Angels’ Essentials finds a new home

Faithful readers may remember a story we ran in the summer of the first annual Body, Mind & Spirit Fair, created and hosted by local yoga instructor and holistic healer Angel Reyes-Giacalone, which boasted a whole swath of different avenues to health and wellness under one roof — everything from natural foods, to massage therapy, as well as more spiritual services.

Reyes-Giacalone says that the fair was an enormous success, and she was happy to introduce so many new people to a glut of different holistic healing services found locally in the region. The trouble is, that was just one weekend. After all ways said and done, she and her other vendors went their separate ways, to sell their wares on their own.

“I was a vendor — I would travel around at shows, kind of like a vagabond,” says Reyes-Giacalone, who used to operate her business, Angels’ Essentials, mostly out of the Alderney Landing farmers market in Dartmouth and out of her home. That situation changed after last summer’s fair, however.

“Last year, after my show, I was offered two locations,” says Reyes-Giacalone, referring to her clinic space on Quinpool Road in Halifax, and her brand-new storefront location that she has opened up on the Bedford Highway. “This place is something I’ve wanted for a really long time.”

Much like her wellness fair, Reyes-Giacalone’s new Angels’ Essentials location offers a wide variety of different products and services relating to wellness. If you’re on the hunt from anything in this realm of health — from amethysts to yoga classes, you’ve got a good chance of finding it under Reyes-Giacalone’s roof.

“I just kept going back for different reasons,” says Louise Chamberlain, who has become a regular customer since Angels’ Essentials opened its doors in Bedford. “Sometimes it was for the food, because she has very holistic in there. Sometimes it was for the yoga classes. Sometimes it was just to sit down and get a reading. It’s been a very wonderful experience.”

But, just like her fair, it’s not just a one-person operation.

“This store actually hosts a number of different local businesses,” says Reyes-Giacalone, who rents floor space to local vendors to sell their own wellness goods, especially if she knows they carry or practice something she couldn’t offer on her own.

“I don’t do it for everyone, you know,” says Reyes-Giacalone. “All of the team that I’ve brought on … they offer something very different than I offer. To me, it makes it even more broad, and will help more people. Everybody else I bring on has something else to add to that.”

Beyond just being able to provide more for customers, the other benefit to this model of business for Reyes-Giacalone is, much like her wellness fair, the chance to help local practitioners and artisans expand their presence in the area, and to help them grow.

“I want more people to know about all these vendors,” says Reyes-Giacalone. “There is so much stuff out there that we’re not aware of, because not everyone has the opportunity to be in a storefront.”

“A lot of my customers can’t make it out to Porter’s Lake, or to the Dartmouth Market. They find going to Bedford a lot easier,” says Lenna Lisicky, the owner of In The Raw, who provides Angels’ Essentials with all its raw and vegan food selections. “I wasn’t really thinking of going over to Bedford — she just opened the doors for me. I wouldn’t have thought about going over to Bedford if it wasn’t for her.”

Reyes-Giacalone’s doors have been officially open since late October, but she feels there are people in Bedford who might benefit from the various services her store offers that just aren’t aware they’re open for business (they only just recently got their sign installed).

Part of that might be that there are many wellness-centric businesses in the area, but ask anyone involved with Angels’ Essentials, and they’ll tell you that what makes this store special is that it goes a step beyond the others.

“It’s like a health spiritual centre, really. It really is like a one-stop shop,” says Lisicky. “There are so many more connections that people can make, as opposed to if they just went to a massage therapist. Angel has a lot of feelers out for a lot of different avenues that can help people.”

“There are a few stores around that sell the same thing, but she does it very well,” says Chamberlain. “There’s something for everybody, and there’s something that could heal just through a reading, or through numerology. It’s not for everybody, but if they could just enter there, if they’re looking for that, they would get a lot of benefit.”

“For me, this space is different than any other wellness centre, in that we’re offering that level of healing. At the spiritual level,” says Reyes-Giacalone. “I’d love people to come and check us out, see what we’re doing … I want them to leave feeling better than they came.”

To check out Angels’ Essentials for yourself, or to see what classes are available, check out the store at 1306 Bedford Highway. The next Body, Mind & Spirit Fair will go down May 2.