About The Brand

20A is named after the house in Leith, Edinburgh, where Abi was born and raised. It was an inclusive and eccentric home, shared with lodgers from around the world as well as family. With a neighbouring Traditional Chinese Medicine centre and a house full of artists, chefs, musicians, and students, 20A was always alive with conversation, culture, and care. 

Though unconventional, growing up in such a richly diverse and sensory environment became a formative experience. It shaped Abi’s understanding of how sensory nourishment, space and atmosphere affect how we feel and taught her early on that being open, expressive, and present with others, especially across differences, is where true connection can happen. 

20A the brand is a continuation of that legacy: a space that honours the senses, welcomes diversity of experience, and invites people to feel deeply. Just as 20A the home was a gathering space of safety and connection, 20A Aromatherapy offers its own version of homecoming - rooted in nature, shaped by ritual, and expressed through scent.

Abi was inspired by her childhood kitchen table - a place of gathering, sharing, and sensory exploration - when she first began inviting friends and their friends to her first iterations of her aromatherapy workshops. The first workshop was held in the basement of a friend's antique shop in Notting Hill in 2018. Then came 2020, and the necessary collective shift to digital. Taking such a tactile, scent-led practice online was no small feat, but the pivot opened doors to wider audiences - from private circles to corporate clients - who became cheerleaders and supporters of the brand. 

Like the cycles of nature and the shifting seasons, 20A has grown, bloomed, shed, and begun again; many times. Its seeds were perhaps first planted in Abi’s childhood: from homemade potions for fairies in the forest, to hungover facials for flatmates some years later. From working in beauty and trying every product under the sun, to stripping things back to pure, natural, handmade formulas. Intuitive, instinctive aromatherapy blends were first enjoyed by friends and family - never written down, never made the same way twice. 

These early expressions were playful, intuitive, and deeply felt. They continue to shape the spirit of 20A today: a studio that works in rhythm with nature - embracing impermanence, honouring evolution, and celebrating the uniqueness of every creation. Every drop of essential oil is influenced by season, soil, origin, and energy, no two ever quite the same.

*Now, of course, we write our formulations down — digitally, physically, and several times!