Our Story
Ambrette Perfumery
WHO WE ARE.
Dalal and Mimi Al-Doub are Kuwaiti sisters who are drawn to the idea of holistic beauty. For them beauty is neither singular nor objective. Instead, they view beauty as interconnected parts of an ever-expanding whole. In other words, beauty’s fluidity allows for constant growth and new creative expressions.
Dalal and Mimi have already collaborated on a few projects. VTERRA (@vterrakw) is their vegan bakery, a welcoming environment which offers cruelty-free and scrumptious meals. The two sisters then decided to extend their selected apparel, and they provided equally fashionable items for affordable prices via Trend Driven (@trend_drivenkw).
AMBRETTE is their fourth collaboration. As with everything else they have developed, Dalal and Mimi believe that no external item can provide anyone with self-esteem, however, when people learn to love themselves, they become capable of taking care of themselves. Only then can the surface level of beauty genuinely reflect one’s inner truth.
THE STORY.
In 2020, Dalal began her journey as a perfumer. She started working on her own fragrances and partnered with other brands to produce exquisite collections. In DALALID perfumes, she tapped into her own essence and examined her relationship with beauty as scent.
Mimi adds something special to Dalal’s experience in perfumery. As a working mother of three, Mimi understands the way incense, oils, and other smells impact the ambiance of a house, and the overall interactions of the people inside. For instance, she knows that no matter how low she feels, she can always count on the smell of her children’s fresh hair after a shower to brighten her day. She associates other scents with joyful gatherings with her family and friends, and some with her career.
Like her sister, Mimi is aware that the sense of smell is linked to memory and recollection more than any other sense, and in addition to triggering memory, scents are likewise emotive, provoking an array of emotions in people, from desire, to calm and safety, to excitement and joy, and a range of others.
With AMBRETTE, however, Mimi and Dalal wanted to explore hidden power and paradoxes.
WHY THE NAME?
The name of the brand, AMBRETTE, is taken from a chief component in perfumery, a fixative derived from the ambrette seed which produces a fragrant oil. Ambrette has been crucial in manufacturing perfumes. It has been one of the few plant oils which contains natural musk compounds, and which give off an amber, powdery, musky, and slightly animal fragrance. It is considered both warm and seductive, and it is resilient and flexible enough to occupy the base note of oriental perfumes. Finally, amber seeds contain both calming and stimulating properties, and they were used as both antiseptics and as aphrodisiacs.
AMBRETTE became an alluring name of the brand, for it is this dual quality (sedated and powerful, sensual and seductive, or calm and stimulated, etc.) that attracted the girls: How can paradoxes be beautiful? How can we love both night and day, both east and west? In smell: How come spices work with flowers, or musk with smoke? And because Dalal and Mimi are sisters, both with their unique visions and experiences, they felt that ambrette’s duality represented them, not as a dichotomy of opposition or of similitude, but of beauty and creativity.
In addition to ambrette’s duality, Dalal and Mimi were moved by the seed’s hidden nature. For example, they are aware that ambrette is utilized in most perfumes, and in some cases, other scents can only be highlighted when ambrette works as a fixative. The idea of delving deep below the surface level of beauty, coupled with ambrette’s inherent paradoxical nature, made the name a natural choice for the Kuwaiti sisters, who seek to explore through fragrances: hidden potential, rebirth, power, ambition, and the safety of a loving home.