Personal Care
Everyday care doesn't need to be complicated
These are the products we use again and again — to wash our hands, cleanse our skin and keep ourselves feeling fresh.
And somewhere along the way, particularly since COVID, we have become very accustomed to the idea that antibacterial means better.
Antibacterial hand washes. Antimicrobial wipes. Antibacterial cleaning products. The idea that the more microorganisms we kill, the cleaner — and safer — we must be.
But more isn't necessarily better.
Does everything need to be antibacterial?
For ordinary handwashing, soap and water already do an extremely good job. Soap helps loosen oils, dirt and microorganisms from the skin so they can be rinsed away.
We don't need an antibacterial product every time we wash our hands simply to get them clean.
Some of the botanicals I use in Nurturing Skin products also have traditionally recognised antimicrobial properties. I see that as a welcome additional quality, but that isn't what they're really there to do, and I don't rely on them to make these products clean effectively.
The soap or cleansing ingredients already do that job.
Our skin is a living ecosystem
It has its own complex microbiome — a community of microorganisms that forms part of the skin's natural ecology and helps support its protective barrier.
You could think of some of these resident microorganisms as part of a protective army. They occupy space, interact with our immune defences and help make the skin a less welcoming environment for potentially harmful microorganisms.
When we continually try to kill microorganisms on our skin, however, we aren't necessarily distinguishing between the organisms we don't want and those that form part of this protective ecology.
Does that mean occasional use of an antibacterial product will destroy your skin microbiome? No. That isn't what I'm suggesting.
Could constantly trying to eliminate more and more microorganisms be unnecessary and potentially counterproductive? I think that is a much more reasonable question.
How much is too much? I can't tell you.
But if ordinary soap or hand wash is cleaning your skin effectively, I see little reason to continually ask it to do more.
There are, of course, situations where additional infection-control measures are appropriate. I'm talking about ordinary everyday personal care.
Effective doesn't have to mean harsh
I am very sensitive to strongly fragranced cleaning products. At my gym, for example, antimicrobial wipes are provided for cleaning treadmills and exercise tables. I tried using them because I wanted to do the right thing, but the fragrance they released into the air was simply too much for me.
At the same time, people move from those machines to weights and other equipment that may not have been wiped down at all.
It made me question the idea that we can — or need to — sanitise every surface and every interaction in ordinary life.
None of this means accepting a product that doesn't work.
Gentleness isn't much use if a hand wash doesn't clean your hands, a soap doesn't clean your skin, or a deodorant doesn't leave you feeling fresh.
For me, effectiveness and gentleness need to belong together.
That is what I wanted from this small Personal Care collection: products that do their everyday job properly, avoid unnecessarily strong fragrance, and don't try to turn ordinary personal care into a battle against every microorganism we encounter.
Clean effectively. Keep things simple. And respect the living skin underneath.
Explore the Personal Care Collection
Botanical Tallow Cleansing Bar
For simple, everyday cleansing without unnecessary complication.
A traditional tallow-based soap made with carefully chosen botanical ingredients for cleansing hands and body. It produces a satisfying lather and rinses away cleanly, leaving the skin feeling fresh without relying on antibacterial claims or heavily fragranced formulations.
Botanical Hand Wash
For clean hands without turning every wash into an antibacterial exercise.
A gentle vegan hand wash for frequent, everyday use. It cleans effectively while keeping the formulation simple and the fragrance restrained — particularly important for something we may use many times throughout the day.
The aim isn't to sterilise the skin. It's simply to wash your hands well.
Botanical Tallow Deodorant
For everyday freshness without overwhelming fragrance.
A solid botanical deodorant combining tallow, infused coconut oil, mineral powders and carefully chosen botanicals. Created to help manage everyday odour while keeping the formulation straightforward and avoiding the strong synthetic fragrances found in many conventional deodorants.
