022. Wild Ona
How daydreaming of childhood Summers inspired a thriving cottage business.
Aromatherapist Bella Middleton has always been fascinated by the power of plants on our wellbeing. From bottling her first natural blends to opening her first store in 2019, Norfolk Natural Living is an Artisan brand to watch.
Here Bella shares a glimpse into their beautifully scented world.
How it all started
Norfolk Natural Living was borne out of this idea, a slow-luxury home care and wellbeing brand, designed to bring a little beauty and even pleasure to our daily rituals.
As an aromatherapist, I have always been fascinated with the benefits plants can have on our wellbeing, which is why I have put nature and craftsmanship at the core of Norfolk Natural Living.
We bottle every formulation by hand and use only natural ingredients formulated with therapeutic blends, designed to improve your wellbeing.
I believe our everyday rituals can be pleasurable, even joyful – from washing the dishes, to doing the laundry each of our products is designed to improve your wellbeing.
The team
We have a small team in our workshop in Norfolk who blend, bottle and create everyone of our products.
We also post all of our online orders from our workshop too – which is where I’m based most days.
We then also have all our wonderful retail team who keep our stores open and customers happy.
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My working day
Every day is different, juggling the children and the shops and new product development is sometimes a little difficult.
Most days I’m based in the workshop creating new products and helping my team.
We have just recently redecorated the office to make it a fun working space – we’ve even put up paper chains from the ceiling to give it that extra boost of fun!
Our Products
Everything is mixed, bottled and labelled by hand in our workshop in Norfolk!
Once we have selected and blended every oil (it’s different for every scent) – we leave it to ‘age’ sometimes for months, even up to a year.
I love to see how the scent develops – as the oils bind together so the flavour enhances.
Working with natural oils – the times they are harvested, the weather during the season all affect how the oil will smell and blend – I find it simply magical.
Once I think it’s just right – we’ll use that formula for each product!
Lots of time goes into each product and I am so proud of that!
Memorable moments
I’ve been super lucky to have collaborated with some fantastic brands – we created a dog cologne for Sandringham Estate which was really exciting – It was also known as the “corgi cologne” – I remember when it went into the Sun and daily mail and we had numerous phone calls asking us about it! I couldn’t believe it.
A memorable product story has to be when I was working on the formulation of our scented vinegar – I thought a Sea Salt fragrance would be really great – I failed to realise it would just smell like Fish and Chips..! So now there’s just Rose and Lavender. Phew.
Our vision
We would love to encourage even more people to shop small and become part of the eco-cleaning movement.
In today’s current climate, it’s important to take a more responsible approach to our lifestyle choices in order to protect the environment and our health.
I really do believe life is enough of a challenge without having to worry about what is in our cleaning products let alone our food.
My dream would be doing what I’m already doing – but hopefully more of it!
There’s still lots to do! This is an ongoing journey for me and my team, and our goal is to make tangible changes that make a real difference.
We always love having feedback from customers and we would love to hear from anyone if they have any ideas!
Thank you Bella for sharing your story and your mission to make our day-to-day rituals so beautiful.
It’s a joy to have so many scents to choose from, whether for washing our dishes or our hair or just wanting that little bit of luxurious scent on our skin.
I can’t wait to visit your new store when I’m next heading to the cost!
-Lyndsey
How daydreaming of childhood Summers inspired a thriving cottage business.
The quiet rebels who are tearing up the whisky rulebook and being led by nature.
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