Lucky Cloud Skincare Founder Lucy Cardwell
I met the wonderful Lucy Cardwell on Monday; she is the founder (and CEO, and designer, and maker, and all round girl boss!) of handmade botanical skincare brand Lucky Cloud. I tried some samples of her wonderful cruelty-free products, which include Body butter, Body milk, Body balm and lip butters; the full range is available at The Scottish Design Exchange!
We had a great chat about ethical cosmetics (which you may have noticed is a huge area of interest for me lately!) and being a small business in a big, bad world. Find out more at www.luckycloudskincare.com
Lucky Cloud came about when Lucy was playing around with some DIY lip balm recipes right in her kitchen, and just over a year on, the brand's HQ is at Edinburgh Pallette and sells all over the UK. As well as the delectable fragrances, vitamin rich formulas and body-nourishing qualities, the products are 100% Vegan, containing only natural, plant based and ethically sourced ingredients. Lucy even goes as far as ensuring the packaging is completely environmentally friendly; all products are packaged in fully recyclable PET plastic or glass containers and are sold and shipped in recyclable cardboard boxes and paper bags. Even the adhesives and labels contain no animal products and nothing is ever tested on animals.Keeping it simple for now but hoping to expand further in the future, there are 3 different lotion constituencies for 3 different skin types, and 2 flavour varieties: sweet orange and vanilla, and lavender and rose geranium. The lip butters also come in cocoa, coconut and vanilla, all enriched with essential oils. Lucy's thoughts were that as a small brand, you should start small and build your identity and reputation, and trust and loyalty are particularly important when it comes to skincare.
On the left you can see the full Lucky Cloud range at The Scottish Design Exchange, including some gorgeous cosmetics bags too. I love Lucy's approach to design and merchandising, making sure the product is the star of the show. In terms of marketing, Lucy has found instagram to be the single most important tool, and has really enjoyed finding like-minded communities; something I think all creative individuals, myself included, really thrive on.On a really positive end-note, Lucy encourages everyone to shop for smaller brands and avoid larger corporations, in order to get the most ethical products, and usually the best results, while supporting emerging designers and makers to make their living doing what they love. What's more, Lucy gave me her three best skincare tips to follow (and trust me-I took them seriously coming from someone with totally flawless skin!):
1. Dont strip back too much or overwash and cleanse, including make-up wipes, as heavy soaps/chemicals strip natural oils from the skin and de-regulate skin oil production.
2. Repeated moisturising- every day with a good quality moisturiser that's right for your skin type
3. An obvious one...drink LOTS of water!
