The Little Book of NEAL’S YARD R EMEDIES
Celebrating 30 years of organic excellence
MADE IN
B R I TA I N
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We’re passionate about transforming people’s lives, by empowering them to live more healthily through the power of nature. Eucalyptus, antiseptic and stimulating
Our MISSION To encourage a more natural, holistic way of health, beauty and wellbeing.
Our BELIEFS Safety We believe in safe cosmetics. So you won’t find parabens, mineral oils, synthetic fragrances and many other ‘nasties’, found in other skincare, in any of our products.
Effectiveness We believe our products should meet the highest standards of efficacy, and benefit not just the body but also the mind and wellbeing too. We achieve this by using potent herbs, tinctures, essential oils and botanical extracts in our formulations and through ongoing research with leading universities.
Environment We believe in protecting our precious planet. We use sustainably-sourced natural and organic ingredients. We use recycled and recyclable packaging, and we avoid polluting, toxic or harmful substances.
Empowerment We believe in people helping people. By sharing our knowledge and listening to our customers and staff, we strive to inspire and empower people to live long, happy, healthy lives. This little book is our way of sharing this passion with you, a passion that has been at the heart of NYR since the very beginning, 30 years ago. 1
HEALTH inside and out
Health is at the heart of all we do. The tree in our logo symbolises our belief that beauty is the outer expression of inner health. Every one of our products is designed to enhance your beauty by enhancing your health, from the inside with our herbs and natural remedies, and from the outside with our effective organic skincare formulations and pure essential oils. 2
The tree is our beauty. The roots are our health. The two should be in perfect balance. 3
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Our original shop in Neal’s Yard, shortly after the name changed from Neal’s Yard Apothecary to Remedies, 1983.
GREEN shoots
Garden mint, energising, cooling and refreshing
We opened our doors on 4th December, 1981 in Neal’s Yard, a once forgotten corner of Covent Garden, in the heart of central London, England. Our founder, Romy Fraser, a former teacher with a passion for natural, ethical, holistic health, beauty and wellbeing, planted the seeds for what was to become the UK’s foremost destination for natural and organic beauty and wellbeing. Just like our shops today, the original store was fitted out with reclaimed materials. Discarded wood from local theatres became shelves, Romy was given a slab of marble which became the shop counter, and old sweet jars were carefully washed out and used to store the many varieties of dried herbs. From these small beginnings we grew into a world leader in organic healthy beauty.
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The PIONEER spirit Our eco-principles have set us apart from the beginning. We are the UK’s: FIRST certified organic health and beauty company. FIRST high street retailer to sell certified organic essential oils. FIRST company to produce Soil Association certified cosmetics.
St John’s wort, a natural anti-depressant
FIRST CarbonNeutral® high street retailer. We were one of the FIRST companies in the UK to launch beauty and skincare products enriched with Fairtrade certified ingredients. We are the UK’s LARGEST high street retailer of therapeutic herbs. We offer the UK’s LARGEST range of certified organic health and beauty products. 7
“If one way be better than another, that you may be sure is nature’s way.” Arisotle For many years I have been a passionate advocate of organic living and empowerment through knowledge. Today, through Neal’s Yard Remedies, I’m able to combine these passions, and our highly effective organic products are winning many devotees, and awards! But best of all, through sharing my passion for health and organic living, we are helping to protect the health and environment for the next generation too.
Peter
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Echinacea, boosts the immune system
The Kindersley family, back row: Eric, Rosie, Poppy, Juliet, Peter, Barnabas and Anabel. Front row: Orlando, Max and Lily Rose.
INSPIRATIONAL beginnings After many years nurturing and growing the brand, Romy felt it was time to return to her ďŹ rst love of teaching. The Kindersley family, long time supporters of organic living, jumped at the chance to extend their expertise into natural health and beauty, and bought the company in 2005. Today we are proud to continue as a great little company – completely independent, British and family-owned – with a big reputation for world class products. Being privately-owned means that the company is free to follow its core beliefs. To us, the social and environmental cost of ingredients is more important than the price. By choosing to support sustainable, organic harvesting and fair trade programmes, we believe we can be a positive force for change. 9
Frankincense We are the modern-day pioneers of Frankincense skincare, an ingredient revered for over 2000 years for its incredible aromatic and skin-enhancing properties.
The frankincense tree, source of our precious rejuvenating frankincense resin, grows wild in the hot, arid desert.
Our Frankincense Hydrating Cream is a multi award-winner
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Award-winning BEAUTY A customer favourite, our Frankincense Hydrating Cream is a perfect example of our expertise in fusing the power of plants with cutting-edge green science. Formulated to keep skin soft and fresh, while reducing the appearance of fine lines, Frankincense Hydrating Cream has surpassed all expectations. In independent research, conducted by Kingston University, London, our unique blend of plant extracts was proven to contain 16 antioxidants, and was formulated in such a way that the effectiveness of each ingredient was actually enhanced. No wonder it continues to be an award-winner year after year, inspiring our precious Rejuvenating Frankincense skincare collection. And no wonder we’ve become known as the ‘Home of Frankincense’. Frankincense resin, nature’s ‘rejuvenator’ 11
Natural Health Director Susan Curtis
Head of Formulations Dr Dharmini Dhushyanthan
Head Herbalist Dragana Vilinac
Research & Development Director Dr Pauline Hili
GREEN science “Unlocking the power of plants is key to the innovation behind our products. Working with our exciting research # supply chain helps to make it all happen.� Pauline
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Figwort, helps relieve dry skin problems
The brains behind our BEAUTY Pauline and her team of formulators not only create our award-winning products, they also have an ongoing ingredient research programme to maximise their effectiveness. In 1997, in conjunction with the University of Westminster, London, we published scientiďŹ c research on the antimicrobial properties of 60 essential oils. This led to the launch of our Palmarosa skincare collection. In 2003, Dharmini completed a PhD studying the antimicrobial properties of plant extracts with a view to replacing conventional preservatives. Our White Tea Toning Eye Gel is preservative free. In 2009, our research with Kingston University, London, found that white tea protects against the break-down of both elastin and collagen, reducing the risk of age-related wrinkles. Our White Tea range is a customer favourite. 13
Catherine, Trina, Neil (Production Manager), Lorna, Jeanette and Susie #
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% reach you in perfect condition.
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Made by US Being small means being able to pay attention to detail and get things right. Our state-of-the-art eco-factory in Dorset is where the magic happens. All of our products are handmade in small batches, using high quality natural and certiďŹ ed organic ingredients, to ensure they are as fresh and effective as possible. Our fantastic production team, seen opposite, then get to work ďŹ lling, labelling and packaging our products, checking every single bottle, jar and tube by hand to ensure quality and consistency. We believe it is this care and attention to detail that has made us the multi award-winning, high quality health and beauty brand we are today.
& ! nature’s super soother 15
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' % ! at Sheepdrove Organic Farm in Berkshire.
Marigold, antiseptic and healing
HEALING herbs Nature provides a medicine cabinet full of extraordinary herbs and owers, which form the basis for many modern medicines. With proven therapeutic properties to help ease stress, boost health, improve skin conditions and beneďŹ t body, mind and mood, herbs and essential oils are at the heart of everything we produce. Today we grow many of our organic herbs ourselves, at our eco-factory in Peacemarsh, Dorset, and Sheepdrove Organic Farm high on the Lambourn Downs in Berkshire. We also make sure we know the origins of every herb and ingredient we use.
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Fair trade organic damask rose buds, handpicked before sunrise to protect their precious oil.
Smell the DIFFERENCE Using essential oils creates a perfect balance between an art and a science. An essential oil is the pure essence of a ower or plant. It helps to keep the plant healthy and attracts insects for pollination. When you peel a mandarin, smell a rose or squeeze a sprig of rosemary, it is the essential oil you can smell. Aromatherapy is the art of using essential oils to trigger powerful emotional, psychological and physical reactions. The oils can help relieve the symptoms of stress, encourage healing and help reduce inammation. We only ever use natural essential oils to fragrance our products. Synthetic parfums/fragrances can hide a cocktail of potentially harmful chemicals, which may never have been tested for human safety. All of our essential oils are 100% pure and unadulterated. 19
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* ! +/ 2# 4 % Sheepdrove Organic Farm, being made into tincture.
Capturing the ESSENCE We have 148 varieties of plant tinctures (a medicinal herbal extract). Here’s how we make Marigold tincture: Marigold flowers are hand-picked in the morning, when the flowers are at their best. The fresh flower heads are then combined with certified organic alcohol and fresh spring water, before being left to macerate in air-tight containers for three weeks. Once fully brewed, the contents are decanted into a linen bag, then placed in a stainless steel drum where a mechanical press forces it through a sieve, separating the liquid from the plant material. This then goes through a second filter to ensure purity. After quality control checks, the tincture is added to our award-winning skincare and herbal remedies, or bottled for sale. Mugwort, a mild digestive tonic 21
CERTIFIED organic Skincare, unlike the food you eat, has few legal regulations preventing it from being falsely labelled ‘organic’. This means that a product can be marketed as organic without containing any organic ingredients at all, or could even include ingredients known to be harmful to people or the planet. We have chosen the Soil Association to independently certify our organic products, as they are internationally recognised for their very high standards. We also use ingredients certified organic by America’s USDA. Soil Association certification guarantees that a product contains the highest levels of certified organic ingredients, with no harmful synthetic chemicals. Lemon balm, the stress-busting ‘herbal hug’ 22
Why we choose ORGANIC Organic ingredients are grown under tight regulations which ban the use of harmful chemical fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides. Being harvested from strong, naturally healthy plants, organic ingredients contain higher levels of natural antioxidants, vitamins and essential fatty acids. Tens of thousands of man-made chemicals have been created in the last 50 years; most have never been tested for safety on humans or wildlife. Choosing organic means not being exposed to them. By supporting organic farming we are not only looking after our own health, we are acting as responsible stewards for our environment – protecting the air, water, soil and wildlife from chemical contamination, both for our future and our children’s future. 23
DESIGNED for life Sunrise at our eco-factory in Dorset, England, where we grow many of our herbs and make our award-winning organic products.
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5 ! ! ! $
! 6 plant species to encourage biodiversity.
Solar panels on our specially angled roof supply electricity
,`P ;zQF\ Our purpose-built eco-factory is designed to be as resource-effi fficcient as possible. Rainwater is collected for use in t he garden, ‘grey’ water from manufacturing is recycled to flush t he toilets, t he offi fficces are kept naturally cool wit h a roof-height air vent system and large (highly insulated) windows t hroughout the building maximise natural light. We compost plant and food waste, and with a little help from the wormery, t his feeds t he soil to keep our herbs in top condition. Our state-of-the-art eco-factory is built with an oak timber structure at its heart, and is clad in untreated larch wood.
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Beekeepers around the world have reported catastrophic losses of their honeybee colonies, in what is called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). With two-thirds of all major crops relying on pollination, this is having a huge impact. Organic farming works in harmony with nature, banning chemical pesticides, fungicides and herbicides which have been linked to the decline in wildlife such as birds, insects and honeybees. 26
Less is MORE We work hard to minimise our impact on the environment. We use sustainably-sourced natural and certified organic ingredients. We even grow some ourselves at our eco-factory, so they’ve zero-transport miles! Our plastic bottles are made from 100% post-consumer recyclate. Our blue glass is fully recyclable, while the dark blue pigment reduces the amount of light reaching the contents – allowing us to create natural skincare with few, if any, preservatives. Wherever possible our paper and card, including this little book, is a mix of recycled and FSC approved material, printed with vegetable-based inks. We’ve chosen 100% renewable energy tariffs for our stores and eco-factory, installed 200m2 of solar panelling at our eco-factory in Peacemarsh, and we are the UK’s first high street retailer to be awarded the CarbonNeutral® mark. 27
Pure NYR We’re not against science, in fact we use it all the time. Our formulations are a blend of natural ingredients and innovative cutting-edge ‘green science’. But we do advocate making sure we are fully aware of the effects of ingredients before they are allowed into our bodies and environment. We follow the ‘Precautionary Principle’ when formulating our products, and do not use anything we believe could do you, or the planet harm. NO Parabens
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If in doubt we leave it out NO Nano Technology These are artificially created particles of miniscule size (100 times smaller than a human cell). They carry unknown risks, and some have recently been classified as carcinogens by the World Health Organization.
NO Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) The long term effects to individuals and the environment are still unknown. Shockingly, no independent research has been allowed without approval from the GMO companies themselves!
NO Synthetic Fragrance The listings ‘parfum’ and ‘fragrance’ can cover a multitude of un-named chemicals. We only use pure essential oils to naturally fragrance our products.
NO Parabens, EDTA, DEA, Carbomer or Propylene Glycol There is evidence to suggest that these ingredients may be hazardous to health.
NO Mineral Oils or Silicones These can leave a film on the skin and interfere with its natural functions — the skin is our largest organ, not just a surface!
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Never tested on animals
Naturally PROTECTIVE Central to our passion for healthy beauty and organic living is a fundamental belief in the importance of respect – for people, animals and the environment. All of our products are vegetarian, many are vegan, and none are tested on animals – only willing human volunteers. We are endorsed by the leading animal protection organisations and support humane societies in the UK and USA.
BUAV - British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection
Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments
PETA - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals 31
Our organic geraniums come from a wonderful fair trade community project in South Africa.
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7 6 7 $ 2 # Cedarburg region of South Africa, home of the rooibos plant.
TRADING fairly Building strong, sustainable relationships is key to our ethos, and a number of our suppliers have been with us on our journey for the last 30 years. We believe that fairness, reliability and open communication are the key to this success. We have a long history of supporting fair trade organisations around the world. And we’re proud to have been part of the launch of Fairtrade certiďŹ ed beauty and skincare in 2009, by using Fairtrade ingredients such as rooibos.
Look for this Mark
Fairtrade provides a better deal for producers in developing countries
Geranium, balancing and uplifting 33
A Small Tortoiseshell enjoying our physic garden. ; < 2 => $ 6 $ ? @ since the 1970s. The primary causes are intensive agriculture and forestry insecticides, while the secondary cause is loss of larval food plants from herbicides, pesticides and fertilisers used on farmland. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re passionate about a future where our countryside is a rich and diverse place. Make a difference today. Choose organic.
Marsh mallow, soothing and calming for minor irritations 34
Working TOGETHER Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re passionate about ensuring that people are empowered to make informed choices. We wholeheartedly support those who stand up against being contaminated without consent, and support a number of charities and environmental organisations, including the Cancer Prevention and Education Society (www.cancerpreventionsociety.org) which seeks to help individuals minimise cancer risk by making positive life choices to protect their health. Alongside our own research, we also encourage others in education, and offer awards to students completing the Botany for Herbal Medicine module of the University of Westminsterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Health Sciences: Herbal Medicine degree course. By spreading the word that individuals have the power to improve and maintain a better state of health and wellbeing, both for themselves and as a custodian of the environment, we hope that together we can make a brighter future. 35
The FUTURE is in our hands We believe in protecting this precious planet, for our future, our children’s future and their children’s future. Using organically-grown ingredients avoids contamination with man-made chemicals and pesticides. It also builds soil fertility (which benefits future harvests) allows insects, bees, birds and wildlife to flourish, and helps protect the delicate eco-system we all rely on. Our passion for driving positive change is at the heart of everything we make and do. Oats, highly nutritious and a tonic to the nervous system
This book is made with sustainably-sourced FSC certified paper, printed with vegetable-based inks, and is recyclable. 36
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“The one-stop eco shop for everything that’s good, effective and natural.” Newby Hands, Health & Beauty Director
Harper’s Bazaar
Our Awards Keep Growing
Best British Brand CE UK – Cosmetic CEW Executive Women
PLU 9203
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Lily Rose at the family farm.
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