‘What gave you the idea for your business?’

‘Why natural skincare?’

These are probably the most common questions I get asked when I tell someone for the first time that I am the owner of a natural skincare business.

Well…let me tell you…

It all began a long, long, long time ago, back in another lifetime, when I used to run the gift section in a farm shop (it’s an awesome farm shop by the way - Gibson’s in Wingham, Kent - check it out if you’re local!). I started making simple soaps and lip balms to sell and they sold like hot cakes, I couldn’t make enough! I learnt a lot about cosmetic formulation, legislation and about customer wants and needs…

Fast forward, literally ten years and there I was, with my first baby, experiencing classic baby problems, nappy rash, dribble rash, weird red rashy marks, dry skin etc etc. I couldn’t find a baby balm that 1) worked 2) was natural (this baby was NOT going to have any nasty stuff put on her skin!) 3) was plastic free 4)….honestly the list went on and on….

I was also experiencing some kind of identity crisis, possibly a touch of PND, and I started delving back in to my old formulation notebooks. I wanted to CREATE something for my baby, something that was MINE, something that would exercise my brain cells which were gradually turning in to a mushy, sleep deprived, milky puddle…grim.

So I started reading a lot (feeding a baby is great for that!), and tinkering, and formulating and tweaking and eventually I came up with my first balm! A multipurpose baby balm which is the same recipe as I use today.

I wanted to use only British ingredients; this is something I am SUPER passionate about. Championing the amazing British farmers, and the crops they grow whilst supporting the British countryside. I wanted to use ingredients that I knew exactly where they came from and how they were grown. I suppose it’s like food - i’m always very particular about the food we buy, especially meat. I want to know how the animal is reared, what sort of life it has had and what sort of death. Weird I know, and probably a topic for another blog post, but traceability is important to me and I needed to know the ingredients were grown in a way that supported the environment. After much research, phone calls and visits to farms, I chose to use; locally sourced ethically harvested beeswax, organic calendula oil, borage, camelina, amongst other wildflower oils plus British grown lavender essential oil.

The balm worked wonders on my daughter’s skin, honestly, she never had another bout of nappy rash (and my son, born since, has never had nappy rash!),and so I started giving it to friends and family and thinking…there could be something in this!

More reading, and more studying of natural skincare formulation built on my chemistry background and my little ol’ baby balm grew in to a bit of a side hustle! I officially launched my business just after my son was born in July 2019, two years after that first batch of balm and the business has grown and grown since, going through a major rebrand in March 2022, me going full time on it in summer 2022 and having more and more products added to the line.

I am BEYOND excited to see what the future has in store for Hedgewild. But for now I will enjoy creating the skincare products, showcasing the amazing ingredients we grow right here in the British countryside and connecting with likeminded lovely customers.

Kitty x