ABOUT ME
It was in 2000 that I fell in love with soap making after taking a class at Woodridge Estate in the Kzn Midlands. I not only fell in love with the process but with the shop in which the class was held. It was gorgeous. It smelt so good. And everything in the shop was natural.
Sadly the shop no longer exists but it was the first brick in the road of my journey with natural body products and skin care. I was then given a book called The Fragrant Pharmacy, by Valerie Ann Worwood, which laid the second brick and started a love affair with aromatherapy and essential oils which continues today. My children teasingly nicknamed this book ‘the witches Bible’ as I would turn to it to find healing recipes for every little scrape, scratch or sniffle that they had.
The book is now falling apart, but it is still with me and as I type this it is sitting on the desk next to me, loved yet bedraggled but still very well used.
It was in 2015, facing the dreaded “Empty Nest Syndrome” (and yes its a real thing!), that I decided to find something new, exciting and challenging to do.I had owned two businesses before, a baby shop and a gourmet biscuit business so had some experience with running a businss but neither of these were inspiring any more so …
So I started thinking about what I could do. I knew it was always a good idea to look at what you already know or have a passion for. It then struck me that I had many years of experience in soap making, aromatherapy and essential oils, all of which I was passionate about, so why not turn that knowledge into a business and share it with the world. And so, out of necessity and passion, my natural soap company was formed.
The company name, Nude, was a family collaboration that entailed many laughs as we brainstormed ideas. As we all have a very good sense of humour it was decided that to be natural was to go naked and the name Nude was a winner. I still get ‘funny’ looks sometimes when people hear the name but we love it, it says it all, nude is natural.
The sweeping, organic ‘swish’ under the name is based loosely on the perfection of the golden ratio or Fibonacci sequence, as this is something of a fascination in nature. I am always amazed at how perfect nature is.
Today, we are still very much a fledgling business with a big dream. We dream of educating people about the benefits of using nature for health, healing and, hopefully, longevity. We dream of being a company in South Africa that is well known and trusted to provide honest products, whilst helping to improve lives.
Our vision for the future is to provide natural products that are readily, and affordably available to everyone… so that being healthy is a choice not a luxury!