# ZËIYT ## Facts | | | |---|---| | Founded | 2026 | | Origin | Sweden | | Status | Active | | Manufacturing | Salfit, West Bank, Palestine (olive harvest and cold-pressing of the oil) | | Website | https://zeiyt.com/ | ZËIYT is a hair and body care brand built around olive oil from the West Bank. It was founded by Gina Dirawi, a Swedish television presenter and singer-songwriter of Palestinian descent, and launched publicly in April 2026 with two oils, each named after one of her grandmothers [8]. The company describes itself as a "Scandi-Palestinian" brand creating products "rooted in Ancient Olive Oil Rituals — for hair, body, and spirit" [2]. The brand is young and small. As of October 2026 its range consists of the two launch products, sold through its own online shop. Its story, which ties a personal health crisis to a family ritual and to the olive groves of Palestine, has been the main subject of its early press coverage. ## Origin & founders Dirawi, who also serves as the company's CEO and creative director, grew up in Sweden in a family with roots in Palestine [11]. In an interview with Dazed she recalled bowls of olive oil around the house when she was a child. Her grandmother Fatima used the oil for almost everything, from cooking to moisturising her skin and hair, and told her it "heals everything". Dirawi said she found the habit off-putting at the time and did not listen. That changed years later. After a long period in the entertainment industry, during which she bleached and treated her hair repeatedly, she developed sepsis and lost most of her hair [8]. Hunger magazine places the illness in her early twenties. On a visit to relatives in Palestine she noticed that the people around her had long, thick hair, and when she asked what they did, they told her they oiled it. She took up the practice herself, and according to both Dazed and Hunger her hair grew back [9]. Dirawi has said that the ritual also changed how she felt about her hair, which she had disliked while growing up in Sweden. Hunger adds an earlier link to the trees themselves: at 14, at her grandmother's insistence, Dirawi carried her first olive tree back from Palestine. The company's own founding account is written in the first person and describes watching her grandmothers, Fatima and Ghazali, anoint their hair and skin with olive oil while telling stories of the groves. The name joins two family references. According to Dazed, it combines the Arabic word for oil, *zayt*, with her grandmother's surname, Zeyab [8]. Some publications style it "Zëiyt". ## History & milestones The road to launch was slow. Dirawi wanted to source oil directly from the West Bank to support Palestinian farmers, and she told Dazed that after a series of setbacks she was "sick of the back and forth for years" and travelled there herself to find producers. On that visit she met families who had tended the groves for generations. Dazed published its launch feature on 16 April 2026, describing the products as having "launched this week" [8]. That dates the public launch to mid-April 2026. No separate year of incorporation for the company is documented, and because development ran for years before the launch, the business itself may predate 2026. This article follows the public launch year. Coverage followed quickly. Hunger ran a longer feature on 30 April 2026, and the magazine FACES included Dirawi in its "The Faces in June 2026" round-up on 25 June 2026 [10]. ## Philosophy & positioning ZËIYT presents its products less as cosmetics than as rituals. The company says it wants to "restore simplicity in how we care for ourselves, each other and the sacred in everyday life", and calls itself "a ritual of remembrance". It sums up its vision in three words, "honest, elemental, unpolished", and uses the tagline "Return to being". Olive oil sits at the centre of that framing. The brand's website describes the olive tree as part of Palestinian art, poetry, faith and daily life, and recounts the historical use of oil to anoint the body before prayer and to mark ceremonies. Dirawi has made the same point in interviews, telling Dazed that Palestinians protect olive trees "almost like it's a family member". She has also said she wanted to show "something beautiful" connected to a Palestinian identity that is more often associated with sadness. The question of where the brand belongs is not fully settled. ZËIYT calls itself Scandi-Palestinian, while FACES introduces its founder as an artist working "in her native Sweden" [10]. The online shop prices in Swedish kronor by default, and Palestine is the source of the oil and of the family tradition behind it. No registered company address or legal domicile is documented. ## Products & innovation The two launch products are both oils, and each carries a grandmother's name. **Fatima's Nocturne No.1** is a root and hair treatment in a 50 ml bottle, named for the grandmother whose evenings were spent braiding olive oil through her hair. The company describes it as an intense treatment intended to support a healthier scalp. Hunger lists its ingredients as cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil, basilica root extract, Norwegian microalgae and sacha inchi, and reports that the basilica root extract is "clinically tested to help reduce hair loss by 31 percent" [9]. That figure refers to the extract as an ingredient; no study is cited for it, and no clinical testing of the finished product is documented. **Ghazali's Touch** is a 100 ml all-purpose anointing oil for body, hair, beard and nails. The brand calls it unisex and links it to the tradition of anointing priests, prophets and healers. Its scent comes from sandalwood, cinnamon, clove and cedar, which the company's product copy calls a "holy trinity of botanicals"; Hunger also names vanilla. The product descriptions mention castor oil blended with the olive oil. The company says all of its formulations are vegan and describes them as natural, non-toxic, non-synthetic and cruelty-free. These are the company's own statements; no third-party certification, such as a cruelty-free or organic label, is documented. ## Sustainability ZËIYT sources its olive oil from Salfit in the West Bank, a district the company calls "the land of olives" [3]. According to the brand, the olives are picked by hand from trees between 1,000 and 3,000 years old and harvested each October and November by local families and farmers. The company says it harvests early, when the fruit holds more polyphenols, the plant compounds that act as antioxidants, and that the oil is cold-pressed close to where it is grown. The brand says it works directly with one producer that relies on rain- and sun-fed cultivation and avoids toxic fertilizers. It also says it is building long-term partnerships with Palestinian farmers, and that 5% of all profits go to fair-trade farming and to projects that benefit Palestinian olive groves and the people who work them. Press coverage has placed this sourcing in a wider setting. Hunger reported that the West Bank has more than nine million olive trees, which cover over half of its farmland, and that more than 100,000 families depend on the harvest as a main source of income. Dazed cited UN figures recording 86 attacks linked to the 2025 olive harvest, which injured 112 Palestinians and damaged thousands of trees and saplings. ## Recognition ZËIYT has received no documented awards. Its early press consists of the Dazed launch feature in the magazine's "Beauty Rising" series, the Hunger feature by Sufiya McNulty [9], and the short FACES item titled "Olive Forever". The brand's homepage also displays the logos of Dazed, Elle, Hunger and Wonderland. ## Current status ZËIYT is active. As of October 2026 the brand's website is live and sells its two oils through an online shop whose country selector covers the European Union, Norway, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates and the United States. The most recent dated third-party coverage is the FACES feature from June 2026. No parent company or outside investor is documented; Dirawi is listed as the company's founder, CEO and creative director. ## Timeline {#belagg-timeline} | Year | Event | Source | |---|---|---| | 2026 | Webshop product listings for the two launch products created on 23 January 2026 (Shopify created_at). | https://zeiyt.com/products.json | | 2026 | Brand launched in mid-April 2026 with two products, each named after one of the founder's grandmothers (Dazed, 16 April 2026: "Launched this week"). | https://www.dazeddigital.com/beauty/article/70094/1/zeiyt-is-the-beauty-brand-palestine-sacred-olive-groves | | 2026 | Featured in FACES Magazin's "The Faces in June 2026" (25 June 2026). | https://facesmag.com/?p=142789 | ## Signature products {#belagg-products} - **Fatima's Nocturne No.1 (Intense Root & Hair Oil, 50 ml)** — An intense root and hair treatment powered by olive oil, infused with potent botanicals and nutrient-rich extracts to support a healthier scalp and promote healthier hair. — https://zeiyt.com/products.json - **Ghazali's Touch (Anointing Oil – Sacred All-Use Blend, 100 ml)** — An ancient unisex anointing oil for body, hair, beard and nails — born from the same sacred tradition that consecrated priests, prophets and healers. — https://zeiyt.com/products.json ## Key ingredients {#belagg-ingredients} cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil (Palestinian, high-polyphenol) · castor oil · sandalwood · cinnamon · clove · cedar Source: https://zeiyt.com/products.json ## Mentioned in {#belagg-press} - **Dazed** (2026) — Launch feature in the 'Beauty Rising' series (16 April 2026) on the founder's story, sourcing from West Bank farmers and the brand name's origin. — https://www.dazeddigital.com/beauty/article/70094/1/zeiyt-is-the-beauty-brand-palestine-sacred-olive-groves - **Hunger** (2026) — Feature 'The brand turning Palestinian olive oil into an act of remembrance' (30 April 2026, writer Sufiya McNulty) covering the two launch products and the West Bank olive context. — https://hungermag.com/art-culture/the-brand-turning-palestinian-olive-oil-into-an-act-of-remembrance - **FACES Magazin** (2026) — Short item 'Olive Forever' in 'The Faces in June 2026' (25 June 2026). — https://facesmag.com/?p=142789 ## Sources 2. (T1) https://zeiyt.com/pages/about-us 3. (T2) https://zeiyt.com/pages/our-oil 8. (T3) https://www.dazeddigital.com/beauty/article/70094/1/zeiyt-is-the-beauty-brand-palestine-sacred-olive-groves 9. (T3) https://hungermag.com/art-culture/the-brand-turning-palestinian-olive-oil-into-an-act-of-remembrance 10. (T3) https://facesmag.com/?p=142789 11. (T3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gina_Dirawi --- Glowpedia · · Published 2026-10-19 Please cite with a link to the article URL.