For Kathy Webb, founder of beauty specialists Palm & Sole, being natural means more than just offering a one-product-suits-everyone philosophy.
“Because we’re hand-blended we can adapt to customers’ needs,” she explains.
“Our tailored approach is very important. When we send a product out from the website I follow it up later with an email to check if it was what they wanted – and to ask if they’d like a different aroma, or an alternative formulation. I want to make everything unique – just like the people that buy Palm & Sole.”
At its heart, Palm & Sole offers a core range of products developed from an intensive mix of indulgent raw plant oils, essential oils and concentrated vitamin E. Its central philosophy of creating inner balance through beauty is distilled through five variants: Three Rose, Grounding, Levelling, Sparkling and Nurturing.
With this in mind it’s not surprising that Webb came to the industry from a holistic background.
“The company really came out of working as a holistic and clinical aromatherapist specilaising in women’s health and beauty,” she says.
“Clients started to ask me to blend new preparations especially for them, and eventually I started taking orders. It’s all grown really organically.”
One of the turning points for Palm & Sole came when Webb impressed the buyer from Jarrold – East Anglia’s biggest independent department store.
“I took in some products to the beauty buyer and they said – ‘It smells wonderful but the packaging looks horrible! If you can make it look great then we’ll stock it.’
“Well I did – and now it’s sold next to products like Dr Haushka’s at the store. It’s a great feeling.”
