The Business Scents of Lunaroma’s Leyla Bringas

By Roberta Nubile

Step into the Lunaroma Aromatic Apothecary, and you will find yourself awash in scents that could calm even the most stressed among us. Then talk with Leyla Bringas, owner and founder of Lunaroma Inc., and you’ll learn that these aromatic oils offer much more than just a pleasurable, aesthetic experience.

“I first learned about the healing potential of essential oils through studying herbology to deal with a personal health issue,” recalls Bringas. “I didn’t find answers through doctors, and I felt the solution was in the natural world. I learned essential oils could not only de-stress people, but actively heal such ailments as muscular pain, chronic sinus infections, hormonal imbalances, body lice, and skin conditions – to name a few.”

Bringas began to make natural body care products for friends and family as gifts, but eventually expanded into a home-based business. She studied under aromatherapy mentors Wendy Dorsey and Jade Shutes, and gained certification from the Institute of Dynamic Aromatherapy in Seattle, WA (now called the East West School of Herbal and Aromatic Studies) in 1997. She launched Lunaroma the same year her daughter Alia was born.

“While Alia napped, I ran my business from [the] spare bedroom,” Bringas recalls. When Alia was three, Bringas enrolled in Mercy Connections Women’s Small Business Program. Prior to graduating from the program, the young entrepreneur located the future spot for her Burlington retail store. For Bringas, the exposure offered by its corner location at St. Paul and Howard streets compensated for the fact that it was off the beaten path: “I had a good feeling about it.” While she polished the business plan required to graduate, Bringas rented the space and with the help of friends and family, renovated it. The store opened in July 2003.

Bringas says the store’s location “allows more time to spend with clients and customers. We guide clients to custom blends, and when needed, have a longer discussion about lifestyle changes.”

Lunaroma is not a one-woman operation. Bringas speaks of the company as family-owned and operated, and though not all of the staff are “blood related, we treat each other like family.” Bringas’ retail crew includes Charles McGann as well as Lisa Eckert and Kori Gelinas, both certified aromatherapists. Matthew Brand updates the Web site, designs ads and prints the product labels, while Bringas’ brother, Edward, helps with graphic design. “It’s an absolute joy to come to work,” says Bringas. “We are like-minded in our goals for educating the public as to how to [attain] better health through essential oils and natural botanicals.

“We teach people how to use aromatherapy as a preventative medicine,” Bringas explains. “Not only does the use of natural aromatherapeutic body care products not add toxins to the body, but they up the body’s natural immune and defense mechanisms. All essential oils have anti-bacterial properties to varying degrees.”

Bringas describes why essential oils can be superior to synthetic antibiotics. “There are antibiotics everywhere now – in Tupperware, Band-Aids. [This overuse] lowers [our] resistance to certain bacterial strains. The chemical makeup of botanicals is different every time – even if it is grown from the same seed – bacterial strains can’t mutate and resist botanicals as they do with synthetics. An example is lice medication. Eventually [the medications] stop working as the lice mutate and become immune. We’ve had great success with botanical anti-lice blends.”

Bringas speaks to the benefits of natural over synthetic fragrances, and their role in chemical sensitivities. “Educating our client base and the public in general [entails] shifting [from] the use of synthetic petrochemically-based perfumes and body lotions, which are often the culprit in allergies. People don’t [generally] associate sensitivities, like headaches and rashes, to products they are using. Once people switch to natural-based products they notice a difference in how they feel.”

The danger of synthetic fragrances is a topic Bringas is passionate about. “Known carcinogens are not regulated in the perfume industry. For example, musk oil molecules are not filtered through municipal water systems. They have been found in mothers’ breast milk – from [them] drinking public water, not from using musk [themselves]. These molecules never go away. Synthetics are everywhere: [in] cleaning products, the soap in public bathrooms, lip balms, off-gassing of household products and toys – people are ingesting plastics all the time.”

She warns consumers to be aware of mass-produced items which tout the use of aromatherapy and essential oils. “Essential oils are made for the flavor and fragrance industry, and some do have aromatherapy value – but are not created equally. And, you have no way of knowing how long they have sat on the store’s shelf, which diminishes the health value.” The answer, Bringas says, is “to know who’s making the products for you.

“At Lunaroma we always choose oils obtained by organically-grown or ethically wild-crafted sources when available. Everything is hand made, nothing is synthetic. We call ourselves a ‘bakery for body care’. We’re intimately involved with every step of production. We make things in small batches with only natural preservatives. The only animal products we use are beeswax and honey, harvested locally from the Champlain Valley Apiaries. Some of our herbal infusions are made for us by local herbalist Heather Mallory at Green Seed Herbals, out of Hyde Park.”

Another aspect of Lunaroma’s business is wholesale accounts with Vermont and out-of-state spas. Bringas cites the Stoweflake Mountain Resort and Spa as her first and oldest big account. The Stoweflake’s spa coordinator at the time discovered Lunaroma’s products at the Stowe Farmers Market.

Laura Mara, the Stoweflake's current spa treatment manager, says: “I love Lunaroma products and working with them. Not only do they calm the nerves, but they detoxify the body, and effectively treat dry skin.

“Two of our signature treatments are the Vermont Maple Sugar Body Polish, and the Green Mountain Coffee Body Treatment,” Mara continues. “I appreciate that Lunaroma is locally made, and that they partner with other local companies. They are also open to creating new products. If I have idea – say, I love lime this week, I will ask them, ‘what does lime blend well with?’ They then bend over backwards to invent a new product.”

Bringas recognizes that essential oils aren’t a cure-all, and she supports an integrative approach to medicine. “We’re not afraid to tell people when we can’t help them,” she says. “We need synthetic meds in the extreme, like narcotics for accidents and pain. But when aromatherapy is incorporated into a healthy lifestyle it can prevent illness, and address some acute situations, like burns. Yes, please go to an allopathic doctor when you need it, but you don’t need a hammer to kill an ant! I think that every ailment can be cured. I’m a true believer that our bodies want to be balanced. The hard part? To find the correct lifestyle and therapeutic recipe.

“We don’t pretend we know everything. We refer to other practitioners when we need to,” Bringas says, adding, “The world of plants is very humbling.”

For more information visit www.lunaroma.com, or find them on Facebook.

Roberta Nubile is a freelance writer out of Shelburne.