April Showers Bring Mom Flowers...
In this newsletter:
- Carnation: Mother's Day Flower
- Olive for Peace
- A Pink Rose for Gratitude
- Violets: Modest and Faithful
- Lavender for Devotion
- Orange Blossom: Eternal Love
- Geranium: True Frienship
- Indigo: Inspired by my Mother
- Mother's Day Afternoon Tea Menu Idea & Recipes
- Upcoming Events & Markets
1. Carnation: Mother's Day Flower
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?
Other gift ideas:
2.Olive for Peace
Did you know?
Mother’s Day in North America was initiated by American activist Anna Jarvis who devoted her life for peace, health and social justice for her people, and in 1914 established the 2nd Sunday of May as “Mother’s Day for Peace”, so that mothers would not need to suffer the pain of bereavement due to war ever again. So it is only fitting to do something to promote world peace – starting with making peace with ourselves, our families, communities and worldwide peace efforts.
Other gift ideas:
Kinmokusei Solid Perfume in Bird Pillbox
Kinmokusei in Ethinic Perfume Ring
Charisma Perfumed Tea
3. A Pink Rose for Gratitude
4. Violets: Modest and Faithful
According to the Victorian language of flowers, blue violets symbolize faithfulness and white ones – modesty. Mothers are in no doubt the most faithful and reliable people in our lives. And it requires modesty and a strong sense of humility to be a mother – after all, mothers always want the best for their children, and always want their child to do even better than themselves.
Other gift ideas:
Indigo, the perfume I originally created a signature perfume to my own mother, also has a beautiful violet heart.
5. Lavender for Devotion
Other gift ideas:
6. Orange Blossom: Eternal Love
7. Geranium: True Friendship
Day Geranium Ritual Bath Salts last year, with pink Himalayan salt! They also contain lavender and chamomile, and smell like a soft caress and a garden full of humming bees.
Geranium Leaf One-Of-A-Kind Perfume
Cabaret perfume also features notes of rose geranium
8. Indigo for my Mother
Indigo was first conceived in 2002 as a signature scent for my mother, and went under further transformation in 2004. For the oil and solid perfume, the formulation is slightly different than the parfum extrait, employing orange flower water absolute in addition to the neroli, to achieve a greater depth and smoothness.
I believe the concept of mother, although very familiar to most of us from as long as we remember ourselves, is full of mystery. My mother in particular has quite an enigmatic personality, so making a perfume for her was a challenging exercise in decoding her through olfactory terms… As if to challenge me further, my mother has developed partial anosmia throughout the years, so I was never to really know if I succeeded in creating a scent for her liking. This made the whole process more of a personal and creative journey for me.
My selection of notes relied a little on certain aromatics that my mother likes (though I cannot tell if she likes them for their aroma, taste, or their known therapeutic benefits, these scents have been always associated with her for me because she used them often).
Therefore, I relied but far more heavily on my own subjective perception of my mother’s personality and what the concept of “mother” is to me, in the most abstract as well as primordial meaning: someone who is protective and strong and always giving. But also someone that existed here before us and therefore there is always a substantial amount of mystery about them: we don’t know what happened or who they were until we’ve arrived.
I chose aniseed as a top note because my mother always loved anise in all of its forms (as a tisane, spice and also the fresh fennel bulbs). I also included tarragon to add an extra interest and a green lift to the aniseed sweetness. The heart consists mostly of a violet accord, using violet leaf, orris and boronia, bearing the association of indigo velvet, which is equally soft and smooth, but also strangely cool. Carnation, incense and amber contribute warmth and help smooth the perfume, while Himalayan cedar brings us back again to a cool, smooth elegance, reminiscent of polished granite.
Indigo plays mostly on the dualities of cool vs. warm, soft and intimate vs. sleek and elegant. It’s my mother’s embrace when she’s wearing her velvet indigo tunic, and us picking wild herbs in the mountains together. It evokes for me the feeling of a dark blue summer night, full of secrets and exotic smells and hidden surprises.
9. Mother's Day Afternoon Tea
Tea served:
Lavender Earl Gray (the best one I had so far was served at the Fairmont hotels. It is called "Versailles" and it is possible to special order it through their gift shop at The Empress in Victoria). What I like about it the most is that it is not bitter, and is so pretty and light like a lavender field, and is wonderful even without any sweeterning or milk, which I find rare in black teas.
1st Tier: Tea Sandwiches
Mother's Day afternoon tea should be elegant and relaxed affair. The key for that to happe is keeping things simple and sticking to the basics. Cucumber tea sandwiches are not only simple to make, they are also (in my opinion) the best of the bunch! If you must have more than one flavour, egg salad would be nice as well as simple to pull together.
2nd Tier: Scones, cream and jam
3rd Tier: Sweets
Earl Grey Truffles
Lemon Tarts
Lavender-Violet-blueberry Cupcakes (you can make these by adding a 1/4 teaspoon of lavender buds to your favourite blueberry cupcake recipe; decorate with cream cheese icing and candied violet petals).
Lavender Shortbread Cookies (recipe below)
1/2 cup (1 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼ cup icing sugar
Some fine sugar for sprinkling (I use evaporated cane juice)
1 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
½ cup semolina flour
10 drops organic or wild-crafted lavender essential oil
3 tsp. food-grade dried lavender buds
Preheat oven to 300F.
a. Butter or line with parchment paper a 9” spring form pan
b. Beat together butter, sugar and lavender essential oil until sugar completely dissolves in butter, and butter is uniformly smooth. Add lavender buds (you may want to rub the buds between your palms before adding).
c. Sift flours together
d. Add flours to the butter to make a smooth dough (as much as possible)
e. Press dough evenly into the pan, and prick with a fork.
f. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until the edges are pale brown and the centre is golden in colour.
g. Sprinkle with some superfine sugar (if desired).
h. Let cool for a couple of minutes, than slice with a pizza cutter.
10. Upcoming Events & Markets + Lucky Draw
Visit us at the the Make It Vancouver show, sign in our guest book and enter to win one of the following prizes:
5 Gift certificate for a class at Beyond Pilates, Vancouver's very best Pilates studio located in the West End.
1 Perfume oil roll-on perfume of your choice from Ayala Moriel Parfums
1 Ayala Moriel Mini perfume of your choice!
mom to an unforgettable experience of creating her very own Signature
Perfume, contact us to book our 2-hours Olfactory Journey (over a cup of
tea and some perfumed truffles!).
Mother’s Day, we are always here at your service.
Have a fabulously fragrant spring!
My SmellyBlog: SmellyBlog.com
Tel.: (778) 863-0806
Address: 1230 Haro Street, Buzz #295,Vancouver, BC, V6E 4J9
Hours: Mon-Thu 8:00am-3:00pm; Fri: 8am-12pm; Closed Saturdays; Sundays & evenings by appointment only.
Labels: Gift Guide, Mother's Day, Newsletters, The Language of Flowers
posted by Ayala Moriel @ 3:56:00 PM
1 Comments:
Wow, those are some beautiful flowers! My mother always loves tulips for mother's day - I think I've given her a bouquet of tulips for the past few years. I even bought her some tulip-scented perfume!
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