It started in a barn in the British Midlands. Through the late 1960s, beach buggy builder David Slater and shopkeeper’s daughter Marcia Simmons had developed a then-novel idea for affordable, fashionable beauty products, and set about making gels and creams in the generous spirit they had learned from their mothers, Granny Baylis and Granny Harding.
The company was named after those two “dedicated homemakers”, says international sales director Steve Lloyd, “who taught their families to be liberal with ingredients, and to love that little bit of indulgence”. Today, half a century after its founding, Baylis & Harding is run by their grandchildren, Adrian and Tania Slater, and the ethos of the brand has evolved into what they call “sustainable luxury”. Which is to say, the job has become a matter of turning out cosmetics that are equally kind to the skin and the environment.
“It’s a step-by-step journey,” says Steve Lloyd, “nurturing our brands with future generations in mind. Luxurious products that look beautiful are still important to the business, just not at the expense of our planet.” The most recent example is the Goodness Collection – a range blending “plant-based formulas” with natural ingredients and organic extracts, targeted at what Lloyd calls “the eco-conscious, skin-loving consumer”.
Carefully mixed contents wouldn’t mean that much if equal care wasn’t now being taken over the packaging. The cosmetics industry has long had a problem in this regard, with plastic components like bottle caps, pumps and tubes taking up a lot of space in landfills and elsewhere. Baylis & Harding’s ‘Green Team’ now partner with mitigation programmes like TerraCycle, which allows consumers in the UK to return those parts for recycling.
“We have also re-engineered all our gift collections to be recyclable or reusable,” says Steve. New refillable bottles for the brand’s best-selling hand gels were launched in 2020, while the 2021 collection will see a reduction of packaging material amounting to an estimated 320 tonnes.
The bottles and labels still look pretty great though, and Baylis & Harding tend to demonstrate an incredible knack for reading the tea leaves in terms of consumer trends and what we now call “Instagrammability”. Take the Goodness collection of body washes, hand washes, bath soaks and bar soaps presented in sophisticated hues and sleek packaging that look good on a social media feed. Or the Elements collection, a nifty idea for hand and body washes in packaging designed to complement bathroom or kitchen surfaces by mimicking the textures of steel, marble, or wood.
Part of this is a matter of ultramodern marketing savvy, says Steve Lloyd, but part goes back to the company’s first principles, as “a luxury brand that won’t cost you the earth, and inspires you to open your home to these beautiful products”.
Last year also saw Baylis & Harding celebrate its 50th year in business, although the party was put on hold by global events. As the pandemic made us all more hygiene-aware in a hurry, sales in the handwash category grew by 25 per cent. Certain habits may have been changed forever, and such products have come to seem a lot less “cosmetic” in the last year or so. On the other hand, perhaps we’ll soon feel more entitled to rest and relaxation than we ever did before, and a little indulgence might seem ever more important in terms of self-care.
Grannies Baylis and Harding would no doubt be proud of how their descendants responded to their customers’ needs in tough circumstances. But now, says Steve, “we’re looking forward to a time when we can respectfully celebrate 50 years of our beautiful brand”.
For more information, visit baylisandharding.com
