Alora Festa

It’s gloomy February and we’re awaiting yet another messy, sleety snowstorm, so it seems like the perfect time to write about Alora Festa.

Anita gifted it to me, thinking I’d like it, and how right she was.  From the Alora website: “Festa, the Italian translation for holiday or party, was inspired by the incredible vacations Annie and Therese Gibbons, Alora Ambiance creators, spent together skiing in the Dolomites. After a long day at the slopes they would retreat to the comfort and warmth of the chalet and drink a delicious and fragrant glass of Vino Brule, an Italian mulled wine served with a cinnamon stick and slice of orange. The aroma of this memory is captured in festa’s key notes of burnt orange and cinnamon…”

And that pretty much sums it up – cinnamon and orange.  It’s like sunshine in a bottle.  It made me think of mulled wine the first time I smelled it, which makes sense now. A little does go a long way, although it’s neither bitter nor cloying.  A spritz or two in the air and I can still smell it hours later.

Oranges and Italy are inextricably linked for me, thanks to my multi-hour visit to I Profumi di Firenzi in Florence more than a decade ago, where I left with a tiny bottle of Arancia Dolce, one baby step closer to the perfumerie rabbit hole. And then shortly thereafter, reading perfume blogs, I had to hunt down Fendi Theorema.  The rest is (sweetly-scented) history.

Festa is available as a candle or diffuser for $50(ish) at places like BeautyHabit. The Alora website doesn’t show my 8 oz. room spray, which pops up periodically on eBay.  In fact … they had a partial bottle on there which I just bid on and won.  Pop down and leave me a comment if you want it and I’ll do a drawing.