Rising Stars: Meet Alyce Saad of Highland Park

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alyce Saad.

Hi Alyce, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I’m first-generation Lebanese-Palestinian American — raised in Southern California, but shaped by a heritage that never let me forget where I came from.
Growing up, home was never just one place. It was the fig trees in my aunt’s village in Byblos. The smell of tanning oils on warm skin by the beaches of Beirut. My grandfather — a scent I still can’t fully put into words, but one I would recognize anywhere, instantly. The olive trees and citrus groves my grandfather would reminisce about in Yafa, the ones that grew outside his old house — a place he carried with him always. The rose garden my mother kept, that always ended up smelling like her. The aromas rising from the stove — za’atar especially, olive oil, and whatever was slow-cooking underneath it all. The kind of smells that hit you out of nowhere and take you right back.
Scent was always how I stayed connected. To my family, to my roots, to places I couldn’t always get back to.

I started Calysto Attar in my garage — just me, a lot of raw materials, and an obsession with that fig tree. That specific tree, in that specific village. I needed to capture it somehow. And once I figured out how, I couldn’t stop. Every candle was basically me chasing a memory — a summer on the Mediterranean coast, a garden filled with tomato plants, an entire town filled with the scent Jasmine and Gardenia, a culture I wanted to carry forward, the way my family carried it before me — through scent, through sense, through memory.

Attar is the nectar — the very heart of something that’s left when you strip everything else away. The part that stays with you. To me it’s always been about that feeling.

That’s what I’m making here. Not just candles — archives. Little sensory records of the places and people and moments that have made me who I am and that I can share.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It wasn’t a smooth road. I had plenty of failed batches, scents that didn’t come out anything like I pictured, burns that just didn’t work. But that’s how I figured it out — and I wasn’t going to give up until it was right.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m really proud to be the first woman in my family to own a business. My parents fled a war and came here not knowing anyone- so my brother and I could have opportunities like this. My mom helped my dad build his business while he was still learning English. They were young and they just figured it out. I think about that a lot. I’ve tried to stay conscious of what that really means, and how privileged I am because of them.

By trade I’m a hairstylist — but every free minute I have goes straight to this. This has become my second full time job. I’m always trying to educate myself and push further with fragrance — I’ve taken classes at the Institute for Art of Olfaction, which has some truly amazing and extremely knowledgeable teachers. I’ve made perfumes along the way too, and those will definitely be released in the near future. But for now, more than anything, I want people to have a real experience with these candles.

Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
I guess that’s it! Thank you so much for this opportunity to tell my story! I truly don’t take it for granted.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Calystoattar.com
• Instagram: Calystoattar

Image Credits
Paulina Ruiz
For my portrait