Introducing dancer, choreographer, breath coach and entrepreneur Aicha Mckenzie to Vyrao. Aicha is a big believer in living a high vibration life, and like us at Vyrao, works with fragrance to lift and shift both her mood, and that of her clients in her breath work classes. Here, Aicha tells us how she is channelling courage and creativity with our fragrance Witchy Woo this summer, and explains the life-changing benefits of breath work.  

Aicha Mckenzie Self Portrait

MR: How are you today Aicha? 
AM: I’ve switched up my morning routine today, and hit the gym. I’m choreographing the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham at the end of July 2022, so I’m like ‘you’d better train girl’. 

MR: Tell us a bit about where you are from, and where and how you grew up?
AM: I’m from South London, Vauxhall, went to school in Putney, but my mum is Jamaican, so it was Jamaica and London vibes for me growing up. I was very bendy, and got into gymnastics. By the time I was ten, I was on the Junior British team and it became my life.

MR: What has been your journey through dance and fitness to become founder of AMCK? 
AM: I danced for Take That, The Backstreet Boys, Ricky Martin, and choreographed for Kanye and Katy Perry. After that I moved more into doing fashion shows, and then launched a model agency AMCK, for men of colour. We wanted to redress the balance out there, show male diversity, show how it really is, and how it should be, and we had great success.

MR: You chose to go into wellbeing space, and work with breath – why? 
AM: In the fashion world I was in, everyone was tired, broken, stressed. I asked “what if I could officially help people here? What if I could create a space for people to just take a minute?” So I trained in breathwork, and brought that to my work.

MR: Our message at Vyrao is about how to raise your vibration through scent. I know this is something you believe in. 
AM: I totally believe in the power of scent to lift mood. In my early breathwork classes I created an aromatherapy mist for people to use at the start of the session. It became a very important part of my classes because it lifted and shifted the mood. In the end I created the AMCK mist for people to use. That’s why it’s so great to work with Vyrao, it’s amazing to me that you create beautiful scent to raise energy and shift mood. 

Witchy Woo By Vicki King

MR: Which Vyrao products do you use?
AM: I love Free 00. It’s gorgeous, the Sicilian lemon, and jasmine, it has that feeling to it. You smell it and you feel.. freedom. It lifts me up. Witchy Woo is my other favourite, and it’s what I’m using for my Vyrao breathwork class. Its sexy. Its deep. When you get down to it, it’s about knowing your own power, strength and depth, you know, the possibilities of who you are. Witchy Woo gives me that when I smell it. It makes me feel brave, and you have to be brave and bold and to be able to go there and not give a shit. It’s about finding your own magic. 

Free 00 By Vicki King

MR: Talk us through a typical breathwork session
AM: Breathwork is great because you are inhaling and exhaling in a certain pattern at certain speed, and that changes what’s going on in your body. Ten minutes is scientifically proven to give you the benefits, which include lower heart rate, better digestion, clarity of mind (or as I prefer to say it,  brain fog elimination), hormonal balance, nervous system rest. Ten minutes does that. If you do it daily, you can keep topping up. It’s a muscle. I think of it as a meditation for people who don’t meditate, ultimately it’s a spiritual practise.  

AM: What is the long term benefit of breathwork?
Not enough people know how powerful breathwork is, people don’t know they can shift their energy so quickly with just a ten minute session everyday. I didn’t know what a difference it would make in people’s minds. I’m blown away by the impact it has on hundreds of people who tell me I have changed their life. 

Thank you Aicha.