Sherron Culver is a Skin Specialist, Cosmetic Chemist and Aromatherapist based in West London. Her skincare products pay tribute to her Bajan heritage and celebrates the invaluable contribution of the Windrush generations influence on the UK beauty industry. Her formulations combine raw cosmetic ingredients that have long been cherished by people of the African diaspora with British raw ingredients, representing how the two cultures skincare practices have merged. Her products are handmade in small batches in London.
We spoke with Sherron to find out more about her luxury balms and her business.
What attracted you to your craft?
I’ve been a qualified skin specialist for over 20 years so I was always obsessed with skincare and raw ingredients. I’ve always been fascinated with how they worked on the skin, where they worked on the skin and why they work on the skin.
What does your typical day look like?
A typical day for me starts when I wake up I try to meditate for 5-10 minutes, then sometimes I’ll go to the gym in the mornings because I get a lots of ideas and inspirational thoughts while I’m working out plus it gives me energy and motivation for the rest of the day. As I only do this part-time, my day would be spent working as an Aesthetician performing facial treatments. If I have time after my treatments, I’ll be make products, research ideas and manage administrative tasks.
Do your beauty balms have an environmental focus?
Yes, our products were created with sustainability at the forefront of our minds. Over 90% of our ingredients are organic, ethically sourced and sustainable. We source all our raw ingredients from UK based small businesses who have full traceability for their products. Our essential oils are purchased from UK based family farm who grow and distill their own oils. Each raw ingredients in our product has a full history from ‘seed to bottle’ to ensure our products are of the highest standard and quality.
Because I work in the spa and beauty industry I see a lot of waste therefore I wanted to create something that was made from recycled materials. To ensure minimum waste and maximum freshness our balms are handmade in small batches with 100% natural, organic, vegan ingredients from trusted suppliers, and packaged in recyclable, Kraft cardboard to minimise our environmental footprint.
What is the unique selling point of your balms?
Our balms are unique because they are packaged in recyclable Kraft cardboard jars. We wanted to honour the skincare practices of people of the African Diaspora who traditionally would wrap a balm like ours in some form of recycled packaging usually parchment paper or a wax cloth. We felt that packaging them in recycled cardboard was a more convenient consumer, friendly version of this but still keeping the authentic feel. Our products are made with a combination of high quality exotic butters and oils such as; Barbados cherry, Cupuaçu, Mango butter, Meadowfoam seed oil, squalene and Vitamin E just a few of the ingredients.
Where do you source your inspiration?
I find inspiration from a lot of my childhood memories from the skincare and grooming practices of my Barbadian mother (hence Bajan Beauty Balm). She used a lot of traditional ingredients on me as a child and that has stuck with me to this day. This is the reason I became interested in cosmetic science. The essential oil blends were created from evoked memories. For example; Spring awakening, reminds me of a geranium plant which sat in the sitting room window. I liked rubbing the leaves to release its aromatic fragrance. Exotic butters and oils such as; Barbados Cherry, Argan oil, Shea butter and Aloe Vera Coco Butter were all part of my upbringing.
Please can you provide a little more info on how your interest in cosmetic science started and developed?
Working with cosmetic ingredients every day really inspired me to want to learn more about how formulations were created.
Do you have any favourite items in the collection?
My favourite scent is Caribbean Spice because it reminds me of my mum baking cakes, she would often use vanilla, nutmeg and oranges. I would love smelling those scents throughout the house.
How would you summarise your collection in a sentence?
A luxury multi-purpose skincare balm suitable for the whole family.
What are your hopes for the future? where would you like to take your
brand?
I would like to see Bajan Beauty Balm stocked in some retail stores such as Libertys, Selfridges, Harrods and Harvey Nichols highlighting the stories and the journey of the Windrush generation and how their grooming practices and skincare products sowed the seed to the industry we have today. Without them there would be no Coco Butter or Aloe Vera in your moisturiser, no Argan oil in your hair mask, no Monoi for baby massage. No eyebrow threading, no sugaring hair removal.