LOCAL HEROES

How the British countryside provides fertile terrain for beauty brands growing their own ingredients. By Becki Murray

As the poet Alfred Austin wrote, ‘to nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul’. No wonder we are a nation of gardeners, whether our plots encompass rolling acres or merely a verdant window box.

Our love of horticulture has led us to enthusiastically embrace the concept of ‘farm to face’ beauty, which allows product formulas to be traced back to their literal roots. As consumers become increasingly interested in the provenance of specific ingredients, the British brands that grow them on working farms and in gardens are coming to the fore.

Fortunately, this country is a botanist’s dream. ‘Our unique weather, where high cloud cover protects against both extremely cold winters and searing hot summers, can generate plants that are measurably higher in active ingredients,’ explains Liz Earle’s ethnobotanist James Wong. ‘These conditions are found in only a few places on the planet.’ One such is Kent’s Castle Farm, the UK’S biggest lavender producer, where vast fields of purple flowers are harvested each year for their fragrance.

Indeed, hundreds of different plants and flowers can be cultivated in Britain, including roses, jasmine and rosemary, while our wildflower meadows, fields and woodlands offer a wealth of species we can forage for the benefit of our faces and bodies. A number of beauty companies are working hard to safeguard the bee population – not just as pollinators, but also as makers of skin-clarifying honey – and many organic farms are now leaders in sustainability, experimenting with biodynamic farming and spearheading carbon-neutral or green-energy initiatives. In turn, the enterprises that stem from them are putting environmental concerns at their heart, focusing on limiting their use of plastic and minimising packaging.

The movement for sustainable beauty encourages us to consider the origins of our favourite product, its value no longer measured by the weight of a jar or the brand name running along its side. It’s the excellence of the ingredients found within that matters, and the British countryside is rich in such bounty.

rhug estate wild beauty Lord Newborough’s new skincare line makes use of the many plant and herb species found on his North Wales estate – a 12,500-acre expanse of land that is home to the only UK farm to hold a Royal Warrant and has been certified organic by the Soil Association since 2000. Spring water, oats, honey and beeswax can all be sourced from the farm, which even has its own forager who searches the grounds for the most effective wild plants.

weleda Weleda owns 13 acres of biodynamic land in Derbyshire and seven other medicinal-plant gardens worldwide. Last year, it became one of only two international beauty brands to obtain certification from the Union for Ethical Bio Trade for ‘sourcing with respect’, a guarantee that supply chains can be tracked and independently verified, right back to the very farm, field or orchard from which they originated.

parterre Known as the Collection, the formal gardens at Keyneston Mill in Dorset are a kaleidoscope of colour and scent, with hundreds of plants and flowers compartmentalised into different scent families. It is here that the fragrance brand Parterre cultivates the ingredients for its array of luxury perfumes.

amly In the heart of East Sussex is the 140-acre organic Hawthbush Farm, where a mineral spring was discovered flowing beneath the site’s wildflower meadow. The skincare brand Amly draws on the benefits of this water, which is naturally high in mineral salts and antioxidant-rich silver, to help counteract the effects of our hectic lifestyles.

neal’s yard remedies Its life may not have started on a country farm (the company was founded in London’s Covent Garden), but Neal’s Yard now operates out of a purpose-built eco-factory in

Dorset, surrounded by acres of organic gardens and meadows. There, the brand’s natural formulas are produced in small batches, with sustainably sourced ingredients from around the world joining those organically grown in the grounds.

noble isle Noble Isle celebrates British botanicals from all four corners of the land and supports local producers when sourcing the ingredients for its lotions and washes. The grapes in its Golden Harvest collection, for example, are from Simpsons Wine Estate in Canterbury, while the namesake ingredient in the Rhubarb Rhubarb range is courtesy of a sixthgeneration Yorkshire family farm.

dior Dior has flower gardens all over the world, most famously in Grasse, where blooms including jasmine and tuberose are grown for the house’s fragrances.

yves saint laurent In the foothills of the Atlas Mountains of Morocco – a country Yves Saint Laurent loved – is a garden where botanicals flourish, including the calendula flower (a key component of the Touche Eclat formula).

caudalie From its vineyards in Bordeaux, Caudalie takes extracts from the winemaking process, including grape water, to enrich its products with powerful antioxidants.

seed to skin Based in Tuscany, Seed to Skin’s certified organic farm produces plants, such as rosehip, lavender and peppermint, alongside sheep’s milk and honey, for use in its indulgent beauty range.

bulgari The Flower Gems of India project is helping 100 familyowned farms in India’s main floricultural regions to plant jasmine for Bulgari’s luxury scents.

WE CAN FORAGE A WEALTH OF SPECIES FOR THE BENEFIT OF OUR FACES AND BODIES