A NEW SCENT CREATES OPPORTUNITY FOR WOMEN IN MOROCCO

Photo Credits: Peter Schiazza

In the historic flower district of Morocco, just southeast of the capital city of Rabat, a group of 125 women have finished harvesting heady blossoms of orange, jasmine and rose. They are chanting as they collect the flowers that will be distilled into essential oils and a new luxury scent…

Enter Sana Jardin Paris, the world’s first socially conscious fragrance blending seven mystical Eaux de Parfums. Sana Jardin is founded by Nest Advisory Board member, Amy Christiansen Si-Ahmed, for whom smelling good and doing good go hand in hand. This is where Nest’s work comes in.

While orange blossom, jasmine, and rose harvest provides full time employment to more than 1,500 women in the northwest area of Morocco, the work is short-lived and takes place only three times each year. What’s more, the harvest yields an enormous amount of biproduct: about 900 tons of orange blossom waste and effluent each year.

Nest joined with Sana Jardin and leading international raw floral supplier, Les Aromes du Maroc, to address inconsistent employment and production waste by piloting three micro-enterprises with indigenous Amazigh farmers in the villages of Tiddas and Maaziz. Collaborating closely with the agrarian community, Nest’s Annie Millican spent months in Morocco and New York creating closed loop systems for repurposing floral waste and effluent into orange blossom, jasmine and rose candles, scented water, and compost fertilizer. The project is enabling local women to gain access to new markets while supplementing their current income and empowering them to develop their own distinct brand identity.

We need only open the May issue of Vogue Japan to see that what is helping artisan women also has a market. “Charity and Philanthropy in Beauty” tells the story of Sana Jardin Paris, Nest, and Les Aromes du Maroc, inviting us with each unbottled of scent, to realize our vast potential to transform lives. Sana Jardin launches at the exclusive Salon de Parfums floor in Harrods in London www.harrods.com and www.sanajardin.com in August.