Meet Aleksandra Neil | mother, artist, teacher, author

We had the good fortune of connecting with Aleksandra Neil and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Aleksandra, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
Hi Chris, thank you for the invitation, and for the wonderful space you are holding for us all with VoyageLA family, creating a community in a melting pot of LA. Precious, and very much appreciated.

Gitane Oils really began with my daughter.

I grew up with a grandmother who was a natural healer, and as a child I spent hours with her in forests and meadows gathering herbs and plants. She taught me to respect nature and to understand that plants carry powerful medicine. Later in life I moved to New Zealand and spent about ten years working as an international actress, traveling the world and starring in lead roles.

But everything shifted when I moved to Los Angeles and gave birth to my daughter, who was born with Down’s Syndrome. In that moment my priorities became very clear. I stepped away from acting career to focus fully on helping my baby thrive.

I’m a yogi, and wanted to give her the gentlest transition into world possible, so I gave birth to her at home in water, surrounded by chanting, prayer, nature, and family. As she grew, I found myself reconnecting with the same knowledge I learned from my grandmother, the more she grew, the more I remembered. I began creating natural oils and botanical blends to support her digestion, calm her body, and help her sleep.

The first oil I made was actually for pregnant mothers to nourish the skin and prevent stretch marks. My friends started asking for it, and when none of them developed stretch marks, word began to spread. Soon I was also making oils for babies and mothers and sharing them with friends and their families.

Then a beautiful opportunity came from our local community. A friend who owns Delicious Pizza in mid-city Los Angeles invited me to exhibit my oils at their first gallery show. At that point I had no brand, no logo, no labels, and only ten days to create everything.

I went to an art store, bought Japanese rice paper, ink, and calligraphy brushes, and created the first Gitane Oils label by hand. I drew the alchemical symbol for gold — a circle with a dot in the center — representing transformation and the power of Light. Beneath it I wrote “Gitane Oils.” Gitane is my daughter’s name. That night the brand was born.

Not long after, I reached out to Erewhon, and met with their beauty manager, we connected, and Gitane Oils was invited into their stores when there were only three locations.

Looking back, I never set out to build a company. It began as a mother trying to care for her child, guided by the wisdom of nature and the lineage of women before me. The business simply grew from that love.

What should our readers know about your business?
Gitane Oils grew very organically. It began simply as a mother’s desire to care for her child, creating natural, organic, botanical oils for my daughter’s wellbeing and for friends and their families. What I noticed was that people responded not only to the results, but also to the intention behind the formulas. Word began spreading within our community, and what started in my kitchen slowly began finding its way into more homes, and eventually stores and online.

The pivotal moment came when a friend invited me to exhibit the oils at a small gallery event in Los Angeles. At the time I had no labels, no brand, and no experience in building a business. With only ten days to prepare, I created the first Gitane Oils identity by hand using Japanese rice paper, ink, and calligraphy brushes. That evening was the first time the oils existed publicly as a brand.

Soon after, as I mentioned, Erewhon welcomed me into their stores when there were only a few locations. That support helped the brand grow from a very personal creation into something that could reach a wider community.

What sets Gitane Oils apart is the philosophy behind it. The products are not created simply as skincare or fragrance for profit, transactional objects. Although, nothing wrong with that. They are created as small rituals of presence. Purity and integrity are my guiding principles. I travel to the Dalmatian islands of my native Croatia, and also work with John Steele, the aromatherapy guru, to be able to source highest potency, purest aromatherapy oils, and I travel to Japan — especially Kyoto — where the quiet beauty of Zen culture inspired the Kyoto Air collection. I believe ingredients should come from their place of origin and be bottled in their highest potency and vitality.

Building the business was certainly not easy. Like many small founders, I had to learn everything along the way — formulation, packaging, branding, production, and even accounting, and distribution — often through trial, patience, errors, and persistence. When the pandemic hit us globally, the company became almost solemnly an online business, except for couple of renowned Holistic Doctors that still carry Gitane Oils, and recommend them to their patients. But the greatest lesson has been to stay true to the original intention. When something is created with sincerity and care, the truth behind it, people feel it, they respond to it. It moves us in different ways.

What I am most proud of is that Gitane Oils has remained faithful to that original spirit. It began as an act of love and healing, and my hope is that whenever someone encounters the oils — they experience a small moment of stillness. Like a breath of fresh air. Perhaps like walking through a bamboo forest, or watching a maple leaf fall in autumn to the ground. A gentle reminder to return to presence, wonder, and gratitude for simply being alive.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’d visit WeHo for breakfast, or Zinc Cafe downtown, walk around the Silver Lake Reservoir/Echo Park for fun and culture, visit Santa Barbara’s, Monarch Beach in Montecito, Ojai on the way for awesome views, and a bite, spend some time at the Griffiths Observatory at the sunset, possibly hike to it if my friends are up for it… Visit Academy Museum, or the Brewery area Downtown, and especially Little Tokyo, Sushi Gen for sushi dinner, and some culture. If time still permits, Lake Shrine, if they are spiritually oriented, The Sacred Spaces Store in Summerland, and Point Doom walk around the cliffs, and the best sunset views.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
When I look at my story, I realize it was never something I built alone. It’s the wisdom of my grandmother and the lineage, the nurturing nature of love, the intuitive guidance, and grace that came through motherhood, my two incredible daughters who continue to be my greatest teachers, in many ways, the brand exists because they exists. The friends who believed in me from the beginning, who built my websites, carried heavy boxes, and still continue placing big orders to this day, my yoga and meditation students and the community, and especially my spiritual teachers that helped keep me sane through though times, and gave me a teaching/gathering/learning outlet which kept reflecting my path’s purpose back to me, over and over again…And finally I would give a heartfelt shoutout to the Los Angeles community that surrounded me in the early days. Friends who trusted the oils, mothers who shared them with their families, and a small group of people who invited me to exhibit my creations at a local galleries when I didn’t even have a label yet.
That collective encouragement helped me realize that something I had created out of love could also be shared with a wider community.

Website: https://Gitaneoils.com

Instagram: @gitaneoils

Image Credits
Self