Heritage
A house, in its own words
Bella Hadid grew up watching her mother, an aesthetician, formulate treatments, which fostered her early fascination with ingredients and their effects on the body. Hadid has spoken publicly about her sensitivity to traditional alcohol-based fragrances, which caused her to avoid wearing perfume for years despite working in an industry built on scent and image. Her modelling career took her to fragrance counters worldwide, where she sampled countless options but found none suited her needs. This personal frustration planted the seed for a brand she could actually wear. The decision to launch came during a period when she felt disconnected from her heritage, and she wanted to create something that anchored her to family history and personal memory. Eternal Roots, one of the debut fragrances, directly channels her family's narrative and her connection to her Dutch-Palestinian ancestry. The brand name reportedly draws from both aura and her given name, a deliberate choice to make personal meaning central to the business. In 2024, Orebella launched in the US market, followed by UK expansion through Selfridges in 2025. Hadid has described the venture as more than perfume, framing it as an extension of her identity and a project rooted in her own experiences rather than celebrity licensing alone. The company operates as a distinct business entity from her modelling work, with her actively involved in product development and brand direction. Hadid describes her relationship with scent as profound, tied to feelings of safety and personal sanctuary. She views fragrance not merely as a beauty product but as an emotional tool that can evoke memory, connect people to their roots, and expressed identity in ways that transcend conventional categories. This belief shapes Orebella's approach to individual fragrance creation, where each scent carries a named narrative rather than falling into standard fragrance families or marketing archetypes. The brand's gender-inclusive positioning stems from Hadid's own discomfort with gendered marketing in the industry. She wanted to create scents that anyone could wear regardless of age, gender, or background, rejecting the traditional structure that assigns certain notes or compositions to specific demographics. Beyond product, Hadid has spoken about wanting to build a brand where vulnerability is part of the appeal, sharing her own sensitivities and personal history as a foundation for connection rather than positioning herself as a beauty authority. The bi-phase concept itself reflects a philosophy that fragrance can be functional, not purely decorative, by incorporating ingredients that hydrate and benefit the skin alongside aromatic compounds.