For 22 years, I used the same skincare. I was loyal — I trusted the results, but never questioned the ingredients.

Then, at 52, I asked a question I couldn’t believe I’d never asked before:

What is actually in this?

Maybe it was age. Maybe it was the growing conversation around ingredients, or the arrival of ingredient apps that made it easier than ever to look a little closer.

Either way, once I started looking, I couldn’t stop.

I learned about ingredients, then formulation. Eventually, I stopped looking for the skincare I wanted and started making it myself.

And the two things I made did far more than I set out to make them do.

We've been sold the idea that every part of us needs its own separate product. But my balm turned out to be a ten-minute mask, a lip conditioner, a hand cream. The moisturiser goes everywhere — neck, chest, arms — and you need so little that it lasts and lasts.

I hadn't made less for the sake of less. Less was simply all it took.

Today, I know exactly what's in my skincare.

Because I'm making it.

— WENDY FRANKS, FOUNDER