I happened to be in Yerevan (the capital of Armenia), during the Genocide Remembrance Day on April 24 that is held annually to commemorate the victims of the Armenian Genocide from 1915 to 1923. Each year hundreds of thousands of people walk to the Tsitsernakaberd Genocide Memorial to lay flowers at the eternal flame. The main purpose of my visit was visiting Hermitage in Yerevan, a beautiful new perfumery that sells Puredistance in the main shopping street of Yerevan. The people in Armenia showed me great hospitality and I was very impressed by its rich history. And as a very visual person I deeply enjoyed the mythic symbolism of its ancient churches and monasteries.
During my stay I witnessed the beauty of the inexplicable, and not for the first time. It seems every other year Annie Buzantian (a Master Perfumer in New York who created three of our Master Perfumes) and I experience inexplicable, beautiful experiences. Those that know Puredistance and its history know about the synchronicity of the creation of Puredistance I and Antonia. And this time it was Annie Buzantian’s third Puredistance creation OPARDU that was at the heart of an inexplicable, magical experience.
During a recent visit to Annie Buzantian in New York where I presented OPARDU to her she told me that if I would be in Armenia during Remembrance Day I really should go and see this commemoration. She told me it could be a very emotional and moving experience. And she knows what she is talking about, since she is originally from Armenian descent.
So I went there and joined the long line of people that slowly walked to the eternal flame momument. Halfway an old Armenian man came to us and presented us a leaf of purple lilac. “for you”, he said. “To put on the momument”. I could not believe it….. Purple Lilac is the key ingredient of OPARDU: the latest Puredistance Perfume created by Annie Buzantian…. Was this a sign of Annie….? I don’t know and I don’t have to know. All I know is we layed down the flowers and felt deeply moved by this experience.
And this is what I learn every day again while building the brand of Puredistance, as long as we stay pure to ourselves and to the people around us there will always be an inexplicable helping hand that helps us to do what is right.