How does it happen that a fourteen-year-old becomes interested in aromatherapy? And not just the aesthetic side of aromatherapy — the kind that teaches how to scent your body, spaces, and cosmetics with essential oils — but the real, therapeutic (i.e. health-promoting) aromatherapy, which in many cases can even replace chemical medications.

There are no coincidences. So it was no accident that Giedrė started experiencing back pain during her teenage years, and her parents sent her to a massage therapist named Janina. But Janina wasn’t just any massage therapist — she was a true expert in holistic health! Manual therapy, acupressure, herbs, teas, tinctures, and of course, aromatherapy and essential oils.

It was during their very first session that Janina showed Giedrė a wooden box filled with tiny bottles.

“Orange — for good mood, it’s a natural antidepressant. My teacher says it’s like liquid sunshine in a bottle. Lavender — the queen of aromatherapy, helps you relax, suits everyone, you need it too. Rosemary — oh, this one’s strong, you won’t sleep if you use it at night, it energizes like coffee. Peppermint — it’s cooling and great for the respiratory system. Wintergreen — oh, you should definitely choose this one, it’ll help with your inflamed back. Methyl salicylate is a fantastic analgesic…” Janina explained each bottle while spreading a clean sheet on the massage table.

“Hey, did you lose the gift of speech, child?” Janina asked, waving her hands in front of Giedrė’s face. “Did you hear what I asked? Which six essential oils would you like me to add to your massage blend? Don’t overthink it — choose intuitively, and I’ll figure out how many drops of each to add.”

Janina’s cheerful voice brought Giedrė back from the fragrant cosmos she had drifted into, touching and smelling one little bottle after another. Each one, she felt, held a separate world, a unique energy, a story of its own. The scents were so different, each with its own character and force. Breathing in one aroma after another, Giedrė had only one thought:

“This is mine. Completely mine. This is so me. I could spend the rest of my life surrounded by these little bottles, sniffing them from morning till night and mixing up something magical.”

“I also want to learn about the effects of each oil and how to calculate the right amounts to help people heal,” Giedrė suddenly blurted out, turning to Janina. “Where did you study, Janina? You mentioned a teacher who said orange oil is like bottled sunshine.”

“Ohhh yes, that’s Jūratė Kukenienė — I learned all these spells from her,” Janina replied. “She doesn’t advertise much, but those who need her, find her. You know, child, aromatherapy is still a very new thing in Lithuania, but I believe it will soon become popular — it really helps people. I just don’t know if they’ll let someone as young as you into the courses. Mostly it’s doctors, wellness professionals, people like that. And they don’t just talk about bottled sunshine — you’ll have to learn about methyl salicylate, ketones, aldehydes too. These oils can do a lot of good, but they can also do harm if misused… It’s serious stuff, not child’s play. But hey, you’re in eighth grade already, right? That means you’ll be starting chemistry soon at school?”

That evening and this encounter became a defining moment in Giedrė’s career. From that day on, she knew exactly what she wanted to do with her life.

Eighteen-year-old Giedrė already had two years of work experience and — here comes the best part of being a teenager — her own money. So, during the winter holidays, she decided to fly alone to Egypt to relax by the sea. Yes, you read that right. Alone.

And since we already know that there are no coincidences, another “non-coincidence” happened in Egypt. That’s where Giedrė met Remigijus — and the two of them took off into the cosmos of love.

I know you’re curious about all the juicy details, but let’s not forget that this is the “About Us” section of a cosmetics company website.

So let’s jump ahead to the year 2010, when, just before her twentieth birthday, Giedrė married the love of her life, Remigijus. They chose a magical mirror date — 10.01 — and decided to spend the rest of their lives creating miracles together.

The first miracle came very quickly.

He looked at the world with bright blue eyes, smelled like milk — and very soon, like lavender too, since he didn’t let Giedrė and Remigijus sleep at night. His name was Arvydas, and his birth became another key turning point in this story.

At twenty, already a mother — and, it turns out, a bit of a perfectionist — Giedrė wanted only the very best for her baby. And although no one around her doubted for a moment that she would be a great mom (after all, she had been living like a grown-up for years and had no shortage of responsibility), Giedrė wanted to prove to herself — and the world — that it was possible to raise children differently.

What did that mean to her?

She quickly taught her firstborn to sleep on a schedule (so she’d still have time for massages and cream-making), practiced diaper-free parenting (known as elimination communication), gave him daily massages and exercises, and took him outside every single day — unless he was sick. And if he did get sick — she almost never gave him conventional medicine.

She treated him with her essential oils, sprays, balms, and herbal teas.

Yes, you guessed it: it was for Arvydas that Giedrė created aromáma’s bestsellers — “Baubukas” (when he had his first cold), “Tooth Fairy” (when the first teeth came in), and the germ-fighting spray that was once called “Shoo, Sickness!”, now known as “Spray Against Germs.”

Another pivotal moment in this story came when Giedrė, almost finished with her nursing studies at the university, decided to share her knowledge and experience on social media. She posted her now-iconic article on Facebook:

“How to Treat a Runny Nose Properly So It Ends as Soon as It Starts?”

— which, as we’d now say, went viral.

In the article, she harshly criticized the frequent rinsing of the nose with seawater, recommended humidifying indoor air, diffusing essential oils like tea tree, eucalyptus, pine, and rosewood at home, and applying a low-concentration blend of almond oil and tea tree essential oil to the nose — complete with the recipe.

“Make it yourself or I can make it for you. Contact me at 8670......,” Giedrė wrote.

Thousands of likes, comments, and shares followed.

It was peak “Baubukas” hour.

And it was the longest 15 hours of Giedrė’s life, as her phone rang nonstop — everyone wanted “Baubukas” right now. She barely had time to write down phone orders, let alone respond to the hundreds of social media messages from customers.

“I’ll reply tomorrow when the call flood slows down,” Giedrė thought while putting Arvydas to sleep that night.

But at 11:30 PM, the phone rang again. On the other end, a tired mother desperately explained that her baby couldn’t nurse due to a stubborn cold and that she needed “Baubukas” immediately. Giedrė calmly gave advice and promised to send a priority shipment first thing in the morning.

She also decided it was time to remove her phone number from that Facebook post — otherwise, the calls might never stop. She removed it, but the calls didn’t stop. Not that night, not that week, not even a month later.

Luckily, Giedrė quickly realized she couldn’t keep up with the demand alone.

Her younger brother’s classmate came to help pack orders, and a customer from Šiauliai — who had called for “Baubukas” just days earlier — volunteered to help with messages and order administration after Giedrė vented to her about being overwhelmed.

That’s how the business took off and the team began to form.

But Giedrė didn’t let anyone near the production itself.

She continued to patiently count fragrant drops from 4 AM each day.

“Is it hard for you to start your day at 4 AM? I’m already having lunch by then,” joked 25-year-old Giedrė at the time.

Remigijus, Giedrė’s husband, who at the time worked (or rather lived) in television, watched the whole phenomenon unfold and would ask her:

“How can I help you?”

“You’ve got your own work, I don’t want to burden you. I’ll manage somehow. Just bring me more bottles from Vilnius when you go for filming,” Giedrė would say.

Then came:

“I think we need to move the bottles, raw materials, and packaging out of the house.”

“Okay, I’ll find a suitable space,” replied Remigijus.

Later:

“People in Kaunas want to buy my oils in person. I think we need a store.”

“Good news — the space next to our current one is bigger. It can fit both the store and the storage area,” said Remigijus, always quick to respond.

Even later:

“Love, I can’t keep up with production anymore. Demand is so high, it’s no longer safe or professional to make everything at home and handwrite the labels. I need someone else to handle manufacturing, at least while I finish my degree — I still have to write my bachelor’s thesis.”

“Okay, don’t stress. I’ll find a solution. We won’t stop — everything will be fine.”

Then came:

“I stopped by the LSMU pharmacy on my way to see my thesis advisor, to ask if they could produce “Baubukas“ in batches.”

“Great idea! What did they say?”

“They said they don’t bother with ‘small stuff’ and that they’re not interested in little start-ups from young ‘entrepreneurs.’ But when I told them I’d handmade and sold 8,000 units of ‘Baubukas’ in 9 months, their tone changed — and they agreed!”

Nine months later:

“Dear Giedrė, as much as we enjoy working with you and producing your products, we’ve noticed that we’re struggling to keep up with our own production. For four days a week, our pharmacy is essentially working only for you, and we’d like to keep the fifth day for our own work. So please either reduce your orders or start your own manufacturing.”

“Reduce production? Absolutely not,” said Remigijus calmly over dinner.

“I’ll take fewer filming gigs for a while, research cosmetic lab requirements and investments, and we’ll build one ourselves. You’ll see.”

Of course, for a while they did have to slow down production. They also had to stop advertising, because even the organic growth — word of mouth and referrals — was more than they could handle in a single day.

They had to stop advertising for another reason too:

pharmaceutical companies were not happy with Giedrė or her “Baubukas.”

Complaints from “competitors,” letters from government institutions, and demands to tone down her “naturalism” — accusing her of “quackery” and saying she was “too young to be giving health advice” — became a daily routine.

It was incredibly stressful for Giedrė.

Just as stressful was the fact that, for nearly a year, Giedrė and Remigijus had been trying to welcome their second miracle — and it just wasn’t happening.

“Low progesterone is common in overworked, overtired, and constantly stressed women. If you keep pushing like a workhorse, you won’t conceive. Your body doesn’t have the energy to carry a baby. Nature is smart,” the doctor said after flipping through her file.

“Little one, come to us. Look, I’ve made a massage oil for you with lavender and chamomile. I’ll rock you every evening on a soft “Dream Cloud.“ I’ll mist your crib with ‘Uncle Sleep’ spray, so you’ll be visited by colorful dreams... Come — our home is warm, gentle, and full of love. Not only Mom and Dad are waiting for you — but also your big brother. It’ll be fun for you both to grow up among all these scents and colorful bottles,” Giedrė whispered during her 4 AM meditation, bent over her workbench, dropping oils into bottles with one hand while writing new product formulas and calculating concentrations with the other.

But the baby wasn’t in a rush — no matter how many fragrant promises Giedrė made.

Not only were “Dream Cloud” and “Uncle Sleep” born during that time of hope, but also “Calm Belly,” “Tiny Tush,” and even what Giedrė calls her life’s masterpiece:

“Sweet Dreams” essential oil blend.

“All these fragrant miracles are still bought with almost no advertising — because customers can genuinely feel all the love and hope I poured into them,” Giedrė told a journalist a few years later.

One day, while driving to a children's product fair in Latvia, Giedrė turned to her husband and said:

“You know what, love, I can’t do this anymore. I hate all the invoices, reports, paperwork, folders, hiring, firing, health and safety requirements, and all those other bureaucratic nightmares. When I focus on those things, what really matters to me suffers. Either come help me — or I’m locking the store doors, and we’re done with this story.”

“I’m coming to help you — of course, without a doubt,” replied Remigijus, handing Giedrė an invaluable gift.

“You’re seriously dropping your well-paid and successful TV career to go make creams with your wife?!” TV colleagues laughed, tapping their temples.

“Interesting choice, but hey, good luck to you with all those little scents and “Baubukas.“ We’ll miss you.”

And then — synergy happened.

A chemical reaction.

Just like the one between Giedrė and Janina’s bottles years ago.

Just like the one between Giedrė and Remigijus.

Just like the one between almond and tea tree oils that birthed “Baubukas.”

Now, it was a synergy between films and scents.

aromáma suddenly became highly visible and widely known.

Video clips, storytelling, behind-the-scenes footage, professional photos, reports from supplier farms, livestreams straight from the lab — Remigijus didn’t just take over the business side of things; he brought in fresh, bold, unconventional ideas into the brand’s marketing.

“Trade shows abroad?” – Let’s go!

“Selling “Baubukas” in other countries?” – We can!

“Need a bigger warehouse?” – I’ll find one!

“Lab too small?” – Let’s build a factory!

To him, everything was possible.

Nothing could stop the two of them.

She created, flying through her fragrant cosmos — and he made sure everything got done right here, on planet Earth.

“What you see and know today as aromáma is a phenomenon created from love, hope, and a desire to serve others through our knowledge and discoveries. Today, our goal is to become a natural 'pharmacy' for the whole family — even if our ‘medicines’ aren’t exactly traditional.

Our mission is to be your first choice when it comes to caring for your well-being and beauty, as well as addressing everyday health concerns. aromáma products are, first and foremost, created to solve everyday problems. Of course, there are also products meant purely for enjoyment — but at the heart of every product I’ve ever created has been the intention to address the many issues people contact aromáma about every single day — via letters, phone calls, or in-person at our stores.

Everything we use in our daily lives, everything we first test on ourselves and our boys, eventually finds its place on aromáma’s store shelves. We are experts in aromatherapy, and the majority of our product range consists of pure essential oils, hydrosols, and aromatherapeutic blends created to solve specific problems. But we also collaborate with other professionals in their respective fields to help expand the aromáma assortment with food supplements, herbal teas, and more.

Our greatest value and goal is simple: effective products.

As we celebrate the 14th year of “Baubukas,” we know full well that it is the quality and effectiveness of our products that keeps customers loving and choosing us.

We feel a huge responsibility to never lower our quality standards — especially for those who return to us year after year. We work directly with our raw material suppliers, test our products in independent laboratories, continually strengthen our team’s expertise, and manufacture aromáma products in what is likely the newest and most advanced GMP-certified cosmetics lab in Lithuania.

We continue creating products with love and inspiration.

There’s an endless sense of meaning in what we do — especially during Christmas, when kids who grew up with “Baubukas” and “Tooth Fairy” (now teenagers!) walk into our stores to buy fragrant aromáma gifts for their parents.

It’s moments like those when we truly understand that our slogan,

“aromáma – part of everyday life,”

isn’t just a slogan — it reflects real life.

Both ours, and yours.

Thank you for trusting us and the products we create.

With love, and fragrant, inspiring wishes,

Giedrė, Remigijus, Arvydas, and Tautvydas