 Our EthosWe are a friendly, family-owned, British company, and we employ local mums - all of us need to work flexibly.
Our logo is the handprint of my youngest daughter. To us, this represents our Ethos:
1) We are real people
2) We put people first
3) We are open and honest about our products
4) We want to create natural products that you can trust to make you feel good
5) All of our products are between 90 and 100% natural. No unnecessary chemicals and 'gloop'.
(and we know these issues are important to you too).
Oh - and one other thing - we use only packaging that is
1) simple,
2) recyclable, and
3) made in the UK.
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 Our StoryFeel for This® was created by me: Dr Hazel MacTavish, a British/Australian plant scientist. I have over 20 years experience in plant science, and I specialise in the natural colours, fragrances, flavours and bioactive ingredients in fruits, vegetables and flowers, as well as herbal extracts.
So what exactly are my qualifications and experience? I studied Agricultural Science at the Uni of Sydney, Australia, and became intrigued about why plants produce natural chemicals such as caffeine - what role do these molecules play in the life cycle of the plant? I moved back to Tasmania and spent two years researching microalgae (plankton) and the natural sunscreens they produce to protect themselves from increased UV light as a result of the ozone hole passing across Tasmania. Then followed a total of almost 8 years spent at University again, doing a PhD and postdoctoral work on the Australian native flower Boronia megastigma (Brown Boronia - the fragrance from which is now used in our Rosy Glow BathPod!). I researched all aspects of fragrance production in the flowers of this species, and became what some people describe 'an international expert' in flower fragrances and how flowers control the production of fragrance. Did you know that some flowers send out more fragrance when its sunny, some flowers send out more fragrance at night, and if you move flowers from one environment to another they can take up to 3 days to get back into their normal rhythms - a bit like jet lag?
At the same time, I got married and produced two baby girls and then moved back to the UK. I taught at Imperial College on a mixed bag of topics including rose fragrance, onion flavour and potato sweetness! I have published over 22 papers and book chapters on these subjects, but I am not publishing my work any more.
I became very tired of the uncertainty of employment in academia, and moved out into industry in 2001, working with farmers, manufacturers and retailers in the food and pharmaceutical/cosmetic industries. I applied my knowledge of how plants produce things like flavours, fragrances, colours, toxins, and bioactives such as antioxidants, to help farmers produce better crops (everything from marshmallow to parsnips, lettuce to peppermint oil), to assist cosmetic companies develop new ingredients, and retailers to understand about flower fragrance. I set up a laboratory in Cambridgeshire, established to analyse the bioactives in herbs and plants using modern analytical equipment.
Whilst this was great fun, with a young family, more control over working hours was required. I established my own, independent consultancy, MacTavish Consulting Ltd (www.mactavishconsulting.co.uk) in 2004 - and I still do consultancy. I continued with similar work, but was able to work more flexibly with clients.
An abiding interest in personal care products, and natural versions of these led to the creation of Creative Botanicals Int. Ltd., which owns the Feel for This® brand.
With Feel for This, I passionately wanted to replace the fake 'gloop' that sits on most shelves in supermarkets and chemists across the country. Products which market themselves as 'natural' or containing 'extract of this flower' or 'that leaf', and which actually contain a complicated list of synthetic, in some cases petroleum-based, ingredients, and within which the actual content of natural ingredient was less than 1%. Bottles of stuff with 99% 'gloop' and 1% good stuff.
After much research, I found a company to work with, which understood what I was trying to do (Products with 90%PLUS 'good stuff' and only enough 'gloop' to satisfy legal requirements for stability).
I also worked with one of the best natural perfumers in the world to create natural fragrance blends using unusual ingredients - and this is how Boronia fragrance came to be used in our products.
We hope you will enjoy our products as much as we enjoyed creating them!
Dr Hazel MacTavish, Jan 2008.
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