Canadian actress, model and social activist Lisa Ray launches a new fragrance with ties to India with The 7 Virtues company.
Internationally acclaimed actress, model, T.V. host, entrepreneur and social activist, Lisa Ray is quite an accomplished woman. Not only is she a success in the entertainment world in Canada and India, she’s also an international speaker on cancer awareness since she was declared a survivor in 2010.
So when Ray decided she wanted to make her mark in the world of perfume, she decided to team up with Canadian company The 7 Virtues, founded by CEO and Dragon’s Den winner, Barbara Stegemann, to create a fragrance that not only smelled pretty, but had some social responsibility attached to it.
The 7 Virtues was a natural fit for Ray, not only because their fragrances are free from parabens and harsh chemicals, but also because they are “retail activists,” using farmers in impoverished and third world countries to help nation-build and promote fair trade. Ray’s fragrance would help Indian farmers.
The scent part was simple. Having strong roots in India, (her father is Indian, her mother Polish), Jasmine — the sort of unofficial flower of India, she later reveals during an interview in Toronto — had to be the top note.
“Jasmine, for me, is the one thing that invokes India,” Ray said. “It goes back to my childhood where jasmine grows everywhere. It adorns temples, homes and women put them into their hair. It’s just integrated into everyday life.”
“One of my favourite things to see when I’m in Bombay, which is totally chaotic, is when you’re at a standstill for about three hours in traffic and often what happens during a particular time in the afternoon is that women will weave their way through the cars carrying gajras, which are jasmine flowers strung together in a garland, and they sell them,” she continued.
The scent of Lisa Ray Jasmine of India also blends notes of orange blossom, cardamom, ginger, frankincense and myrrh with the exotic Jasmine flower. It’s fresh, light and most of all it isn’t a harsh fragrance that will leave a trail, thanks to the elimination of harsh chemical binders found in most scents.
“The inspiration for all our fragrances is to support farmers in nation rebuilding,” says
Stegemann. “Having helped farmers in Haiti, Afghanistan, the Middle East and Rwanda, we wanted to do our part to contribute to India, realizing it is home to the world’s largest group living in poverty.”
The Lisa Ray Jasmine of India fragrance will launch on September 21st on the UN’s International Day of Peace with The 7 Virtues®, a Canadian company living the mantra “Make Perfume Not War® at Hudson’s Bay.
Main image by Farrokh Chothia
—by Toni-Marie Ippolito
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