Respite from the Winter Chill

by: Ida Meister

Sunset Beach is the second perfume in Ayala Moriel's series "Perfume for a Place" (the first of which was Komorebi, which was recently reviewed here).

“Sunset Beach is a little piece of heaven tucked away in the midst of bustling boat-False Creek and busy traffic on the bridges that cross it. It is that happy place where time stops and the only thing that matter is the tides, currents and basking in the gentle evening sun. You can spend the day there or just bring a hectic workday to a serene close with a beachside walk or a leisurely picnic. Fragrant Harlequin glorybower and Robinia embellish its borders, and in midsummer you'll find musky wild blackberries and hot-pink everlasting peas along the shoreline. And if you're particularly lucky, you'll find yourself swimming alongside a playful harbour seal. Sunset Beach can be anywhere... Mine just happened to be in Vancouver.” ~ Ayala Moriel

Vancouver, British Columbia has been Ayala Moriel's very real home for seventeen years: it's a source of constant inspiration. She's also a swimmer [and a certified Pilates instructor] who feels completely at peace in the sea and relishes every opportunity to be at one with it.

Ayala asked me to hold off on the sample she sent me along with Komorebi, as it was supposed to be released for St. Valentine's Day.

Well, the romantic holiday is nigh upon us.

Ayala has created an olfactory respite for us in the pronounced chill of midwinter.

Sunset Beach's two lone florals are sumptuous and decadent: glorious champaca [an Indian member of the magnolia family] and decadent ylang ylang with its buttery banana tones. Ayala may cite orris butter here [in another post she refers to orris root], but it isn't a floral aspect which garners our attention, it's the rhizomal/unctuous dichotomy we perceive. This creaminess is amplified by massoia bark, two fine sandalwoods [Indian and Hawaiian], coconut and milky oolong tea.

Pandan leaf is often used to augment / simulate the aroma of basmati rice in pulao – yet another contributor in the pursuit of dolce far niente.

Nutmeg adorns champaca's spicy facet; chocolate and coffee serve as modifiers, vivid in the opening of Sunset Beach and mellowing as the perfume unfolds. Cedar provides both communion with sandalwood as aromatic anchor and imparts a deliciously dusty/woody base – a welcome complement to tropical indolence, it feels earthy and grounding.

Woody Floriental Notes: Top Notes: Pandan Leaf, Milky Oolong Tea Tincture,  Cedarwood Heart notes: Champaca, Coffee, Nutmeg, Ylang Ylang, Orris Butter Base notes: Indian Sandalwood, Hawaii Sandalwood, Chocolate, Coconut, Massoia Bark

Sunset Beach manages a distinctly beachy holiday feel without resembling Coppertone suntan lotion.

It's spicily, soothingly narcotic in a delicate, refined manner – so I think of it as an elegant complex gourmand for adults. It is so comfortable to wear, yet never mundane: the flinty/metallic aspect of orris adds that silvery edge of mica in the sand, mirroring late afternoon light's reflection scattered upon the waves.

Everyone could use a little tranquility in this chaotic life, couldn't they?