Our story

My Story

Hi, I’m Alina, the founder of Souleven.

This is the story of how I went searching for stillness...

What I found became Souleven, a brand that’s helped over 18,000 people feel more grounded in their homes.

Year 2021. Fall.

I came home from work one day, exhausted, overstimulated, and thinking,

“Why doesn’t this space feel like mine?”

It wasn’t that I needed more stuff.

I was craving calm.

Something to ground me.

That night, I lit an incense stick I had tucked away in a drawer.

Turned off my phone. Sat in silence.

And made a quiet promise to myself:

I’d find a way to make home feel like home again.

That’s how Souleven began, not as a business, but as a way to feel better at home.

I was born in California, USA, and Souleven began as a very personal idea.

But from the beginning, I knew I couldn't do it all alone.

My dad once told me:

“If you want your business to thrive, learn the craft deeply, but know when to pass the tools.”

So I did.

I used the $4,000 I’d saved over years to travel and study with artists whose hands knew more than mine.

There, I met my first mentor, a ceramicist named João.

We worked in a studio tucked into the hills of Wiltshire.

He taught me the rhythm of clay. Of patience. Of craft.

He now makes many of our signature ceramic pieces in his studio, with the same care he taught me.

I had always been drawn to the scent of Palo Santo, but I wanted to learn its roots, and meet the people behind it.

In Peru, I met Mateo, a kind soul whose family has worked with Bursera Graveolens, the sacred tree of Palo Santo, for three generations.

He only harvests from naturally fallen branches and dries each stick under the sun.

He’s become a dear friend, and he’s the reason our Palo Santo is what it is today.

I arrived in Kathmandu with no real plan, just curiosity.

What I found was the heart of incense itself.

In a traditional studio, I learned the art of hand-rolled cones and sticks with natural resins and oils.

That same studio now crafts all of our incense by hand, just as they taught me.