My Story
My passion for nature and all things natural started as a child growing up in the Berkshire countryside, where we were surrounded on all sides by fields and woods. We had a large garden, part of which grew wild and abundant in medicinal plants. My father a horticulturist and botanist was a great lover of wild plants and flowers and delighted in them. His passion clearly rubbed off and I knew that whatever I was going to do in life, it would somehow involve the natural world.
I studied clinical aromatherapy under the tuition of best selling author Patricia Davis and learnt how to make balms and tinctures that were organic. It always fascinated me that for so long this is how many maladies were treated and how we had seemingly lost this knowledge of what nature provides. I was soon to find myself in a position where conventional medicine couldn’t help and nature came to my rescue!
In 2005 I became very ill. After a few weeks I was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome. Determined to get better and having read about people suffering for years and finding no help with conventional medicine, I embarked on a journey of recovery. I firmly believe it was my change to an organic diet and meditation in my garden that aided more than any other thing in my recovery.
Natural remedies
My recovery from this devastating illness required slow, gentle steps.
On days when my condition would allow, I sat in the quiet serenity of my garden. I could feel that being sitting still, surrounded by nature, allowed my body to start healing. During this time, I decided to eat organically and stop using products with harmful chemicals. At that time, finding products without these toxic ingredients was a bit of a task. So, in the garden, I imagined how I might make products that were entirely naturally and free from any synthetic chemicals.
A year sooner than my doctor’s expected, I recovered from my illness, and was finally in a position to put into practise what I had imagined. Six months on, I launched the first certified 100% organic skincare company in the UK. I was immensely proud of this achievement, and ESELLE went on to receive multiple awards and high commendations in several books and magazines.
Sarah McIntyre, ESELLE founder and CEO
Eselle Beginnings
Eselle launched in 2007 and was the first and only certified 100% organic skincare range in the UK. The name was chosen as the letters S and L stood for what we believed in Sustainable Living!
WE started with a range of products for women, babies and healing balms. We became quickly and unexpectedly known and had queries from all over the world.
In 2008 we won best Organic Baby Product and best Organic Body Product at the soil association awards where we were nominated alongside 2 of the biggest organic skincare companies ‘Neals Yard and ‘Origins’. Soon after came highly commended mentions for our body scrub and other products in publications such as ‘The Beauty Bible’. We were also named as one of the top 5 non-toxic companies in the book ‘Toxic Beauty’ by Dawn Mellowship. Our success continues with interviews and articles in Vogue, The Sunday Telegraph, Country Living magazines etc. As we moved forward we looked not just at being organic but how we could become as environmentally conscious as possible. Climate change and its effects were becoming more discussed and the reality of the damage and its causes being accepted and understood. We felt strongly that we wanted to adapt and become more closely aligned with doing something positive. Through much research we are now proud to offer you 4 new products from endangered parts of the world where we give 5 % of every sale to related charities.