Introducing Alia
How the self-development coach Roxie Nafousi manifested a fragrance line.
Written by LAURA REGENSDORF
In an increasingly frenetic world, it’s human nature to look for a clearer path forward—less stress, more progress. But where to begin? That’s where the London-based coach and author Roxie Nafousi has carved out a niche. “If you are willing to see all the beauty and love and abundance that are already present in your life,” she writes in her 2022 book Manifest: 7 Steps to Living Your Best Life, “you will effortlessly attract more beauty, more love, and more abundance to you.”
The word beauty can mean many things—curls on a baby’s head, garden roses at their peak, an errant breeze on an unseasonably warm day. Within the context of VIOLET GREY, there’s the conventional definition, too, namely all the tools and techniques we use to feel our very best, inside and out. How we care for ourselves and shape our mindset for the day is arguably no small matter. It’s hardly a surprise, then, that Nafousi—podcast phenom, best-selling author, and mother of 6-year-old Wolfe—has launched her own contribution to the category: a fragrance brand called Alia that speaks to our multifaceted selves.
For Nafousi, who was born in Saudi Arabia to Iraqi parents and relocated to Oxford as a baby, settling into her own skin took time. In her preteen days, eager to fit in, she traded her birth name Rawan for the punchier Roxie. Scent threaded through her dual identities. “We always had bakhoor or oudh incense burning in the house,” she says, describing herself as hyperattuned to the surrounding scentscape. She remembers her father bringing back sleek black bottles of Paloma Picasso’s perfume for her mother. “My parents weren’t very romantic,” Nafousi recalls, “but this was the one gesture of affection that I saw would light up my mom.” As for herself, fragrance crushes were plentiful. “Chance by Chanel I was obsessed with. Britney Spears’s Fantasy. CK One because my older sister loved it, so I thought it would be cool if I liked it, too.”
Two decades later, Nafousi’s heritage has come full circle as a source of inspiration, with Alia (pronounced AH-lee-ya) translating to “rise up” in Arabic. The debut Alter Ego collection comprises a trio of scents, each with an accompanying set of affirmations. “Main Character is the cool girl: It’s clean, it’s effortless, it’s for the everyday you,” she says of the musky blend with notes of mimosa, angelica root, and orange blossom. (One of its mantras: “My authenticity is my superpower.”) Scene Stealer tips unabashedly sensual—an energy Nafousi sometimes calls in to counterbalance her work as a self-development coach. Notes of jasmine, patchouli, and saffron invite the wearer to think, “I radiate a frequency that speaks before I do.” Power House is a woody tobacco fragrance, reflecting the person who “knows their worth and can call the shots,” Nafousi says. The affirmation is declarative: “I don’t follow, I define.”
Choosing what scent you’ll wear is the kind of self-determination that’s within reach—a gesture at once low stakes and high reward, entwined with memory and mood. Here is an opportunity to set a ritual, mark a transition, steady the ship. Nafousi should know, as a multitasker whose alter egos are currently writing the manuscript for her fifth book, organizing her first-ever New York live show for September, preparing to launch the Manifest app, and planning Wolfe’s 7th birthday. This week, there’s one other thing that serves to prove her methodology: “I definitely manifested being in VIOLET GREY.”
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