When I meet Neal’s Yard CEO Anabel Kindersley for the first time we talk about the Covent Garden store and its signature blue glass bottles – in my view, these are as synonymous with wellness as yoga mats and green juice. I remember buying my first trio of skincare products in the early aughts after moving to London and browsing the shops of Seven Dials one summer afternoon.
The brand began life in 1981, not with a gorgeous shopfront, but in a corner where the wheelbarrows for the flower market were stored. Back then, activist and entrepreneur Nicholas Saunders had imagined a community of like-minded businesses working side by side and among them was Neal’s Yard Apothecary, a small shop blending traditional knowledge of aromatherapy with an exclusive brand personality.
