Get Naked!

Poppy Watt is always keen to source out the best products for her children as well as herself. However, she discovered that finding a shower gel to suit the entire family was no simple task. Fortunately, Louise Potts and her "Naked" range of products gave her room for optimism at bath times.

Shopping for bath and beauty products is a woman’s dream, just as long as it’s for herself. Widen the net to include the family and it can so often turn into a nightmare.

Nowadays there are some fantastic natural products available on the market, although they can be difficult to get hold of and are often very expensive. Paying £20 for bath and shower gel is fine if you're an adult who's decided to treat themselves but not if it's for your kids to squirt all over the place just to see how many bubbles they can make.

I regularly see a standard bottle of body wash disappear in a week when my 3 get their nightly shower shifts out of the way and with two teenage boys to contend with, it can often go faster than that if there’s a potential “hot date” on the horizon.

Sure, I could compromise and get some kind of value supermarket brand but what damage would I be doing to my kids’ hair and skin in the long term. At the same time, I didn’t want to end up spending the entire child allowance on shampoo and shower gel every month so I had to find a solution that made fiscalas well as healthy sense.

And just when I had pretty much given up all hope of finding an answer, whilst browsing the aisles of a large branch of Bootsup in the West End I discovered exactly what I was after.

Four years ago, Louise Potts launched her brand of body and hair products under the banner of Naked. They are so named because the ethos of the range was to strip
away man-made preservatives and cleansers such as petro-chemicals, parabens and sodium laurel sulphate and uses only natural ingredients such as fruit oils and nut extracts. Louise’s concept at the start was clear - a brand that is safe, natural and free of harmful chemicals that can be used by women, men, babies, and children.

Her journey to where she is today – the director of a multi-million pound company – started after Louise left her job as a marketing manager at Boots Babycare to be a full-time mum to sons Charlie and Henry. Her search for natural products began because, as a baby, Charlie had
highly sensitive skin.

"He always had rashes" said Louise. So I started thinking about what people put in skincare products. There just wasn’t anything out there that I felt comfortable or confident with so eventually I decided to make my own products, using natural ingredients that wouldn't irritate him.

"The natural progression from here was to start my own company and the rest is history."

Louise devoted hours to researching, sourcing and manufacturing natural ingredients so that she could eventually come up with a product that was good for everyone.

“We removed the ‘bad stuff’ and just replaced it with natural active extracts, widely recognized as being the best at what they do. These include cocoa butter for moisturizing, sunflower for sun damage protection and, purest rose oil for anti ageing.

“I set out our agenda from the start and we have adhered to it ever since. I would never expose my children to anything harmful and people that use my products can do so in the confidence that my family and I are using the exact same products ourselves.”

Naked used only ethically sourced ingredients and has since grown to become a brand which supports green initiatives like the Woodland Trust and the Rainforest Foundation and strives to use the best environmentally friendly packaging available. All Naked bottles are made from PE – a universally recyclable plastic - and from this autumn, some of the Naked products are going to be packaged in 100% post-consumer regrind (PCR) bottles which means that they are made from already recycled plastic.

“It’s vital that we look after our natural world so as a company, if we can source ingredients and materials here in the UK then we will. When we have to travel further afield we will always buy from sustainable and community-traded sources wherever possible. Furthermore, all Naked products are actually made in theUK so it helps cut down on the company’s carbon footprint.”

What I found most comforting about the Naked range was that they do not use any parabens, SLS or petrochemicals in any of their products, although they are in the vast majority of toiletries on most bathroom shelves.

“We prefer to reduce our toxic load and use as many friendly ingredients as possible,” Louise confirms. “Our strap line reads 97% natural although in truth some of our products are now 100% natural. Our aim is to make all our products this way. The problem is that the term “natural” is loaded with many misconceptions.

“If you “Google” the phrase “natural beauty” you will get back over a quarter of a million pages back but the fact is that most companies hide behind vague interpretations of the phrase, much the way many food manufacturers like to throw the word “Organic”
around as though it’s part of a game.

“The problem is that in truth, the term natural beauty is a “hot potato” and at the moment, key organic European certifiers are currently drawing up proposals on what constitutes natural, meaning that sometime soon, many companies out there who are betraying these principals are going to end up with a lot of explaining to do.”

With retail sales now in excess of £2.5m and over 40 products available in larger Boots stores and also online at NakedBodyCare.co.uk the company and the brand is growing from strength to strength.

Louise Potts is another in a long line of women who has found a gap in the market and decided to plug it herself.

Dynamic, determined and principled, she and her company both offer a positive message to consumers looking for an alternative to either the mass produced, low-grade products on the market or the often over priced high-end brands that can sometimes fall far short of what they promise to deliver.

I have introduced them into my household with very positive results. What’s more, not only does it appeal to everyone; it is also priced fairly, which gives me and my family the opportunity to try out the complete range.