We meet Shrewsbury Soap/ candle, fragrance maker Lily M.

Shropshire Star

Lily M is based in the Shrewsbury Market Hall, and owner Nisa makes all her own products, including  items for sensitive skin, items with healing properties and items that just smell and look rather nice. We catch up with her to find out more.

Transcript

00:00Lilliam in Shrewsbury and Nisa hello how you doing? I'm good thank you, how are you? I'm good thank you.

00:06So we're here at the market hall and you've been based here as a trader for how long now?

00:12Just under a year. Yep and fill us in what is your what is your shop your store what are you

00:18what's your products? So I basically make skincare and soaps it's like the main products we've got

00:23the soaps here but we also do like shower steamers, lip balms, diffusers, candles,

00:29hand wash, hand lotion, stuff like that. And do you make them yourself? I make everything yeah.

00:33Wow well you it's quite a small unit here you're not you're not making them here are you? No no

00:38so I make them over at the parade. Yeah oh the old hospital? Yes I make them over there and then

00:44yeah just bring them over here and then this is the main sort of selling shop. So how did you

00:48get into this world of soaps then? Just really I started off with the skincare products yeah so

00:53I've got really bad skin so I just wanted to create like a routine to help myself feel better

00:59myself more confidence but also to help soothe the eczema that I had on my face at the time.

01:03Yeah so yeah started off with that. So you came up with a product you thought hang on this is working?

01:09Yeah yeah so originally it was the starter box and then we've just kind of grown from there really

01:15from the skincare to the soaps to the hand wash and hand lotion and then just branched out to

01:20other bits and pieces. So it's not just about pretty smelling soaps there's a there's stuff

01:25to help you like say if you've got certain skin issues going on? Yeah so I'm more for sensitive

01:29skin or we the brand um sort of like tag is delicate essential so yeah they're essential

01:35products that you know most people use every day like the soaps and your skincare for men and women

01:40yeah but they're delicate on the skin as well so help to sort of soothe it. And what's what

01:45are people of Shrewsbury buying then? What's kind of the the big the big thing that people? I'd probably

01:49say the most popular would be the lemongrass bergamot and tea tree hand lotion. Which one's

01:53that then? It's this one here. Okay yeah and you've even gone um you're tailoring it to the time of

02:01year just fill us in on what we've got there next to the label. So we've got our new pumpkin spice

02:05soaps so this is a blend so all the soaps are made of essential oils um and then we've got a

02:10blend of cinnamon nutmeg and clove and then I've put turmeric um turmeric powder in there as well

02:17just to that's fantastic make it it's natural colour but it's kind of orange as well. Yeah and

02:23those ingredients all just help with that that issue if anyone's got sensitive skin? The turmeric

02:27is good for sort of like brightening the skin um and then the clove cinnamon and nutmeg will help

02:32with um any dark spots irritations and stuff like that just help to soothe the skin more.

02:37Yeah and obviously because they're essential oils you've got those aromatherapy benefits as well.

02:42Yeah so do you if I mean you've got the halloween that you know the pumpkin one does that mean

02:46there'll be a christmas kind of special coming out? Yeah so I always do a christmas soap the very

02:50first year I did four christmas soaps. Yeah um I kind of have scaled it back now because uh doing

02:57four christmas soaps is a bit stressful. That's full on yeah. Um so yeah we'll just do we've got

03:01two christmas soaps coming and then I'm also going to do two bath bombs as well um in that

03:05in a christmas scent. So it's a nice little christmas gift for people let's plant that seed.

03:11So where would you like to be in five years from now then do you are you kind of at the scale you

03:16want to be or would you like to kind of keep growing? I think um yeah I definitely want to

03:20keep growing the brand um I see myself on the high street as a high street brand um and then

03:27the premise is where I can make it all as well so yeah something that is that's the goal. So how

03:33do you juggle your time then because I mean it you know you've put in enough hours here I'm sure

03:36so do you have set days in the week where you're kind of doing the production? Um the reason why

03:41the market hall like stood out to me and I kind of went for it was because it's open Tuesday,

03:46Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays so my making days where I go into the braid on Mondays and

03:51Thursdays so they're the main days where I'll make all the soap skincare and just stock up

03:56the shelves really so everything is made within like everything's made weekly so it's all really

04:02like fresh. Oh great so we look forward to um seeing where you take it on that new Christmas

04:07soap coming out. Yeah definitely. Thanks ever so much Nisa. Thank you. Nisa we've got a fantastic

04:12little box here what what's fill us in what's this all about? So this is our new um Christmas

04:16advent calendar yeah um it's my first one I've ever done for the business um so it was a big sort

04:22of pinch me moment when they all arrived um cool and yeah so it's 12 days of Christmas

04:29and what we got in here then is it soaps is it a bit of a mix of products? It's a bit of a mix

04:34but they're also all handmade so I've made them all myself um some business collaborations as well

04:41yeah um and they're all new products so you won't anything that's on the shelf here won't be in the

04:47box apart from the two products that I sell which are our best sellers and the rest of it is all like

04:54sort of unique and limited edition exclusive to the advent only. Fantastic.

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