Our Story.
Sonja & George. A love of fragrance, a little kitchen and a life by the sea.
Read our story
A little kitchen.
A big idea.
A life by the sea.
First, there was a love of fragrance.
Our love affair with fragrance began long before Zayya had a name.
We've always been those people who love a beautifully scented home. Potpourri in the living room, scented drawers and cupboards, diffusers in the bathrooms, candles in the bedrooms and incense burning in the garden while we spend a lazy afternoon by the pool. Fragrance has always been part of our lives. We just never imagined it would one day become our life's work.
It began with the ocean.
In 2013, we spent a week in Vilanculos, Mozambique, and something changed. We fell in love with the ocean, the warm air, the lush surroundings, the beautiful people and the wonderful stillness of it all. There was something about the rhythm of life there that stayed with us long after we returned home.
We knew we wanted more of that feeling.
Less rushing.
More living.
We found our place.
After years of searching, dreaming and planning, we found Leisure Bay on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast. It reminded us so much of what we had fallen in love with in Mozambique. The warm air, the sound of the ocean, the ebb and flow of the tides and a slower way of life.
In 2019, we finally made the move. We said goodbye to traffic, early mornings and hours spent commuting, and began a new chapter by the sea.
Was it easy? Not even slightly.
Would we do it again? Absolutely.
A little kitchen. A big idea.
Then came 2020, and the world stopped.
Like so many people, we suddenly found ourselves with time to think about what we really wanted to do with our lives. Somewhere between the uncertainty of lockdown and our lifelong love of fragrance, the idea for Zayya began to take shape.
Our kitchen became our little workshop. We spent hours making boxes from paper and craft materials, experimenting with perfumes, planning labels and imagining what our own fragrance house might look like.
For three months, we poured ourselves into the idea. And just a few months later, our first Zayya perfumes made their way into the world.
What started as a bold idea in our Leisure Bay kitchen had become something real.
Still making. Still dreaming.
Today, Zayya is still very much our little baby. We have our own small studio, where we continue to develop, blend and pour our creations by hand. Our love of perfume has grown into a fascination with home fragrance, bringing together the two things we've always enjoyed.
There is something deeply satisfying about the artisan nature of what we do. Being close to our creations, working with our hands and seeing an idea slowly come to life is a part of Zayya we never want to lose.
We're still learning, still experimenting and still dreaming about what comes next.
And every now and then, when the sea breeze finds its way into our studio, we're reminded of that beautiful week in Mozambique and the decision that changed our lives.
