After spending over a year living with my parents in Devon and helping them move home, I returned to London early this year to start teaching again at a college in East London, and am excited to be back in my old neighbourhood. It’s been great to rediscover my old neck of the woods; things have really changed since I lived in Leyton many years ago – the house I lived in then has been flattened and now houses part of the M11!
There is much that this neighbourhood has to offer: in the early 1990s the New Spitalfields Market relocated to Leyton and today is the largest fruit, vegetable and flower market in the UK, originally opening next to St Mary Spital Church in the Square Mile in the 13th century; today it’s the perfect place to shop package and plastic-free. Regeneration has brought many new and exciting creative businesses to the area, many of which are housed in Narrow Yard and Bow Arts studios located in the heart of Leyton High Road.
NEIGHBOURHOOD BOTANICALS: CLEAN BEAUTY WITH BOTANICAL OILS
One of the local brands that I’ve discovered since being back in the neighbourhood is an amazing Clean Beauty brand called “Neighbourhood Botanicals”. I love this brand because all their products smell amazing, are formular-led, made using cold-pressed oils and natural ingredients and are manufactured and shipped from their COSMOS-approved professional lab in Leyton.
But what is a “Clean Beauty” brand you might be asking yourself and why am I an advocate?
“IT’S A TERM THAT IS EVOLVING TO DESCRIBE THE MOVEMENT WHICH IS PUSHING THE COSMETIC INDUSTRY TO CREATE HIGHER STANDARDS”.
It’s reasonable to assume that the cosmetic products we use are properly tested for safety, but this isn’t generally the case. The US cosmetics and personal care industry for example (everything from makeup to shampoo, lotion and sunscreen) is largely self-regulated. In the EU the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) is the strictest law to date regulating chemical substances, but this also has loopholes and does not take into consideration the accumulative effect of chemical ingredients on our bodies.
For more information on REACH, check out my article “The Chemicals in Our Beauty Products”.
One of the main concerns regarding the cosmetics and beauty industries is that many manufacturers do not acknowledge the health implications of some of the chemical ingredients in their products, claiming there is no firm evidence that they pose a health risk, but if you’ve ever looked closely at the labels on your cosmetics and beauty products, you may have seen they contain ingredients such as parabens, fragrance ingredients, polyethylene glycols, or PEG compounds, siloxanes or silicones, sodium laureth sulfate, or SLS, formaldehyde or triclosan, which are just a few of the toxic ingredients known to be harmful to human health, some of which are endocrine disruptors that can interfere with normal hormone function and reproduction, others which have been linked to various cancers.
If you would like to learn more this 90-minute award winning documentary by Phyllis Ellis called ‘Toxic Beauty‘ explores the truth about the hidden dangers in cosmetics and personal care products.
The best way to limit your exposure to harmful chemicals in cosmetics and beauty products is by choosing products from Clean Beauty brands – these can be defined as “products that are mindfully created and produced without any toxic ingredients that are ethically sourced and are made with the health of our bodies and the environment in mind”. What’s not to love about looking after our bodies and the environment too?
If you’re interested in why I believe Clean Beauty products are vital, check out my article “What is Clean Beauty?” for more information.
Neighbourhood Botanicals products are all vegan, cruelty-free and contain no ingredients of animal origin. This means that a product that is vegan cannot contain any animal ingredients, nor animal-derived ingredients. This includes honey, beeswax, lanolin, collagen, albumen, carmine, cholesterol, gelatin, and many others which can be harder to identify as they are hidden in the raw material production process.
None of their products are tested on animals, either on their behalf or by any third party and they pledge never to do so, no matter the financial gains.
Many of their products are already certified with The Vegan Society and COSMOS Natural, however they are currently in the process of achieving official certification with Soil Association COSMOS Natural and The Vegan Society for many more products in their range.
REFILLS THE ULTIMATE ECO OPTION
I have tried and tested several products by Neighbourhood Botanicals and what I especially love are their Facial Oils, which naturally curb greasiness and help maintain a healthy ph balance. They are available in both original packaging and refills – the products are housed in recyclable and refillable glass bottles with a glass, rubber and aluminium pipette cap. The outer box is FSC certified and is recyclable. Packaging generally is usually in glass, aluminium and 100% PCR plastic (from post-consumer recycled waste) bottles when plastic is required, which are refillable and still recyclable.
Refilling is seen as the ultimate eco option for Neighbourhood Botanicals founder Micaela, who has also been working on a company making a biodegradable refill packaging solution for Neighbourhood and other brands for the last three years. The result is onrepeat.world, a solution to further the industry as a whole, to enable brands to come together in a united effort to reduce plastic waste and minimise our impact on the earth.
There are many things to love about Neighbourhood Botanticals, another is the graphics on their packaging created by a group of creative artists and illustrators all of which is printed using vegetable inks.
My favourite product “Face Off Oil-to-Milk Cleanser”, is perfect for taking the day or night off in a simple splash and swipe; massage a few drops of oil onto your skin and splash with water, then gently cleanse with a reusable cotton pad and hay ho! your face is left feeling fresh and soft and thanks to the aromatic oils it smells delicious.
I combine this cleanser with a facial oil called “Another Year Wiser”, which is perfect for my slightly older skin – it’s a rich and dreamy conditioning serum packed with moisturising and softening squalene, which is an ingredient that mimics our skin’s own natural oils, so it works as a highly effective moisturizer for all skin types and also has anti-aging properties. It provides lasting nourishment as a balanced oleic and linoleic acid profile from oat and wheatgerm ceramides supports the outer barrier functions and helps maintain elasticity and strong cell structure. Other ingredients include vitamin E and it’s scented with Lavender, Fennel, Geranium, Cypress and Sweet Orange oils. This facial oil is made specially to calm inflammation and curb dryness and works perfectly on my skin, sending me into a deep and luxurious sleep when I use it as my cleansing routine at night.
All oils used by Neighbourhood Botanicals are 90% cold-pressed and raw, extracted without solvents. Using cold-pressed oils allows the ingredients to retain maximum nutrients from the plants and also contributes to each products unique scent. Neighbourhood Botanticals main ingredients supplier is a UK-based family run company who send them everything in recycled jerry cans and source their raw ingredients directly from farmers around the world.
All oils used by Neighbourhood Botanicals are 90% cold-pressed and raw, extracted without solvents. Using cold-pressed oils allows the ingredients to retain maximum nutrients from the plants and also contributes to each products unique scent. Neighbourhood Botanticals main ingredients supplier is a UK-based family run company who send them everything in recycled jerry cans and source their raw ingredients directly from farmers around the world.
CARBON NEGATIVE BEAUTY
Neighbourhood Botanicals are a very small female owned and operated company, that keep environmental and sustainability considerations in mind at every stage of their business practices; they started with a very low footprint, but they are also one of a very few ‘Carbon Negative’ Beauty Brands offsetting more than double their emissions through a hydropower and social project in rural China, the Huoshui HydroPower Project, where their glass and recycled plastic bottles are made, whilst also contributing to a wide range of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
After partnering with third-party sustainability experts, Carbon Jacked, who did a full carbon footprint assessment of their business (based on the GHG Protocol, an international standard for carbon footprint reporting), in January 2021 Neighbourhood Botanicals became carbon-negative and climate positive. By being carbon negative / climate positive, they are going beyond ‘climate-neutral’ and showing other young companies they can do the same too.
Neighbourhood Botanicals also protect 5 trees with every order from their online store, as they believe that protecting old growth sequesters much more carbon than planting new trees. A percentage of their profits each month also goes towards charitable endeavours, such as crowd-sourced loans for entrepreneurs in developing nations with the initiative Lend With Care, and recently through providing boarders at their local St Mungo’s homeless shelter with refillable self-care quality botanical shower products during the Covid epidemic.
You can read more about the businesses and people who have benefitted from Neighbourhood Botanical loans HERE.
The best thing about Neighbourhood Botanicals is that you don’t even need to be in my neighbourhood to shop their products. You can go online to Neighbourhood Botanicals and get Free UK shipping for over £35