Marisa Edgelow Randles and Alyson Lundstrom are the co-founders of the Blissful Coloane Market at Grand Coloane, which started in 2015 anchored by the innovative Community Supported Agriculture project (CSA) at the Blissful Carrot, Macau’s first Global Vegetarian eatery which opened its doors in Taipa in 2014.
The committee and vendors are comprised of community members with a mission to elevate art, handmade artisan crafts, local food and music to a new level in Macau, also seeking to become a central gathering place for families and friends, both local and visiting, fostering a sense of community spirit.
Marisa and Alyson have always had an interest in different health approaches and the mind body connection to feeling healthy. Marisa studied nutrition at University and Alyson’s background is in science. Arriving in Macau around the same time they both found themselves seeking clarity on where food was coming from and realised that there were niches in the community where they could help.
Alyson explains the inspiration behind starting the market: “Our committee, comprised of local community members, was looking to introduce the “farmer’s market” concept to Macau as a platform that celebrated local business in an import heavy environment. We felt that the local community and tourists alike would love the vibe of a market that offered local artisan goods, food, music, and performance, all in one place. Our goal was to give small businesses a platform to exhibit themselves. So many do not have actual storefronts or are nestled away and not incredibly visible to everyone. We wanted to connect the Macau and Taipa sides together and thought a beautiful green space like the Grand Coloane Resort would be a perfect venue.”
Now with over 20 participating vendors, the market recently finished a five month trial run and will return in autumn, Alyson is proud of the response to date. “The feedback from the vendors and public was incredibly positive and we found that both groups want to see it continue. The commitee loves getting feedback from the community suggesting ways we can grow, as that means they want to be involved! Althought the concept was really familiar to the expat crowd and we saw many of them in the beginning, we found with media exposure and word of mouth we began to see more and more Macanese locals attending and participating as vendors each month.”
What wellness trends do you wish existed in Macau? “It would be lovely to see more naturopaths, holistic, and ayervedic practioners here to give people natural options to healing,” Alyson reflects.
Is Macau ready to embrace the wellness movement? Alyson has no doubts. “Definitely! You can see this in the increased demand for quality foods that are starting to stock our grocery shelves, the overflowing fitness classes, and even the success of the recent Global Wellness Day. People are hungry (no pun intended!) for better and more variety in healthy choices. Hopefully the government will continue to support these advances and bring Macau to the next level in a healthy and happy population!”
Aroma Queen Macau
Catarina Tang is the founder of Aroma Queen Macau Ltd. Having qualified in Australia, she has been in the spa, beauty & aroma business since 2000 and is an IFA qualified aromatherapist
With little available on the market, the brand “Aroma Queen” was born in November 2015 due to the popular demand of local natural product/ingredient seekers. It was launched at Macau’s first organic market The Blissful Market in Coloane.
It was initially formulated because I was unable to find the right type of body moisturizer for myself. After trying numerous products on the market, I gave up and started tailoring my own to my own needs.
My products are all made in Macau and created by myself with love and passion! Apart from customization to create a unique experience/product for our customers, we also offer a variety of aroma related DIY classes to the public.
Our mission is to promote the benefits of aromatherapy through the use of handmade aromatic based products. All our products contain natural ingredients and we use organic ones whenever possible.
We sell some of our already made items at the market, however we do not keep a lot of ready made items in stock, we want to keep wastage to a minimum and every batch is freshly tailored made to meet each individual’s needs. Containers are made of recyclable plastic which can readily be converted to many other goods.
The market is a great excuse for everyone to get together, a great place to catch up with long lost friends and to get your fresh produce. The environment at the Grand Coloane Beach Resort is perfectly surrounded by nature and that makes it ideal for the theme of the market. It feels like a perfect getaway, even just for a few hours.
I wish there were more affordable wellness centres here in Macau offering a variety of fitness facilities and programs and which serve wholesome organic meals at the same time!
Catarina’s advice for those starting out on the wellness path? Make small changes within your daily habits whenever possible and use less chemicals on your skin and in personal daily use, they cause accumulative health issues.
Is Macau ready for the wellness movement? Yes of course, as seen by people here getting more involved, not only with their exercising and fitness routines, but also trying to embrace the goodness of organic produce and cosmetics.
Conscious Wellness Macau
Christina Kimont is a birth doula and educator. With classes ranging from birth preparation, hypnosis and breastfeeding, she has been helping families manage the transition to parenthood since 2012
I first became interested in child rearing choices when I minored in Anthropology in university with a major in biomedical physics.
When I became pregnant with my first child I was a new arrival to Singapore so I researched tirelessly about my options, and ended up choosing a childbirth education program called HypnoBirthing-The Marie Mongan Method.
I also hired a doula, which is a woman with experience in childbirth who supports labouring women physically, emotionally and spiritually. I ended up having a truly wonderful birth experience and I owe it to the people I chose to support me.
A year later I gave birth to my daughter in an entirely different way – by emergency cesarean and in a very scary and vulnerable way.
Because of that experience I went through an acute stage of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) with severe depression and anxiety for about 18 months later, I realized that not only does the way we birth matter, and have an impact not just on us as mothers (and fathers), but our children and the next generation as well. It’s a ripple effect.
I have a personal background in yoga and meditation and believe that along with education, in order to be happy, productive individuals, we need to do a good amount of introspection and self-exploration. My guiding philosophy is to share what I know, to the benefit of others.
I offer the HypnoBirthing childbirth preparation classes as a certified practitioner, I provide doula support to pregnant couples before, during and after their births, I offer breastfeeding counselling and I do ‘belly casting’, a method of preserving the form of a mother’s pregnant belly in plaster as a keepsake. I have also partnered with MOMS-Macau Maternity Support to develop and deliver parts of their childbirth and parenthood preparation series.
Environmental stewardship is something that has been important to me my whole life. As an education provider, I don’t personally generate much waste, but I do encourage the use of waste reduction practices such as breastfeeding and cloth diapering. I have for sale a line of modern cloth diapers that are easy to use and end up being cheaper in the long run. If you think about the number of diapers a typical baby goes through it is mind boggling to think of how much of that is just sitting in landfill, or worse, getting incinerated so all the chemicals go into our air and water.
In Macau I see a lot of emphasis on bodily wellness, exercise, fitness, clean eating, etc, but there is little talk of mental wellness. It has been a long journey for me to find my path to mental wellness, which in reality should be called “total wellness” since it includes proper nutrition and regular exercise.
Another issue that is glaringly absent here is environmental stewardship, in many forms. We live in a beautiful and unique little territory with many UNESCO protected sites, it is a crying shame to see so many places covered with coffee cups and cigarette butts. Take pride in your city, residents of Macau!
Sattva Juicery
Sisters Mariana and B·rbara de Oliveira Dias grew up in Macau and started their online-based juice business Sattva Juicery in August 2014, Macauís first Cold Pressed Juicery, delivering Cold Pressed Juices, Juice Cleanses and Healthy snacks
We were introduced to Juicing four years ago when Mariana finished her Holistic Nutrition and Diet Diploma Course, where subjects like Juicing, Detox, Cleansing, Raw Foods, Plant-Based Diets, Paleo, Vegan among may other types of Diets, Lifestyles and trends were studied.
We started preparing vegetable and fruit juices and including them in our lifestyle – drinking them during, before or after fitness classes, substituting snacks for cold pressed juice and started seeing results right away.
With the international “boom” and success of Cold Pressed Juices and Juiceries in the world, and after an extensive study of the local market, products and specific machines, we thought this could be the healthiest solution for us and for the local Community in general.
Sattva Juicery is Macau’s first Cold Pressed Juicery delivering Cold Pressed Juices, Juice Cleanses and healthy snacks straight to your door.
We realized that with environmental impurities and today’s stressful and hectic lifestyle it’s difficult to fuel our bodies with the necessary amount of nutrients to allow our bodies and minds to function at their highest levels. For this simple fact we created Sattva Juicery.
Our mission is not only to create the most nutrient rich juices and ultra fresh cleanse programs, but also to offer the opportunity to purchase the best nutrient dense superfoods like Açaí, Raw Cacao Powder, Coconut Sugar, healthy snacks like Protein Truffles, Raw Energy Bars, Raw and Organic puddings, Gluten Free Cookies and other natural products.
Sattva and Sattva Juicery is also a company that incentivizes, educates and teaches everybody how to be environmentally friendly, to make conscious choices in your daily life to save and preserve earth. All our materials are eco-friendly and recyclable.
We grew up in Macau, and know this City very well. All these years here, we have never seen anything similar to The Blissful Coloane Market. It was a fantastic initiative that gave the opportunity to local artisans to showcase what they do and know best. Not only in the F&B sector, but also in Arts&Crafts, Performance, Design.
Macau is ready for the wellness movement, but there is still some work to be done including changing mindsets, educating people, showing them what wellness is all about, and that it can be fun and affordable. If wellness businesses and entities could unite forces and knowledge, connecting with the right organizations and industries – Governmental/Hospitality – and keep the focus on walking the same path, putting egos aside and creating a solid project, Macau could become a great wellness destination with plenty of options for the whole family.
Obento-Fit
Born in Japan, Sayaka McPherson trained in fashion and product design. She moved to Macau four years ago and opened the handmade ice cream shop, McPhersonís Sweetís Shoppe, and recetly the ìObento-Fitî Healthy Lunch Box Delivery Service
I was trained in fashion and product design before moving my focus to food design. McPherson’s Sweet’s Shoppe was developed and became a tourist favourite, then we created our delivery lunch service Obento-Fit for the local community. I like to find what people want or need and create a business around that.
Obento-Fit (which means fit lunch box in Japanese) is a low carb, low sugar, high protein balanced meal that helps you reach your fitness goals while not sacrificing flavour and excitement in your meals. The balanced meal delivery service allows busy people like myself to have a healthy lifestyle at an affordable price.
Having so many options and healthy snack choices delivered to you at your office stops bad habits and actually increases people’s productivity and energy levels, instead of crashing from sugar and fatty foods.
We always consider the environment in our kitchen practices and have made our Obento-Fit a made to order program so that we do not have food waste. We have three options for Obento-Fit: meat, seafood, or vegetarian. We also have several vegan, raw food and dessert choices to give people the option to taste a new way of eating.
The Coloane market experience has been good for us to expose our Obento-Fit program and homemade treats to the local community. We have seen more and more locals start to come and people have expressed joy at all the creations and experience. We are always asked why it took so long for something like this to come to Macau. It has been great seeing all the local art and the growth of the small expat community, as well as the ever growing local turnout.
In terms of what’s missing locally, I wish there was a real food co-op in Macau, with kids and the community from working the soil and planting seeds to harvesting and trading these goods with like-minded peers. I believe that this trend could reach all levels including rooftop vertical gardening systems, which are not being utilized in our city.
I absolutely believe Macau is ready to open up to new experiences and creative culture. The fast paced lifestyle here has to be countered by also putting efforts into your daily choices because you only get out what you put in. It is especially true that the food we all consume is the fuel of our bodies, so this movement is a must in Macau!
