Ayond fragrances bottle the healing power of the desert
Ayond, the Santa Fe brand known for its rejuvenating botanical skincare, has translated the same desert ingredients into three fragrances that combat mental stress and fatigue
Ayond skincare launched in 2019 by partners in life and business Shani van Breukelen and Porter Yates. The pair ‘wanted to create a genderless skincare line that was clean and effective’. While many other skincare lines can lay claim to all of those qualities, what sets Ayond apart (and why it has gained such a loyal legion of followers in a short time) is that it creates its genderless, clean and effective skincare with a unique range of desert botanicals, primarily found around the brand’s Santa Fe home base.
Van Breukelen and Yates realised that the very qualities that make the desert the antithesis of what you want your skin to be – dry, sun-scorched, cracked – are exactly what makes the landscape contain natural ingredients best suited to combat those problems.
Ayond fragrances harness Santa Fe desert ingredients
The brand’s hero ingredient, rock rose, is a prime example of this, a delicate flower that can only bloom after its hard outer shell is burst by the heat of a wildfire, when it germinates and goes on to help rebalance the ecosystem. Wild-harvested by Ayond in a zero-waste facility, the flower’s extract is used in serums, balms and creams to provide intense moisturisation, heal stressed skin and rebalance skin tone.
Now, rock rose and the brand’s other botanicals are also central ingredients in its newly debuted fragrance line. Like Ayond skincare, the three Ayond fragrances, Rock Rose, Taos Blue and Metamorph, use desert botanicals to, in van Breukelen’s words, combat ‘stress and allow you to flourish in a difficult environment’. While the brand’s skincare tackles the physical stress caused to your skin by everyday pollutants, the fragrances work to combat the mental stress caused by everyday life.
Rock Rose uses the complex, resinous scent of the titular flower (which has been used in meditation ceremonies for centuries) to calm and revitalise a tired mind. Taos Blue, which is inspired by spring in New Mexico’s wildflower-filled Taos Mountains, is formulated with bright top notes of lilac, freesia and wild herbs, and then tempered with an enduring bottom note of cedarwood and vetiver to help improve focus.
Finally, Metamorph is dedicated to the shifting winds and sudden rain of the American Southwest’s monsoon season with a woody blend of juniper and clary sage, mixed with frankincense and other ceremonial incense to open the mind and encourage new growth.
Indeed, improving mental, as well as physical wellbeing, has always been an important principle of the brand, since it was van Breukelen's own traumatic burn injury that encouraged her and Yates to explore the healing power of desert botanicals in the first place. When she was in her mid-twenties, a freak accident with the gas oven in her New York apartment left van Breukelen with third-degree burns on her legs. And, after a month spent in ICU, it didn't feel as if the mild creams the doctors recommended were doing enough.
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
‘It became really hard for me to feel nourished in my skin,’ says van Breukelen. ‘So that’s when I kind of started to tinker. Then I met Porter and he encouraged me to investigate a little bit deeper. We started experimenting with a bunch of oils and ingredients like aloe vera, which is a classic anti-burn remedy, and then we thought, maybe there's a way we can make something that’s effective but had a bit of a sensorial nature and didn’t just feel like a medicine.’
Whether you’re aiming to look good, feel good, or a combination of both, Ayond’s products are worth a try. We particularly recommend the Rock Rose serum, which plumps and brightens every type of skin (and has a nice honey-esque scent too), blended worn with the Rock Rose fragrance, which has sophisticated musky notes ideal for those who prefer heady, tobacco-like fragrances.
Mary Cleary is a writer based in London and New York. Previously beauty & grooming editor at Wallpaper*, she is now a contributing editor, alongside writing for various publications on all aspects of culture.
-
All aboard Casa Quinta, floating in Brazil’s tropical rainforest
Casa Quinta by Brazilian studio Arquipélago appears to float at canopy level in the heart of the rainforest that flanks the picturesque town of Paraty on the coast between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro
By Rainbow Nelson Published
-
The Home of Sustainable Things is a trove of circular design for domestic life
The Home of Sustainable Things (HOST), is a homeware shop in London, focused on circular design to encourage mindful living and more conscious consumption
By Tianna Williams Published
-
First look: Vyrao’s latest neuroscientific fragrance bottles the grounding effect of a digital detox
Vyrao’s earthy new fragrance ‘Mamajuju’ provides sensory respite from screen time. Lara Johnson-Wheeler speaks with brand founder Yasmin Sewell for a Wallpaper* preview
By Lara Johnson-Wheeler Published
-
Exploring non-binary beauty at Dover Street Parfums Market in Paris
By Fiona Mahon Last updated
-
Meet on Instagram: rules of modern-day collaboration according to Earl of East London
By Elly Parsons Last updated
-
Commes des Garçons teases out the softer side of concrete with its latest fragrance
By Pei-Ru Keh Last updated
-
Acqua di Parma gives a trio of opera inspired scents a triumphant voice
By Christopher Stocks Last updated
-
Twisted logic: Thomas Heatherwick’s perfume bottles for Christian Louboutin turn it on
Thomas Heatherwick conjures an ambitious set of architectural glass vessels for Christian Louboutin’s debut fragrance line
By Ali Morris Last updated
-
Palladian perfumery: Bottega Veneta debuts new fragrance collection
By Emma Moore Last updated
-
Elixirs of life: citrussy new colognes by Astier de Villatte
By Clara Le Fort Last updated
-
’Chypre 21’: James Heeley’s Coty-channelling Mediterranean mix
By Christopher Stocks Last updated