Wellness is in the air
“We experience everything through our senses—touch, taste, smell, seeing and hearing—and through these we truly come to know our environment.”
True wellness is a synergy of mind, body, and spirit. As part of our latest evolution, we explored how to deepen and strengthen our offering with refreshed ideas and new product lines. Inspired by the healing powers of aromatherapy, we partnered with essential oil expert Eloï Zayat to bring you a collection of single oils, roll-on blends, diffuser oils, and Aryevedic-focused wellness products.
Our founder, Andrea, sat down with Eloï to discuss this powerful partnership and the inspiration behind the very intentional work we’re doing together for you—our community.
Andrea: I have Eloï Zayat here with me, the wonderful CEO of Zayat Aromas. If you can just tell us a little bit about your business and the beautiful company that you are building with your family.
Eloi: I took over Zayat Aroma from my dad about 10 years ago. Zayat means “the one who makes the oil” in Arabic. Because our ancestors were making olive oil.
My father immigrated to Canada in 1976 and then he moved to Bromont in like 1985 and founded his own company, Alchemist Oils. I reincorporated a new company to explore different markets and do different things and we have been exporting natural essential oils all around the world since.
Most of them are organic and go to Europe, the USA, Australia, Africa, and India—sometimes we even end up re-shipping oil that comes from the same country. We pride ourselves for having the best essential oils and to have the best varieties and to be very transparent about every source.
Our mission is also to create partnerships with dynamic companies such as b, halfmoon. So the idea is to really enhance the power of the oil through great partnerships and to make everybody benefit from all the key components of the essential oils and to really blend in with the right intention for the market and the uses that we really want.
Andrea: Well, as you know we're so honored and thrilled and excited to have partnered with you as we launch into this new and exciting product category, which is aromatherapy. So we have created a collab lineup of beautiful oils.
But at the core of everything is that we really want to ensure that our collaborations are rooted in shared values and meaning. And when you talk about extracting and giving back to the earth, that's a big part of our brand manifesto. And I want to just read our manifesto out to you Eloï and just hear from you what resonates with that to reinforce the beautiful alignment that we have with this collaboration.
Nature is truth. It grounds, inspires and guides us with each day the rising and setting sun and moon bring new freedom, growth and light. Let nature inspire you to live your truth.
Does it speak to you? Does it reinforce the partnership for you? What are your thoughts?
Eloi: Definitely, it's really meaningful and really truthful yet simple. All the answers are in nature.
Andrea: Anything with nature which is the root of our brand and our offerings.
As you know, b, halfmoon is very much rooted in a wellness lifestyle. What do you consider part of your wellness routine in your day-to-day life?
Eloi: More and more, it’s having the discipline of meditation. And yesterday was actually my mom's birthday and her cousin's been living in India for 25 years. And there were a lot of people from Maharishi Center—deep consciousness stuff. They founded a center in the mountain of Shefford, that's really close to Bromont.
And, so I spent the whole weekend just being outside really connecting, walking barefoot, in the water, but as well in the forest or on your lawn or around.
I try to take at least 20 minutes just to disconnect from everything and just meditate and feel the wind. You have to focus on the essential. And the essential is, first of all—yourself. To be strong for yourself and to be in good health and spirit.
Andrea: Amazing. So part of our manifesto is about finding freedom, growth, and light in the day-to-day. And how every day is a new opportunity. Finding light is really important. How do you play? How do you laugh? Because that's such an important part of life and I feel like unfortunately in today's society sometimes people lose sight of that for a long period of time. But I feel like you're the type of person who helps people find light. Even when we connect, you're always smiling and doing something fun. What's your thought on finding the light in everyday life and do you have any advice?
Eloi: Light emerges from within and as soon as you turn on a light a shadow disappears. So, as soon as you have a fear you can really look at it head on and usually it dissipates. Because if you cannot do anything to change it, then why would you worry?
Light is great when it's being shared, you know. The sun doesn't belong to anybody. It really shines for everybody.
It can even be just being nice and smiling at random strangers. It's just infinite the amount of light that can be reprojected through a smile.
Andrea: I wanted to talk to you about Ayurveda, which is an element of our inspiration behind how we're evolving as a brand. And we've put a lot of Ayurvedic focus into some of the oils that you've developed with us.
Basically, it’s the science of light and an ancient Indian healing system that we've incorporated into some of our newer product categories.
We really tried to simplify it and break it down in some of the oils we created with you, which I think is such a great entry point and learning point for a lot of people. And I think there's going to be a lot of intrigue and hopefully we can continue to provide knowledge on that front.
But basically we created an oil for each of the doshas. Can you share a little bit around that?
Eloi: So what I like is that they are topical and diffusing. All three Doshas come in two versions. So you have the roll on. Or you have the version that you put in the diffusers. I have some general knowledge in Ayurveda to be able to create and to blend with carrier oils that fit best with the Dosha you're trying to reduce.
For example with Pitta, we use more coconut oil than in the other ones. Then for Vata we use cocoa, jojoba, sunflower, and arnica.
Andrea: Basically, if my Vata is feeling too strong, that's when I would use the Vata oil.
Eloi: Exactly. If you feel you're too much in the air, and you want everybody to be grounded to a certain decision, you can diffuse this.
Andrea: They're so beautiful. Just the fragrance, the sensory elevation.
Eloi: And then you have all the essential oils—orange, bergamot, red pine, camphor, Spanish marjoram, sage, ginger, and vetiver. Because ginger is also really good to increase your Pitta. So by default it will reduce your Vata. That's why I put ginger in there. And then the vetiver, which is a root that can be up to 9 meters long under the earth in Sri Lanka.
Andrea: What are your favorite oils in the assortment that we've created together? Which ones are your personal favorites that jump out the most?
Eloi: Well, I love all essential oils. I really respect all the work that nature has had to put into place and their infinite complexity.
To me it’s more about what is your purpose? What do you need? What cost do you need? And we will get it done, you know? So it's really my philosophy. It's like a natural pharmacy.
Andrea: It’s clear, you’ve created a mindful business with so much integrity. That your business is truly rooted in nature and so much purpose and mindfulness. We are truly honored to partner with you on this new category for our business. Thank you.
“Oils can bring about emotional healing and increase spiritual awareness in ways we can't fully understand.”
We hope that we awakened your curiosity to explore and embrace all your senses. We invite you to discover the science behind the powerful all natural essential oils we have curated with the expertise of Eloï Zayat to support your wellness journey.
Learn more about our aromatherapy collection here
