Our Story

Our Story

The first perfume I made was for Mother’s Day in Vancouver. I was a kid with a plastic bowl, my little sister as my lab assistant. We raided the neighbour’s roses, dropped the petals in water, and decided it was perfect. My mom never told me it smelled like wilted stems. She wore it for months, tucking it beside her expensive perfumes as if it belonged there.

Decades later, that memory became Rose 96’ — dark cherry, rose, and spice. The grown-up version of my first disaster, made with the same love that started it all.

I am Somali-Canadian. Born in Italy, raised in Vancouver, I left for Calgary to study at the University of Calgary, then moved to Seoul, South Korea for years. Each place left its scent on me. I think of them like orchids. Some familiar, some strange, some rare enough to stop you in your tracks. They carry different shades, but each leaves a color that stays in you.

When I was studying perfumery, I didn't want to just learn how to blend notes. I wanted to learn how to give them movement. Somali warmth. Arab depth. French precision. Italian ease. Like an orchid opening over hours, I wanted scents to unfold in chapters and shift on the skin the way memory shifts in the mind.

Orchid Lane is a colourful street. Every bloom is a person, a memory, a story. Each one unique. Together they make something unforgettable.