Let's Start at the very beginning....
HELLO AND WELCOME TO FLORIAN BOTANICALS
It is with great joy, excitement (and a good dose of anxiety) that I write this first post. It has been a dream for such a long time and it is with pride that I now face the reality to launch our first two products.
Lovely to meet you, my name is Mignon and I am the founder and formulator at Florian Botanicals. The amount of ideas whirling around in my head is waiting to be shared here on the blog. Although we are a skincare brand, we take a holistic approach to motherhood, and hope to share a range of inspiration to support you on your journey through motherhood. With topics ranging from seasonal craft activities to healthy recipes for the whole family to share. We will also share our thoughts, knowledge and expertise on baby's personal care requirements and needs. We truly hope you will find inspiration and help us to build a strong community of mothers. Please feel free to share your ideas and join in the conversation along the way.
It all began after the birth of my children. Despite the fact that I loved my years of teaching, I found it incredibly difficult to be a good mother and a dedicated teacher at the same time. Some people can, I wasn't one of them. I had to creatively assess the other skills I had and to consider other factors that inspired me in life. The idea of a skincare brand teased my on many occasions but I never really seriously considered it. I found it intimidating to start a business and there are so many fantastic brands out there. Imposter syndrome is a powerful beast, but the dream became bigger than the fear and made room for a willingness to try.
After completing a few short courses with a well-known UK ingredient supplier, I first started making my own natural skincare products back in 2004, inspired by my mother who suffers from lupus. I wanted to create products for her to ease the sensitivities she developed with her skin. The range of natural raw materials and their therapeutic benefits always intrigued me, but I soon realised that our demand for natural ingredients in all aspects of our lives are causing new problems in regards to sustainability. (I will probably bore the living daylights out of you in the future by rambling on about this topic, so I apologies in advance.) As the idea of starting Florian Botanicals grew, I knew I needed to gain more industry specific qualifications and completed a Diploma in Cosmetic Science and Formulation. Through research, product development and testing, successes and failures, we developed a small range of effective, sustainable and ethical products based on green chemistry principles. We are starting off with two products, an innovative massage oil and a versatile nursing balm with complementary products coming soon.
We are truly different as a skincare brand because we formulate and manufacture our own products in small batches to ensure freshness. This gives us total control over the formulations to ensure purity, honesty and efficacy as well as over sourcing our raw materials. Most indie brands use contract-manufacturers where there is little or no input on where raw materials are sourced, unless your contract-manufacturer shares your ethical and environmental views. It is of utmost importance that our ingredient suppliers share our views and communication is key in our relationship with them to ensure traceability, integrity and transparency throughout the supply chain and plays a crucial part in achieving our sustainability goals. We are incredibly proud of our ambitions for the future.
We use high-performance vegan and, where possible, certified organic ingredients. The products in our baby range are fragrance free and designed to nurture and protect your baby's delicate skin. It was developed to be effective, gentle and beneficial to skin's health, not for fragrance.
I am proud of what we have created and am absolutely thrilled to share it with you. We hope you love it too.
With kindness