The Nothing Nasty Story

Elin Ross Pedersen explains how it all started! 

The Beginning

Inspiration for Nothing Nasty came from having my first child, Rebecca, back in 2001. While pregnant, I became ever more conscious of what it was that I was putting in to my body. I wanted to eat the best food I could to give my daughter as good a start as possible. So we began to eat organic and local produce, and tried to follow the seasons as much as possible. When we found food or drinks we liked were made with synthetic or chemical ingredients, I started to make our own natural versions.

Chemical Cleaning

Having a young child also made me re-evaluate all the products we were buying and using in our house. When I read about the chemicals contained in everyday cleaning goods, and of the dangers they pose to our health, I was really shocked. Here I was, innocently wiping noxious chemicals all around our house, from chopping boards where we prepared food, to tables on which my daughter was playing, all with the aim of keeping things as clean as possible. I emblazoned the products – window cleaning bottles, bath creams, surface sprays… - with skull and cross bone labels, to ward off our now young daughter. I decided then to go against the grain, and started making my own homemade cleaning products, using only natural ingredients, and called them “Nothing Nasty”.

Totally toxic

I soon realised this was just the beginning. I was trying to create as natural and healthy a life for my family as possible, but many of the things that surrounded us in our home were unnatural concoctions, stamped with health warnings. Toxic chemicals seemed to lurk in so many of the things on the supermarket shelves. It was really hard to know what was safe to buy and where to buy it all.

Caring skincare?

One of the things I found most scary were skincare products. What was I putting on my daughter’s tender young skin? Previously I had been happy popping into a chemist and buying anything that looked nice from the long rows of lotions, and potions. Now I found myself turning the bottles round to read the small print. I started analysing the ingredients on everything I bought, putting down the well known and trusted brands I had been buying without even realising what was in them! It had never occurred to me before that products claiming to care for your skin might actually contain things that might be dangerous.

R & D

What could I do? Research. I turned to the history books, and spent months and months reading about all the traditional ways of making skin care products, naturally. How did people keep their skin healthy in the past? What have native societies used to look after their skin? What herbs, nuts, and plants produce the best, most beneficial extracts?

Creating concoctions

Having read pretty much every skincare book I could find, I realised it was time to get my hands dirty.

I started making my own skin care products over the kitchen sink – mixing up moisturisers, stirring lip salves, blending hand creams… It wasn’t difficult, just time-consuming.

Street selling

As I fiddled and finessed, I gave my creations as gifts to friends and family. Word began to spread, and I started to get a few enquiries. Would I sell my products? I started with a stall at our local market in Monmouth, Wales. It was freezing standing outside in the winter months, but the stall was the perfect way to get close to people, to hear about their skin care problems and concerns, and based on their feedback, hone my first range of natural skincare products.

Only the best

From the very outset, I wanted to make sure Nothing Nasty’s products were simple, but very effective. When making skincare it’s best to think like a chef preparing a good meal. The ingredients have to be fresh and top notch, the very best you can afford. With such high quality ingredients, you should let them do the talking. Mess around with them as little as possible so they retain all their fantastic healing, nourishing, and healthy properties.

Nothing Nasty

Our products are 100% natural. We wouldn’t consider anything less. The colours you see in our products are naturally occurring colours in our oils and butters. The scents you smell in our products are naturally occurring from the herbs and essential oils that we use. We do not add any synthetic chemicals, perfumes, or preservatives. The ingredients you see listed here on our website are what are actually in the products. Nothing else. We only make skin care products that I like to use on my own and my family’s skin.

We hope you feel inspired to try the natural way of caring for your skin, and are sure you will enjoy it!

If you want to know more about our company philosophy, please click here.