Discover Yorkshire’s Best Beauty Brands
The beauty of Yorkshire
Kiss the Moon
With a business to run and lots of time spent travelling, Jo Foster began to feel the effects her busy lifestyle was having on her sleep pattern, and the journey to fixing her own sleep problems led to her multi-award-winning business Kiss the Moon. ‘Kiss the Moon is all about helping people to sleep beautifully and wake up feeling gorgeous. It’s built on the premise that we all need to invest more than we currently do in our sleep, because once you stop sleeping properly everything starts to unravel,’ says Jo.
Based just outside Richmond, Kiss the Moon offer a variety of aromatherapy products including night-time skincare, bath and body treatments and home fragrance, each available in one of four signature blends. ‘There are a whole load of reasons why people don’t sleep,’ explains Jo. ‘Whether it’s because of worries, aches and pain, your brain won’t shut down or even feeling unsafe. So I found that there were different aromatherapy oils that could solve some of those different challenges and I went off and made my own blends.’
Using ingredients such as orange blossom, jasmine, lavender and rose, it is extremely important to Jo that all of Kiss the Moon’s products are natural, vegan, cruelty-free and planet-friendly. ‘I’m a big animal lover and the whole brand was really inspired by the Yorkshire countryside so I firmly believe that nature knows best if we stop and listen to it. Also I personally don’t want to go to bed covered in chemicals, so it’s all about plant power to help you sleep.’
kissthemoon.com
Navy Professional
Based in Yorkshire, once the ‘home of steel’, Rebecca Crawforth couldn’t understand why nearly all of the steel instruments for the beauty industry came from abroad, so she decided to take it upon herself to fix that. ‘I thought it was crazy that people were importing steel instruments. As the “home of steel” I felt like we’d forgotten our roots so I set up Navy Professional, manufacturing everything here, and now we are the only UK-based supplier in the industry,’ she explains.
Created in 2018, Navy Professional is one of the most in-demand beauty tool companies in the world, supplying high-quality beauty tools with an anti-bacterial titanium coating. Selling to both professional and consumer markets, their signature products are manicure, lash and brow-based tools, and they also sell other locally-sourced products. ‘Obviously our tools are everything, they are our kind of bread and butter,’ says Rebecca. ‘However, our hero product and something that we actually sell one every minute of is our cuticle balm. Again, sourced locally, it’s made by a really lovely small, family-run business in Malton which is amazing.’
Using customers as their influencers, Navy Professional’s growth has been very organic, and they’re proud to be putting Yorkshire on the beauty map. ‘We ship to 76 countries and our tools are used all over the world, but everything is shipped right here from Yorkshire,’ says Rebecca. ‘We even include a packet of Yorkshire Tea in every parcel that gets sent out as a signature touch.’
navyprofessional.com
Abbey Perfumery
When a big life event put everything into perspective for Jess Brailey she realised she wanted to work for herself doing something she was passionate about. ‘I’ve always loved perfume and with a family that has suffered with Alzheimer’s and dementia I have a bit of an affiliation with scents and how they can evoke memories. So that’s where my interest sparked’, she explains. Now, she has swapped a corporate job in pet care for making perfume from home, and Abbey Perfumery is going from strength to strength.
Named after Beauchief Abbey, they offer a range of high-quality perfumes hand-crafted in Jess’ hometown of Sheffield. ‘It started with a lot of mixing of different oils at home – at one point I counted 300 jars of scents mixed to different strengths – but I finally feel like I’ve made a unique range of scents, all different from each other, and that works really well because there’s something for everyone.’
With the aim of being as inclusive as possible, all of Abbey Perfumery’s products are gender-neutral, vegan-friendly and cruelty-free. ‘A lot of beauty companies aren’t vegan-friendly or cruelty-free,’ says Jess. ‘But that’s something I really wanted to do. They’re also not labelled ‘for men’ or ‘for women’. I’m not going to tell someone what they should or shouldn’t be wearing, I think you should just wear what you like.’
To try Abbey Perfumery, Jess recommends their Discovery Boxes which, delivered straight through your letterbox, are a great way to try out their scents in the comfort of your own home.
abbeyperfumery.co.uk
Clockface Beauty
Multi-award winning Clockface Beauty is a York-based natural skincare brand, run by mother and daughter duo Sarah Thomas and Karen Horsley. Sarah is the creative mind behind the brand, making it her mission to help people know exactly what they’re putting onto their skin. Meanwhile Karen’s experience as a specialist scientist for 30 years is instrumental in product development, working alongside her daughter to ensure that everything they create is tried, tested and trusted. Their all-natural promise means all their products are 100 percent plant and nature-derived, sourced ethically and responsibly, and clearly labelled to help you make a better, more informed choice for your skin.
clockfacebeauty.com
La Piel Botanical
Based in West Yorkshire, La Piel is a natural, botanical skincare and holistic facials company run by mother and daughter team, Anne and Bethan Turner-Harrod. Offering hand-blended products, they use the purest oils and plant extracts to nourish your skin whilst being kind to the environment. Vegan and cruelty-free, the range has been carefully developed to nurture and support you in achieving naturally beautiful healthy skin.
lapielbotanical.com
The Yorkshire Soap Co.
Warren Booth began making soaps in his spare time as gifts for family and friends, and his partner, Marcus Doyle, spotted the business potential in Warren’s kitchen table experiments. Using Marcus’ experience as a chef, the two mixed and muddled ingredients to perfect a recipe that is still their best-kept secret. Best known for their cupcake and cake slice soaps, each product is intricately decorated and presented in elegant pink and brown gift boxes reminiscent of Parisian patisseries. Their hobby had grown to become The Yorkshire Soap Company, a highly successful business with seven shops across Yorkshire. yorkshiresoap.co.uk
Salt + Steam
Salt + Steam are a skincare business based in the heart of North Yorkshire which hand-crafts beauty products with the ultimate trifecta: responsibly-sourced, natural, vegan ingredients, plastic-free packaging that looks great, and totally cruelty-free credentials. Their products include skin-soothing bath salts for ultimate relaxation, facial steams which are the perfect addition to your skincare regime, and exfoliating body scrubs which give you smooth skin full of moisture.
saltandsteam.co.uk
Annwyn Botanicals
A natural botanical skincare brand hand-making products on the North York Moors, Annwyn Botanicals’ mission is to reconnect people to the natural world, and to raise their awareness of the importance of the ingredients they ‘feed’ their skin. With no Parabens or harsh chemicals, their skincare products include hand sanitiser, body wash moisturiser and more, all of which are gentle, luxurious and suitable for even the most sensitive of skin.
annwynbotanicals.co.uk
Cosy Cottage Soap
Cosy Cottage Soap’s story begins with founder Clara producing handmade soaps in the kitchen laboratory of a 350-year-old cottage in Ganthorpe. She became increasingly aware of the potentially harmful effects of detergents, preservatives and additives found in many commercially-produced skincare products whilst recovering from illness in 2015, so using her knowledge as a qualified chemist, Clara began producing natural soaps from home. After much success, the family-run business moved their manufacturing to new premises in the beautiful market town of Malton, where the first Cosy Cottage Store opened a year later, and they now offer a whole host of products including deodorants, body scrubs and shampoos. cosycottagesoap.co.uk
Facetheory
Skincare goes beyond skin deep, and Facetheory aim to address your skin concerns, whatever they may be. They stand for beauty that doesn’t cost the earth, with affordable, clean, vegan and cruelty-free formulas that deliver real results. All their products are produced in Sheffield before being despatched worldwide to over 100 countries, and their range includes everything from cleansers and serums, to makeup and perfume.
facetheory.com
