What started as a creative outlet for one woman from Swansea has turned into a full-time job after she decided to bottle the benefits of locally-grown Welsh seaweed and launch her own skincare brand.
"It was just a creative outlet for me really, I'm a bit of a dabbler. I like creating remedies and lotions and potions," said Jay Doyle, 51, from Swansea, who would snorkel in the waters off Gower searching for seaweed.
"I've always had a fascination, these alien-looking species that you see on the beach. But I never really understood what they held in terms of potential health benefits and then I started to forage," she explained. Making natural skincare from her home in Mumbles using natural ingredients, Jay started gifting her products to friends and family while she worked in business development at Swansea University. You can get more Swansea news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
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But what started as a "side hustle" slowly grew into a full-time job for Jay, who said her life had been transformed since launching her business, Earthly Rebels, in 2021. "It's been absolutely transformative. I got to a point where I felt my job was quite high pressured and it wasn't good for me and work shouldn't be bad for your health."
Jay soon realised her favourite thing about her business was making the products and harnessing the "whimsical" benefits of ingredients foraged on her doorstep. Wanting to demystify the process of creating skincare, she decided to host workshops to teach others how to create their own products. Jay brings foraged seaweed from the Gower to her workshops and each participant goes home with their own pot of skincare.
"I had this idea, I didn't just want to make products for people - I wanted to help people make their own. That's how Earthly Rebels came to being, this wild idea that I could do both things," she explained.
The products Jay makes and teaches others to create are all inspired by her home in beautiful Gower. "Gower is my spiritual home, I've lived here for a very long time," she said. "It was sitting in a sand dune in Llangennith after a surf when the idea for my business came into my mind. When I make soaps, I try to replicate those dunes. It's very much a reflection of the gorgeous coastal environment."
One of eight children, Jay said she found her own way to natural ingredients and creating her own skincare. "[My mother] was a mum-of-eight, there was no room for creativity it was just survival and getting through life. But I think my interest in it came later in life," she explained.
Now Jay extracts wildflowers and seaweed from her small home workshop and advocates for others to forage in a safe, responsible, sustainable and legal way. "You can't just go and pick seaweed on the beach," said Jay, who explained that although anybody could take seaweed floating on the surface of the sea, you needed permission to take home seaweed that had been washed up on the beach.
In many areas of the Gower, raw materials like seaweed are of significant scientific interest. Passionate about sharing the benefits of natural ingredients from the Welsh coastline, Jay is currently in talks with Swansea University on a research project to look at Gower seaweed and find out how chemicals within it can be isolated and included in more skincare products.
Having recently won a support package from Wind Street's Founders & Co, Jay will be basing her workshops at the unique Swansea venue in coming months. You can find out more here.
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