Cleaning up

The bestselling beauty brand built in the Kent countryside

ARABELLA PRESTON’S LOVE of beauty started when she was a young girl. ‘I was always playing with products,’ she says. ‘I’d rifle though my mum’s make-up bag and try on the bright eyeshadows. I also had lots of dolls whose hair I would obsessively brush.’

Although her interest in beauty grew during her teenage years, Preston went on to work in marketing for a lingerie brand after graduating from university. But part of her role involved organising hair and make-up for the brand’s campaign shoots, which she loved. ‘On set, I’d ask the make-up artists lots of questions.’

A few years later she retrained as a make-up artist herself, and spent two years assisting the renowned Kay Montano, known for her pared-back aesthetic. ‘The make-up was all about beautiful, healthy skin, and on shoots I would spend at least half an hour just prepping it.’ Preston then built her own list of clients – including the Duchess of Cambridge – but in 2014, she decided to start a skincare brand, Votary.

Preston, who is now 39, says that it was ‘a late time to start from scratch’. But she was determined. The idea came about after trying out a cleansing oil from another brand – though she loved the way it removed make-up, the mineral oil didn’t suit her skin, so she began trying to make her own wholly natural version.

‘I was completely self-taught,’ she admits. ‘It was like making potions. I played with oils until I found something I liked.’ She wrote down every recipe until she found the perfect blend, which took several months.

‘Over lunch with friends later that year I told them what I’d been working on and an ex-colleague, Charlotte [Semler], gave me the confidence to launch it.’ The pair are now business partners.

At first they made 500 bottles of the face oil, sending the recipes to a familyrun manufacturer, and packaged it in environmentally friendly green glass bottles (which act as a natural preservative). Liberty began stocking the cleansing oil in September 2015 and it remains the brand’s bestselling product. Alongside cleansing, facial and body oils, she now also makes serums, face creams and pillow sprays, and earlier this year Votary launched with Space NK in the US.

Today, Preston continues to live and work from her home in Kent, while Semler lives in Oxford. ‘It’s an unusual business structure,’ Preston says, ‘but we have the life we want. I drop my kids at school, then Facetime Charlotte for work and wrap up in time for the school run.

‘I find running a business on my terms very empowering. My motto is, “Where there’s Wi-fi, there’s a way.”’ votary.co.uk

From top Arabella Preston at home, with her products; experimenting with new combinations. Interview by Sonia Haria. Photographs by Kitty Gale