EXPERT INTERVIEW WITH THE BEAUTY KITCHEN

1) Please explain your journey as ‘The Beauty Kitchen’ so far.

The Beauty Kitchen was started by Jo-Anne Chidley, a qualified analytical chemist who was disillusioned with the wealth of ‘un-natural’ products available.

With a philosophy of 100% natural, 100% effective, we set out over an extensive two year research and development stage to source the best ingredients and develop the best products with no compromise: “It would have been much quicker to bring products to market that were 95% natural but that’s not what I wanted to do.”

This has often meant a lengthier process of developing products, but also a great deal more ingenuity, with the Beauty Kitchen shower gel using potato starch as its foaming agent instead of sodium laurel sulphate!

Initially tried and tested on family, these now established products are available to buy online or in the Glasgow store or you can make them at our workshops.

The philosophy of complete transparency when it comes to ingredients really comes to fruition in store, where you are able to develop and customise your own products. With guidance from the Beauty Kitchen ‘head chef’ you select the ingredients and are shown how to blend them in order to create a product. Many of the ingredients have a British provenance e.g.  beeswax from Jo-Anne’s own beehives.

2) What has been the biggest or most memorable event you’ve provided?

Craig Alexander Wilson – Beauty Editor for the Daily Record and Sunday Mail –“ The apron was on and I was elbow deep, mixing up my very own body scrub. I loved it!”

https://www.5pm.co.uk/health-beauty/beauty-spot/issue-68/

3) Is there any inside information you can give us?

“There is so much choice out there, it can be really confusing for you the customer. Our philosophy is to keep it simple, and offer the customer complete transparency.”

“For many of us choosing new products can be a real minefield and having the opportunity to talk to the people who are behind both making and selling the products offers a certain re-assurance.”

Our fantastic ingredients that we have on our doorstep, or in our back garden! From honey to stinging nettles, lavender, rosemary and rosehip, the British countryside offers a wealth of fantastic natural remedies.

With many of us looking to more natural remedies, these make fantastic ingredients for many of the new products coming to market. And that’s what we do at Beauty Kitchen is support you in making the most of what’s available on your door step

4) Do you have any exciting plans for the future that you’d like to tell us about? 

We are just about to Launch our skincare range with Fresh Face Mask Workshops

5) What would you say is your most frequently asked question?

Is it suitable for children?

Yes as long as they are accompanied by an adult – the youngest we have had so far is a 6 yr old boy

Do you get to keep the products you make? – yes all of them and we make sure that you leave with perfect products!

How many people in a workshop?

There can be a maximum of 12 however the average size is 6