raw material
Social impact
sustainability
GAUA was born and is part of an educational project of ethnobotany and sensory experiences.
GAUA is not just a person, Gaua are the people who support the project, and all the distillers, farmers, artisans and artists who provide us with the best material made by their hands.
>
OUR NOSE
Eli is the one who dedicates herself to smelling the environment and composing based on this, but apart from her, there are many people involved in the projects she carries out, specifically her collaborators, her colleagues in the trade with whom she shares, her old and new teachers and all the other people who leave their grain of sand.
>
OUR PLANTS
Eli harvests plants from the area where she lives, and has been doing so for more than ten years, in 2022 he begins to plant varieties of aromatic bulbs and varieties in rescue of old aromatics such as rose bushes on family land.
She also has direct contact with the people who distill the wild plants that you find in the main notes of perfumes, throughout the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America.
THE PLANTS OF OUR HAND COME FROM WILD AREAS OF OUR SURROUNDINGS
AND A LAND CLOSE TO OUR WORKSHOP
>
OUR AROMATIC NOTES
Our main distillers are dedicated to protecting the environment, collect wild logging, and some are biodynamic farmers.
Many of them are experts in the use of these extracts and work in the indigenous communities of their territory or maintaining sustainable agroecological traditions protecting the legacy. They are distilled in steel or copper stills. I usually talk about them and recommend them on my social networks and more in my future blogs and newsletter.
>
OUR OILS
From the Rioja Alavesa area, we obtain the first cold-pressed base oil, an Arroniz green olive, a rescue variety from the area. Many doubt that a perfume can be made with such a base, but in classic treatises by Theophrastro and Dioscorides, this oil is already mentioned as the most valued in these areas for making perfumes and ointments.
It is all a matter of art, practice and science.
OUR OIL COMES FROM A RESCUE VARIETY IN THE AREA
>
OUR GRAPE
We are inspired by the main economic and social activity of the area, the grape, that is why we use grape extracts, oil from its seeds and the plants that surround this valley of wine. A part of the wine that we use for the incense is from the old family winery that was located in the GAUA workshop.
OUR GRAPE, ALCOHOL, SEED OIL COMES FROM ALL RIOJA ALAVESA AND LA RIOJA AND FROM AN OLD WINE FROM THE OLD FAMILY WINERY
>
OUR HONEY AND BEESWAX
The beekeepers in the area have their own self-managed projects. They work without forcing anything, this art should not be demonized when it is done like this. The bees that are in these territories and in the mountains are the great creators of these honeys, and they help them with their rhythms. Some beekeepers are biodynamic.
HONEY COMES FROM THE VILLAGE OF SAMANIEGO AND THE BEESWAX OF ELVILLAR and NAVARIDAS
>
CRAFT
Everything we produce is made by hand, to form the incense in the sales quantities, we must use a mold.
The incense molds are also made by hand, you can see the work in the photo. made by family artisan hands step by step.
>
OUR IMAGE
The web and its designs, the newsletter and the social networks are created and run by Eli.
The illustrations of the postcards that arrive with the products are exclusive to GAUA. The illustrator is a young Panamanian woman well known for her dedication to the traditional and native culture of her land, and to the environment.
>
OUR PACKAGING
The glass containers are made of high-quality amber glass with European regulations.
The ceramic of some products is totally designed exclusively for GAUA. The potters who make the most special containers are women who have been working with their hands for many years, using the best material and the best porcelain finishes and the brand's colors.