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Some brands begin from an observation – a careful noticing of what is already present in everyday life, waiting to be seen. This is how IMA, a brand of handcrafted aroma oil blends, came to be. Its founder, Elissa Lee, a certified aromatherapist, started paying attention started paying attention to how a moment of pause can recalibrate the way we move through the day, and how aroma creates a sense of comfort for both body and mind.
I first met Elissa at a Wellness Pop-Up in 2024, where we were both presenting our products to create meaningful wellness moments for women. What stood out immediately was her approach to aromatherapy: creating blends designed to be safe for both children and pets, an approach shaped by her desire to create scent experiences that felt safe and comforting in shared spaces, inspired by her own pup, Chula.
As a pet mum myself, I was impressed by the thoughtfulness and consideration Elissa brings to the products she develops. She then walked me through several of her aroma blends, each with its own character and sensory world. One, in particular, “Everything Is Going to Be Alright” became my favorite for the way it conjured an almost physical sense of calm, like being invited to exhale fully and move forward with steadier feet.
For this feature, I reconnected with Elissa to explore how she is building a comfort-led approach to aromatherapy, and how sensory rituals gently support slowing us down and bringing us back to clarity.
The brand’s full name – Intimate Moments Aroma – positions intimacy at its centre. It’s a word that typically calls to mind romance or physical closeness, but Elissa uses it to mean something far broader.
“Intimate Moments’ isn’t about romance in the traditional sense,” she explains. “It’s about the small, chosen experiences that help you reconnect – with yourself, your loved ones, or even your surroundings through scent.”
For Elissa, intimate moments are an intentional relationship we build with the world around us and first of all with ourselves. Through aromatherapy, she invites people to reconnect with their senses and rediscover presence in a world defined by constant movement.
In practice, this might look like applying a roll-on oil before yoga, lighting a candle for a slow evening at home, or diffusing essential oils when people you care about come over.
“These moments might look ordinary, but they’re intentional. And scent has a quiet way of shaping how those moments feel.”
It is a perspective that reframes the everyday – not as something to be optimised or endured, but as a series of sensory experiences worth being present for.
| Photo courtesy of Elissa Lee
Before IMA existed, Elissa found herself caught up in the productivity rush. She downloaded app after app, sought out expert after expert, each one promising a better system than the last.
“I genuinely thought I just needed the ‘right’ system,” she admits. “When we want to grow or succeed, it’s natural to seek resources to improve ourselves. But there’s a tipping point where too many rules and guides just create more noise.”
The turning point came when she recognised that what she, and many women around her, actually needed, was not another productivity app or advice. Space – physical, emotional, and mental – to sit quietly and ask yourself questions like: “Why am I doing this? What do I actually want?“
That reflection influenced how Elissa personally approaches stillness and presence – values that later found expression in IMA.
“From there,” she says, “it becomes easier to filter the many good pieces of advice out there instead of being overwhelmed by them.”
In a world where women routinely carry layered responsibilities – professional, domestic, emotional – this shift from constant optimisation toward intentional stillness feels both timely and deeply human.
Elissa is thoughtful and passionate about the unique way scent communicates with us: through its ability to activate memory and emotion in a single breath.
“Scent works differently from other wellness practices because of how directly it connects to emotion and memory,” she explains. “It’s processed in the part of the brain linked to both, so it often reaches us before we’ve had time to think about it.”
Journaling, meditation, breathwork — these are all great conscious practices. You decide to engage with them. Scent is different. It can shift something in you almost before you realize it’s happened, creating an emotional response that bypasses deliberate thought.
Rather than positioning aromatherapy as a replacement for other practices, Elissa sees it as a layer that complements and deepens them. A familiar scent can transform a space, strengthen a ritual, or anchor a moment in the body or mind.
| Photo: Cole Huang, Supercolerolls
There is also a practical side to ritual that Elissa is keen to highlight — one rooted not in mysticism but in how the brain actually works.
“Our brains naturally prioritise experiences that carry emotional impact,” she explains. “When you repeatedly pair a certain scent or ritual with a feeling of calm or comfort, an association is formed. Over time, returning to that same scent signals that state again.”
The ritual becomes an anchor – and the scent, its most powerful trigger. When the mind races and attention fragments, a familiar aroma gently interrupts the noise, shifting us out of our heads and back into a feeling of calm. Not through force, but through the simple, repeated comfort of having been here before.
Small rituals repeated over time shape emotional memory. They offer a pathway back to ourselves when the pace of life pulls us away.
Attention, when given space, expands. The senses wake up. The small things begin to register – a bird’s movement, the texture of the fabric against your skin in ways they did not before. And these observations accumulate over time, reshaping how moments are perceived and, eventually, how we move through the day.
“Moments of pause don’t have to be dramatic,” Elissa reflects. “It could be taking the train without your phone, noticing how a myna behaves.”
When stillness becomes a regular ritual, something begins to shift gently, gradually, and in ways that are hard to describe until you notice them.
IMA’s philosophy reflects this gradual transformation – a belief that awareness grows through consistent, sensory engagement with everyday life.
Through conversations with her customers, Elissa has noticed a recurring theme. Many of the women who find IMA are searching for comfort and beneath that, something deeper: a longing to feel present rather than constantly pulled in every direction.
“We spend so much time in our heads thinking and planning, also carrying responsibilities, that it can become hard to fully express or even process what we’re feeling,” she says. “Sometimes something as simple as smelling a scent or burning a candle feels like a hug to your soul – a quiet reassurance that everything is going to be alright.”
That phrase “everything is going to be alright” sits at the very heart of what IMA creates. For Elissa, comfort is not an afterthought, it is the very intention behind every product she creates.
| Photo courtesy of Elissa Lee
With International Women’s Day approaching, Elissa offered a message she wished she could share with every woman:
“Remember to take small, quiet moments for yourself.“
They may seem insignificant easy to skip when the to-do list is long and other people’s needs feel more urgent. But these are often the moments where clarity returns. Where the noise settles. Where we remember what we are actually doing all of this for.
| Photo: Cole Huang, Supercolerolls
Considering introducing IMA into your space? You can find their products at these locations across Singapore:
Explore more about IMA and their comfort-led handcrafted aroma blends through their website and follow them on Instagram for the latest updates.
by Katerina, Founder of Katruss
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