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This article first appeared in our winter ’18 issue of MyGreenPod Magazine, The Resolution Revolution. Click here to subscribe to our digital edition and get each issue delivered straight to your inbox
A company’s best advocate is a happy customer – and Claire and Gareth McKeever were so taken with Pure Lakes’ natural skincare products that they decided to buy the business.
Claire used to be an actress and salsa dance teacher, but lost the appetite for late nights and tours after getting married and having children. ‘I wanted to be at home with my family, watching Strictly rather than trying to be in it!’, she tells us.
The couple dreamed about having a business that reflected their healthy, happy and sustainable lifestyle. They were able to turn that aspiration into a reality when Sandra and Iain, the founders of Pure Lakes, decided to step back from the business.
Pure Lakes is an award-winning natural skincare brand that provides eco-luxe products handmade in the English Lake District. Everything’s made at a workshop near Windermere, meaning that while Pure Lakes is making sure only the highest quality natural ingredients are used, it’s also avoiding the costs of using outside manufacturers. Those savings are then passed on to the customer.
As a result, no one’s priced out of a natural skincare regime: Pure Lakes’ shower gels and hand washes start at just £5 while shampoos, conditioners and body lotions cost just £6. Even the company’s most expensive product – the luxurious Rosehip, Camellia & Kiwi Seed Facial Oil – costs an extremely reasonable £15 (30ml).
The plant-based products are created in small batches, so each customer experiences the nourishing and invigorating ingredients at their freshest and, crucially, most effective.
Click here to find out why Pure Lakes Hydrating Hand Balm is a MyGreenPod Hero
Claire and Gareth were among Pure Lakes’ earliest customers; when Claire started using the nutrient-dense products, which are rich in antioxidants, she almost immediately noticed a change. ‘Literally, within days I could see improvements in the feel and look of my skin and hair’, she says.
Today, the difference is that Claire is personally involved in making every one of the products she fell in love with. ‘It’s the best part of my day!’, she tells us. ‘From melting the beeswax to mixing essential oils.’
Pure Lakes’ packaging is just as vital to the range as the healing properties of the ingredients used; it’s 100% recyclable and, where possible, made from recycled materials. ‘We’ve stopped using normal PET plastic bottles and now use packaging made from a by-product of sugar’, Claire says. ‘It’s great to think we’re using a product that would otherwise have been thrown away.’
In this industry, what’s kept out of products is just as important as what goes in. ‘We will never use parabens, SLS or synthetic ingredients’, Claire says. ‘These chemicals can irritate the skin and strip away its natural oils. There are so many natural alternatives to putting chemicals on your skin.’
Pure Lakes operates an open-door policy; ‘Please do come and visit!’, Claire says. Customers are invited to visit the workshop, ask questions and see exactly how their product is being made.
This business is a labour of love, and Claire and Gareth both say they ‘would be lost’ without the generous support of its founders, Sandra and Iain. ‘Ultimately, we want to carry on spreading the word that plant-based skincare and haircare can be just as – if not much more – effective than the traditional chemical-filled products that are still too common on shop shelves’, Claire says.
Click here to view the full range of Pure Lakes natural skincare products.
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