like a unique whole. I added an amber accord (made of various resins which I compounded myself) and spices such as pink pepper and nutmeg that are considered aphrodisiacs.

Coralle was in making for quite a while. The original idea was to create a rich floral perfume using the most readily available raw materials, while focusing on ylang-ylang. I wanted to create a feeling of an exotic tropical paradise, a perfume that is hot and luscious, like the warmth and brightness and clarity of colors of corals in the tropical sun.

I mainly used notes that come from tropical islands Ylang-ylang from Comores and Madagascar, geranium from Bourbon, vanilla from Madagascar, and vetiver from Haiti. The theme is really the ylang-ylang (Coralle is a ylang-ylang soliflore). To make the ylang-ylang really shine and be interesting, I chose to use a few different distillations, the ylang-ylang essential oils, the absolute and the concrete.
The result is creamy and fruity and luxurious, even though ylang-ylang is one of the most affordable of all floral essences. I think it really important to treat the less expensive materials with just as much respect as the most costly ones. They all have their importance and if treated properly they can shine and surprise and throw a stunning performance.

F: Your perfumes have beautiful romantic names, some of them are so intriguing, for example Altruism, Democracy, Espionage... Please tell us more about the inspiration.

Ayala Sender: Each perfume has its own origins and inspiration. My perfumes have a deep personal connection to my own experiences - my dreams and emotions, inspirational moments and places, and the exceptional people that I meet along the way. The name is a part of the whole creation.

F: And the last question: What perfumes do you like to wear in autumn yourself?

Ayala Sender: The rich, warm fall color and the crisp air in Autumn inspire me to reach for the richer and warmer notes, perfumes that in my mind have warm fall colors.
I tend to wear more of the smoky-leathery and spicy perfumes (such as Espionage or Rebellius) and very dark and sweet aromatic fougeres (I am working on one right now, which I am wearing a lot these days, and which I hope will be ready for others to wear by this time next year).
And of course - perfumes from the Chypre family (such as Ayalitta and Autumn) are the classics for this season with their warm and down-to-earth sweetness.

I would also like to mention the new perfume I'll be launching this November - it's a very wintery perfume, called Immortelle l'Amour. It's based on the immortelle flower and an overdose of vanilla, and smells like a dark maple syrup over hot cinnamon waffles. It sounds very light hearted but in fact it's a very dark, sentimental scent.

You can read about it more on my new website which was just launched September 4th with a new look and many fabulous new features