Before creating Ayin Perfumes, Ayin de Sela traveled the world as a tightrope walker with, among others, Cirque du Soleil. Until the day a malformation in her brain caused her to lose her balance. Forced to reinvent herself, she chose to create custom fragrances from her caravan located in Grand Island. While she now has more than 1,000 recipes including those of singer Arthur H and Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke, she offers those who wish to begin the creation of their fragrance with a tarot reading.

The very name of the village resonates like a promise of escape: Grand Island (Yonne). We already imagine ourselves at the heart of an intense nature imbued with a powerful telluric force. It is as if we were about to immerse ourselves in the settings of The Lord of the Rings. And reality will ultimately not prove our imagination wrong. There, on the foothills of Morvan, we expect at any moment to encounter Frodo Baggins in what closely resembles the landscapes of the Shire.

The meadows form a green sea that stretches as far as the eye can see where life flows without waves. But without being monotonous. For where else in the world but here can one find a century-old caravan in which one comes to compose their custom fragrance with the help of a former circus artist?

From Mexico to Morvan via St. Mark's Square

Even Tolkien would not have conceived such a story. It must be said that this is the kind of trajectory that hangs by a thread. For before settling in Middle Earth (of France), Ayin de Sela, originally from Mexico, traveled the world as a tightrope walker with, among others, the Cirque du Soleil troupe. On YouTube, she can be found in St. Mark's Square in Venice gliding on a wire in heels before an immense crowd.

But then, the improbable ends up happening. She is struck by a cavernoma, a vascular malformation in the area of the brain that causes her to suddenly lose her balance and confines her to bed for three years. "Since it was inoperable, the doctors told me it was incurable. Overcoming such a diagnosis was very hard," she confides. And then one day, hope blooms again thanks to a rose. "I had a small bottle of Damascus rose oil that was almost empty. I slipped a rosebud into it that I had gotten into the habit of observing and which regained its colors when it was dying. I was at the darkest moment of my life and it gave me hope again. I convinced myself that if this rose could do it, then so could I. And that's what happened. There was nothing mystical about it. The act of marveling awakened a force within me. It was from that point that I began to want to create fragrances. "

"A fragrance has a spiritual, cosmetic, and aesthetic dimension"

Settled at Château de Monthelon, an internationally renowned artistic factory located in Montréal on this side of the Atlantic, about ten kilometers from Avallon (Yonne), she will then develop her first fragrances for the artists present on site. "A fragrance has for me a spiritual, cosmetic, and aesthetic dimension. That is why I offer those who wish to begin with a tarot reading. Tarot tells the story that is in each of us and allows us to look at our life symbolically without setting aside the dark parts. Because in my opinion, a fragrance devoid of darkness is not a good fragrance. We really need it to create something sublime. Despite our flaws and vulnerabilities, we all have a superhero within us, a person who has desires and who, like a circus artist, is capable of doing unimaginable things ," summarizes Ayin de Sela, who has since placed her caravan in the garden of her sculptor friend Christine Lemaire in Grand Island.

And to concoct the essence of our essence, aka our "olfactory body" as she calls it, the founder of Ayin Perfumes has built herself a library of scents from essential oils of trees, fruits, herbs, and flowers. "The people who come to me are looking for the scent of the most magical part of themselves. I make sure to guide them. It's like for an artist preparing a performance. One of the worst things you can do, even if you have the skills, is to tell them what to do. Any new creation must go through intuition because intuition is what distinguishes us from robots. I am here to listen and ensure that each person's genius ends up in a bottle."

Today, the perfumer has more than 1,000 original recipes that she records in her notebooks. Among them are the fragrances of Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke, singer Arthur H, and actress Adèle Haenel. However, if you do not have the opportunity to go to her, she can also come to you. Her creations are also available online at ayinperfumes.com or at the café-florist Le Repaire in Avallon. But that would deprive you of a very beautiful encounter…

Practical information: Ayin Perfumes, 18 rue Joseph Montenat, Grand Island (89). By appointment at 06 16 58 03 30. Rates: €95 (fragrance creation session), €135 (tarot reading followed by fragrance creation). More information at ayinperfumes.com

Renaud Charles