Pytchley woman's new firm to help clean skin and the environment

A Pytchley woman is hoping her new business can help clean both people’s skin and the world’s oceans.

Lucy Astbury launched The Sweet Skin Co – a vegan, all-natural skincare brand – earlier this month and has already seen her products fly off the shelves.

And she’s teamed up with Empower, a Scandinavian platform which takes waste plastic out of the environment and recycles it, to do her bit for the planet too.

Every sale from her business will yield 2kg of plastic waste removal, with customers able to trace the location where plastic was collected on their behalf and see images of the clean-ups they’ve helped to fund.

The 33-year-old’s desire to help out and be a bit more green came after a trip to Mexico in 2019. During the holiday she was fortunate to see some marine life and coral, but also saw a lot of plastic in the ocean.

She said: "That’s what made me change my opinion on how to approach things.

"We want to do things in the most eco-friendly way where possible.”

The idea to set up the new business came during the Covid lockdowns. Lucy has run The Secret Garden Skincare from Holcot for a number of years, but when salons were forced to close when the pandemic hit she decided to begin making skincare kits.

She posted them out and got a lot of orders so decided to turn it into a business of its own.

Working with a UK-based laboratory, The Sweet Skin Co range includes a mud mask, scrubs and oil as well as accessories such as pads and brushes.

Lucy said it’s scary to launch a new business in the current economic climate but that she’s had a lot of support and that she aims to make sales around the world.

And she’s hoping her story can help empower other women to get into business.

She said: "If someone like me can do it then others can definitely can do it. It would be brilliant to inspire more women into business.”