The beauty of the natural

I’d love to say that I’m some deep thinking, earth-mother type but unfortunately, I’m a marketeer's dream...utterly superficial and a sucker for beautiful packaging.
So when I embarked on my journey to produce my own massage oils, my initial drive was born from a pure business perspective...why promote someones else's brand when I can do my own?

Having massaged for 18 years I know oils and creams very well...what gives the best ‘slide’ for massage, what consistency of creams or oils work, what products my clients (and my) skin react to, and what smells good. But having spent years working with some fantastic brands...Molton Brown, Aromatherapy Associates, Dr Hauschka, Elemis to name but a few, I also realise how important ‘brand’ is and get sucked in to how products are going to look in my treatment room or on my bathroom shelf. The current range I have is great to work with...but its not ‘me’...its bright and looks fabulous in photos but I’m more earth tones and simple (in the image sense of the word)

And so began my journey of designing a great looking product which provided me with the right lubricant as a massage medium. However, the more I looked into it, and the more I researched the kind of ‘look’ I wanted, I embarked on an incredible journey of learning. Learning about ingredients, chemicals, health, wellbeing, essential oils, emotions etc. You name it, I got sidetracked and researched it. And a whole new world opened up to me. Gone was the superficial (mmmm...ok...maybe...not quite) and instead came an understanding of how fragrances and essential oils can affect your mood, your home environment, your self-love, your skin. How much better is it to flood your olfactory system with the natural fragrances of essential oils and plants rather than synthetic chemicals. Synthetic fragrances are created in a laboratory and Mother Nature has absolutely nothing to do with almost two thirds of the most popular fragrances made today! Imagine that...I feel conned already!! I wasn’t even aware that a huge number of the candles we buy for our homes are literally just fragranced on the top layer of wax!! No wonder they’re so affordable.

But also it got me thinking about what we put onto our skin (in my profession, the use of oils). We know, without debate, that some chemicals can and do enter your bloodstream through topical application. Different products mean different levels of exposure. For instance, if you use a lotion all over your body and it soaks into your skin all day, you’re getting a lot more exposure to those chemicals than if you were to use the same ingredients in a face cleanser that you wash off straight away. There are enough environmental chemicals surrounding us on a daily basis to add to what we put onto our body.

And so began my mission to create the purest of products I could. And from the pursuit to produce my own massage oils came the desire of developing a ‘home’ range that I would be proud of having in my house. I believe simplicity is the key...keeping things minimal but letting the ingredients speak for themselves. I hope I have achieved that in my first range of oils, candles and diffusers. All completely natural and organic where possible. The candles are made of soy wax with a cotton wick and high quality essential oils all the way through. The bath and body oils all have a rosehip and almond oil base to leave your skin feeling utterly nourished and because they are so packed full of plant ingredients only the smallest amount is needed in your bath to fill your bathroom with fragrance.

Who knows where this journey will end for me. It’s already made me re-evaluate the facial skincare I use, the food I eat, the medications I take. I’m looking into all sorts of other products now...scrubs, skincare, hair products and am enjoying every single second of my research. I’m never going to be perfect and we certainly can’t wrap ourselves up in cotton wool. But we can make small changes to make the environment we surround ourselves and our children with every day, more ‘clean’. I’m still a sucker for things looking beautiful but am certain we can have both

xx