La-Eva Studio Tour

Louisa Canham’s beautifully-styled and carefully-curated studio, situated next to a working saw mill in the rolling Oxfordshire countryside, is a feast for all the senses: a visual and olfactory delight where founder of organic skin care brand La-Eva works her alchemy.

Entering up an old metal outdoor staircase into this almost magical place, one feels a lightness of spirit; soothing music plays in the background, incredible scents fill the air and the space is filled with wonderfully tactile, interesting pieces and foraged finds. It has been home to various artists over the last 20 years and many of their tools and creations still have a place here.

THE ROAD TO LA-EVA Louisa used to be a clinical psychologist and having gained an Oxford Doctorate at an early age, spent her 20s and early 30s in the field of child and adolescent mental health, working in a variety of settings such as hospitals, schools and prisons. It seems a stark contrast to her current working life and environment, and yet there are threads that bind the two, such as sensory work that went into the psychological approaches that Louisa used to help the troubled children and young adults in her previous job. Several years ago, Louisa made the decision to take an open-ended break from psychology and came to set up an artisan soap studio where she experimented with natural oils to create beautifully-scented cold process soaps. ‘It was fascinating and, on a personal note, therapeutic, to go from working in environments where the fluidity of the human condition was without measurables, to producing a physical product,’ she shares. There was no doubt a huge step being taken into the unknown for Louisa as she entered an occupation which starkly juxtaposed with her previous clinical and cerebral work. ‘I learnt through disasters,’ she laughs, sharing a funny story about a batch of lavender soap that looked like it contained dead ants! For the first couple of years Louisa sold her products in local markets around Oxfordshire and in due course embraced 5am Sunday morning starts to sell at Spitalfields market in London.

Words: Kay Prestney

Photography: Cathy Pyle