Sisters aim to drive change with their natural beauty products

More and more people are choosing to avoid chemical-laden products and take a more nature approach to personal care.

Sisters Suzanne and Eve Carnall set up The Green Woman, based in Ludlow, in 2013 and produce deodorants, creams and coconut oil that are 100 per cent natural, certified organic and vegan.

It all started when climate activist Eve, who has degree in chemistry and a masters in environmental decision making, began making her own products at home.

"I was experimenting living without money at that time. I started to make my own products out of necessity.

"My background is in chemistry and what that has given me is a knowledge of why we shouldn't use all these synthetic chemicals. I starting making my own and I gave some to Suzanne as a present," she explains.

Mother of two Suzanne, who has previously run an online consultancy business, says she was "absolutely blown away" by the quality of the natural deodorant.

Having previously been unable to find one that worked for her, she immediately saw the potential in Eve's product.

"At the time I was on maternity leave. I used to have a very corporate career but I wanted something that was ethical, flexible and more rounded," explains Suzanne.

Together they began making and selling their Fit Pit deodorant from home. It proved hugely popular and it wasn't long before they were recruiting more people to make the product.

Their range of deodorants contain bicarbonate of soda, which they say subtly alters skin's natural pH, preventing smell causing bacteria from thriving, and coconut oil and shea butter which moisturises the skin as well as essential oils for fragrance.

They have since gone on to develop a range of Green Cream natural moisturisers and an organic extra virgin coconut oil.

They are also due to launch a toothpaste this month followed by a suncream in May.

The Green Woman now operates from premises at Ludlow's Rural Enterprise Centre where all the products, which are all vegan and certified as organic by the Soil Association COSMOS Beauty and Wellbeing scheme, are made by hand.

They say more people are making the switch to natural products after becoming concerned about the amount of synthetic ingredients being used in the cosmetics industry.

These are often used because they are much cheaper than the natural alternatives but the full long term effects on our bodies and environment, when they are washed down the plughole, is not yet known.

"People shouldn't have to be chemistry experts to pick the soap they want to use on their body. There are so many things that if customers knew about them, they wouldn't want," says Eve.

"People are becoming more aware of what they are putting on their body. So many people have skin allergies and they are realising that some of it is exacerbated by all these different products they are putting on their body," says Suzanne.

The sisters don’t use bulking agents or any unnecessary ingredients in their products so a little goes a long way. "We make beautiful products that are natural," says Eve.

"We are not here to make people buy more products," says Suzanne. "We're here to provide alternatives for things they are already buying that are better for them and better for the environment."

Suzanne and Eve. whose team includes their brother Anthony, are also passionate about running their business in a way that has minimal impact on the environment.

"In every aspect of what we do, we are always thinking: how can we make this more environmentally friendly?," explains Eve.

"We buy things from suppliers and sometimes they would send them wrapped in plastic so we wrote to them and said: we would really like it if you could send them without the plastic. We had great success."

Every product is labelled clearly so that customers can see all the organic ingredients and all of the packaging they use is reusable, then recyclable or compostable.

They also offer a jar returns scheme whereby people can drop off their empty containers at their local stockist or send them directly to The Green Woman.

The jars are then cleaned and sterilising before being refilled with more of the products and going back on the shelves.

"More and more people are returning their jars. I think people are realising that waste doesn't just magically disappear, it's building up somewhere," says Eve.

They have 150 stockists across the country, who all share the same ethical values and include refill and zero waste shops, such as Green Options Zero Waste in Shrewsbury and EcoWulf in Wolverhampton, vegan shops and holistic health stores.

The sisters both feel a great sense of responsibility towards the environment and are pleased to be playing a part in driving social change.

"You can do a lot of good through a business because every single product that is bought is one less toxic product being made and one less plastic product ending up in landfill," says Eve.

"I get to go to work and feel really proud of what we do," adds Suzanne.

See thegreenwoman.co.uk