Bella Hadid: ‘Home is within our own hearts’

Over the past two years, we’ve witnessed Bella Hadid make some major life changes. It’s not just that her hair is blonde now; there’s been an energy shift. In 2024, she announced that she was moving to Texas and stepping back from the modelling industry to focus on her health. It’s also the same year she launched Ôrəbella, an alcohol-free brand redefining fragrance as a skin-loving ritual. Since then, she has deeply immersed herself in the Western equestrian world, taken on selective modelling projects and continued to expand Ôrəbella’s alchemy-revealing product lineup. Today, Hadid introduced SOLARS, two new a sun-inspired duo of scents drawn from water and born from light. The new limited-edition scents join Ôrəbella’s Body & Hair Perfume Mists, which released earlier this year. 

On the phone with Hadid, she tells me that she keeps SOLARS in her purse. “I’ve sprayed my body and hair mist in the mornings, gone in the ocean and come back to the house by the time I’m about to get into the shower for dinner, and people are still giving me a hug before dinner to say bye; you can still smell it in my hair,” she says. It’s a perfectly intentional vision of the season that she’s hoping to manifest for all who spray and enjoy both Neroli’s Halo, a floral citrus scent, and Candied Sand, a sun-drenched musky with tropical sweetness. 

SOLARS hydrating, alcohol-free formula, infused with botanical waters, is designed to be sprayed and layered generously. As Hadid puts it, it’s like the “wash of wind” that goes over you at the beach, filled with different smells. Or the feeling of going out on a warm summer night and “immediately feeling at home”. It’s a feeling that Hadid has had to actively foster over years of travelling – but now she’s arrived, she says, at the home within herself. These two new scents, then, are an ode to her new life.

Ahead, we caught up with Hadid about present-moment nostalgia, feeling at home and SOLARS being her love letter for summer. 

You’ve previously spoken about Orebella scents being an ode to the people, feelings and emotions in your life. Who were you around, and what were you doing when coming up with SOLARS?

Bella Hadid: What’s really fun about this whole group of new scents is that they are of the same family, but these two are a special side-edition launch, and they all have really different meanings, especially over the past two years. I think what was so important about these two is that it feels like an ode to my new life, to new friends, and almost an ode to the future. We always talk about nostalgia within our company, but this feels like a present-moment nostalgia of feeling nostalgic in a moment and not knowing why, but knowing you’re in the right place at the right time. 

With the body and hair mists, which I love, it’s more water-based than an essential oil base. So you can spray it throughout the day, and it almost gives you a feeling of being in the present because you can constantly spray it and it never feels too overwhelming. These two fragrances are really about being in the moment and being present. It’s a present moment. It’s being able to enjoy yourself and your loved ones and be able to look up and embrace what’s around you instead of nostalgia at the past or looking into the future too much.

Are there any recent memories that inspired these?

Bella Hadid: I feel like the inspiration really comes within our brainstorms. I love a good juxtaposition when it comes to scents, and that’s why all of our scents have such interesting ingredients. Candied sand has this musky, coconutty amber sandalwood scent. So it has the highs and the lows, which I love. And I love that woody scent of the sandalwood, which really brings me back to the trees, and it brings me back to nature. It feels like almost a summer in a forest and really beyond the beach. I picture it as the beach, the sand, and it goes into this beautiful copious amount of trees and flowers and plants. And the coconut milk is obviously something that I love. And it reminds me of if you accidentally spill a pina colada on yourself after you get out of the ocean and there’s still this sticky dew on you, but still salty from the sand.

What about Neroli’s Halo?

Bella Hadid: The neroli is sweet, but the musks and the sea salt keep it really stabilised. I didn’t want them all to smell way too sweet or salty. But I like when they have different layers, and specifically these fragrances with these mists, with having the water percentage being so much higher. And I feel like the essential oils can really come through, and you really can’t spray and spray and spray and know that it’s never going to be too overwhelming, which I also love. 

How many times are you revisiting these scents throughout the day? 

Bella Hadid: Jasmine Blues is my girl now and is really one that mixes really well with and Salted Muse because I think if you want that a deep androgynous smell from the Salted Muse with a little bit of something sweeter, mixing the two and also having the more intense version of the essential oils and our moisturising formula first and then layering the other body and hair mist on top is a way to go that I think is really special unique. But for me, it’s a refresher almost, something that can give you a boost. You can put it on every 30 minutes; you can put it every couple of hours. I think it’s really up to the player.

I know that essential oils have become almost meditative for you. Can you walk me through your daily routine, and any affirmations or rituals you include?

Bella Hadid: In the mornings, it’s something my brother and I always say, but it’s really about reclaiming your own energy. For ten years now, especially when I was travelling a lot, I’d do my morning rituals, and it’s about covering myself in a golden blanket of love and protection and releasing any negative or positive energy that’s not mine and doesn’t serve me anymore. Me being in public spaces a lot, I’m very sensitive, and I love hugging people. I love connecting in that way, but I do feel like sometimes energies get connected. We all need to be very protective over our own body and our own energy fields. So, that’s the biggest thing I’ve learned: when I’m drinking my lemon water with honey and doing my whole skincare, then spraying my Ôrəbella, going to grab my tea, and just standing in the mirror and saying those words back to myself and releasing and then accepting my energy and bringing myself back to my own centre. That whole ritual in itself gives a lot more than you would expect.

How does scent help you ground yourself when you’re travelling?

Bella Hadid: I think my whole life I struggled with figuring out where my home was, especially being so young and moving away from home, which I’m lucky that my home was always my horses, my best friends, my mother and my family in California. But once I moved to New York at 17 and then immediately got into the swing of things and was on a plane every day, I never felt like I had a home. That’s something I speak about in therapy because it’s something that I struggle with a lot. But I’ve realised over the past few years that I don’t want to keep putting my happiness or home in a person or place. I want my happiness and home within myself. I do believe that home really should be within our own hearts, and then we can move with knowing we’re always safe with ourselves. 

That’s beautiful. So how do you get there?

Bella Hadid: I used to use a concoction of lemongrass, lavender, and bergamot. It was a scent that I would make years ago before I started Ôrəbella, and that was my safe place, my home. Now, these fragrances are like my little baby. Ôrəbella has turned into my home, I guess… now I’m going to cry. It feels like I have my second skin that keeps me safe.

And now with these new fragrances being your ‘love letter to summer’, how are you intentionally practising slowness and softness this season?

Bella Hadid: I really believe that the softer we are with ourselves, the softer the world around us starts to become. I tend to be very hard on myself, so when it comes to being able to flow through summer and be a soft princess girl, sometimes it gets hard to take the work mask off and go into being just a girl again. But I think it’s really important to be able to focus on hobbies and being able to go outside and paint. I love playing tennis and riding my horses and being able to go to rodeos and barrel race and horse show and do the things that I love to do with people that I love. Spending time with my brother and my dad and my sister and my mum, that’s what really keeps me feeling soft, keeps me feeling safe. 

What’s your hope for people enjoying SOLARS this season? 

Bella Hadid: It’s just about being soft and being able to have something with you always that makes you feel like you and makes you feel whimsical and happy. You’ve got a little magic touch in your purse or your bag at all times. And that’s what we want our SOLARS to feel like for everyone who tries them.