A pretty selection of our soaps looking like a Quintessentially English flowerbed, a perfect summer gift, available from http://www.quintessentially-english.com.
How to make soap
Goddess by Quintessentially English in the Roman Bath Gift Shop
The Roman Baths are one of the most popular tourist attractions in the UK, attracting around 1 million visitors per year. In 2011, a £5.5 million redevelopment was carried out to transform the site’s accessibility and preserve it for the next 100 years.
The Baths, which are below modern street level, have four main features. These are: the Sacred Spring, the Roman Temple, the Roman Bath House, and the museum.
We were thrilled to be contacted and asked for our Goddess range to be sold in the Roman Baths gift shop. Next time you’re in Bath, why not take a look at our display! 
Haunts of Lacock
As today is Halloween, we thought we’d share some of our stories about our shop. Lacock has its fair share of ghost stories, and is believed to be one of the most haunted locations in the UK. Our shop is no exception, and is said to be haunted by many different ghosts, both animal and human.
The building itself dates back to the 1450s, so it comes as no surprise that it holds plenty of stories about apparitions, noises, and objects moving for no reason. The shop used to be home to a bakery, which is one of the reasons why our first story is so chilling.
A group of paranormal experts came to visit our building in 2007, they used a recording device which was able to pick up white noise, and supposedly registers the voices of spirits. The team had no luck for a while, then picked up a recording which is enough to make anyone’s hair stand on end. A very angry sounding man could be heard shouting ‘this is my bakery’, we assume he was the owner of the shop during the time it served as a bakery, which make this occurrence hard to explain.
Many people have reported seeing shadows in the building in various locations, these experiences have caused some customers to flee the building claiming something was upstairs. Various psychics who have happened to visit the building have claimed it is haunted by a woman named Evelyn, a cat, a little boy, and possibly others.
The spirit of a woman named Evelyn has been spotted many times by many different people, even members of staff in the shop itself. One of the ladies working in the shop needed to use the bathroom, so went to look around the corner and up the stairs to see if any customers were still in the shop as she was serving alone that day. She looked up to the top of the stairs and saw that a woman was stood looking out towards the window on the first floor, she was wearing a white blouse and a long black skirt. After calling another member of staff from the office upstairs to come downstairs and watch the shop, she went to the bathroom, and when she returned the other member of staff said that nobody had come downstairs. They went to look upstairs and found there was nobody there. There was no way a customer could have left without them knowing.
Objects in the shop have been known to move overnight, in an unexplainable way. Products, which were put on shelves before the shop was locked up, have been found the next morning in a pile in the middle of the floor, and we can think of no explanation for this.
Our shop holds many stories and unexplainable occurrences, come and visit this Halloween and maybe even experience something for yourself!
A stable door and timeworn wooden step lead to Jacqui Sheard’s artisan soap and vintage shop in Lacock. Writer Kathy Hurst and photographer Di Lewis go exploring.
The moment you walk through the stable door of
Jacqui Sheard’s shop in the stunning north Wiltshire
village of Lacock, the air is suffused with
the smell of Christmas: the woody aroma of
cinnamon; the lingering perfume of juniper,
sweet orange and clove.
Hand-cut blocks of soap, adorned with slices
of dried orange and cranberries, nestle in wicker
baskets on the wooden cash desk. Shelves
fashioned from vintage crates are stacked with
handmade bath milks, flower-scented body
scrubs and Christmas baubles. And under a
Victorian bell jar, in pride of place in the bay
window, are clusters of spherical bath melts
– topped off with tiny gold stars and just the
faintest sprinkling of glitter. A veritable feast of
a Christmas shopping experience in the most
beautiful traditional setting.
Jacqui, who trained as a graphic designer in
Kingston, stumbled into soap making after reading
an article about traditional soapmaking and thought
it was a wonderful way to unwind after a hard
days work at her already successful graphic
design agency, Sheard Hudson Creative.
Originally, she worked out of a unit behind The
George pub, selling soap to friends and relatives
and to the great swathes of tourists who tour
Lacock each year. But as her client base grew
and the shop across the road – “the one with
the beautiful windows” – became vacant, she
seized the opportunity to expand. “The village
is almost entirely owned by the National Trust,”
explains Jacqui, “but we’ve got a long lease. For
Quintessentially English, Lacock very much
feels like home.”
In fact, the whole shop, with its flagstone
floors, cast-iron weighing scales and timeworn
wooden step, pays homage to a bygone age.
Earthenware bowls full of essential oils, spices
and crushed lavender are laid out on a rustic
farmhouse table; an ancient oak beam supports
a huge, stone fireplace; and horses’ hooves can
be heard on the road outside. Even the counter
in the front of the shop was salvaged from a
local haberdashery store. Today, though, it is
laden not with fabric and spools of threads, but
with Cinnamon Spice and Moon Beam, Angel’s
Rest and Shiraz Orange: tablets of soap with
fantastical names.
Jacqui places great emphasis on creating
as pure a product as possible. “Our soaps are
about as natural as you can get, much gentler
than the manufactured versions available
in the supermarkets,” she says. “We work
with suppliers who are certified by the Soil
Association; nearly every one of the essential oils
we use is organic and we are ourselves hoping to
seek accreditation in the near future.”
All her shampoos and shower gels – from
the Goddess range, with its aroma of geranium
and ylang-ylang, to the hypnotic Venus, scented
with patchouli, lemon and oregano – are free
from artificial additives and preservatives.
And when it comes to the packaging of her
handmade soaps, each block is simply and
lovingly wrapped in greaseproof paper before
being tied with a length of twine.
Jacqui’s natural approach even extends to
the soap making process itself, and she prefers,
where possible, to work exclusively by hand.
“Once you’ve blended the various olive, coconut
and sustainable palm oils with the caustic soda,
you need to get stirring. I work to a very old
recipe and find you get a much silkier texture if
you use a wooden spoon and some good, oldfashioned
elbow grease. I’ll take a stool out to
the courtyard or sit in the kitchen with the radio
on. Some people think I’m mad, but I try to be
as honest as I can to the traditional process.”
Indeed, it can take a whole day to craft a
batch of soap and members of her family have
been known to help out during busy periods.
“As it cools, it gets lighter in colour and develops
the consistency of thick custard. My motherin-
law once compared the hours of stirring to
rowing across the Channel,” Jacqui laughs. “It
certainly feels like that the next morning when
your arms feel like lead.”
While Jacqui has very loyal local clients –
Quintessentially English products are sold at
The Gingery Piggery in Boyton, near Salisbury,
and at the Wiltshire Heritage Museum in
Devizes – she has also been busy cooking up
batches of soap for the Christmas gift boxes
which are now winging their way to stores
around the country and to her burgeoning
numbers of internet customers.
The gift packs are, of course, also available
in the Lacock shop: generous chunks of artisan
soap tucked into plain brown boxes and
decorated with cinnamon sticks, festive berries
and segments of dried citrus fruits. The winter
box typically contains Soul Warmer, crafted
with Christmas cloves and orange; Cinnamon
Spice, a potent blend of cinnamon and orange;
and Angel’s Rest, Jacqui’s personal favourite,
scented with essential oils of lavender and
geranium. There is also Alchemy, a perennial
Christmas bestseller which promises wisdom,
happiness and love, and which is made from
gold, frankincense and myrrh; and Woodland
Walk, with its hint of orange, cedarwood and
willow, which aims to capture the cool air of
a woodland walk and the warmth of a log fire.
Along with her assistant, Tamsyn, a seasoned
soap maker who joined Quintessentially English
nine years ago on a temporary basis and has
never left, Jacqui has built up a thriving local
business where warmth and attention to detail
and a commitment to organic principles are the
order of the day. “I love it when customers say
how fantastic our soap is; how it’s like nothing
they’ve ever used before,” she enthuses.
Jacqui is now preparing for Christmas, the
shop glinting with baubles and filled with
festive aromas. “It’s wonderful to be part of a
community where I’ve lived for so many years
and to be able to stop and chat to the people
who wander into the shop. Christmas is such a
magical time: the warmth, the merriment and
celebration. I hope our gift boxes, with their
cinnamon and clove and gold, frankincense and
myrrh, capture the spirit of that.”
Quintessentially English also stocks a range
of vintage products and locally sourced gifts,
from handmade cushions to mugs and prints.
Christmas gift boxes are priced from £10.
Special Christmas shopping days are
scheduled for the first two weekends in
December. On these days, Jacqui is offers subscribers
to her website and newsletters a 10 per cent discount
and purchases of over £10 will also qualify for a gift
bag of Bubble and Squeaky Clean soaps. Simply present
this pageat the cash desk.
For further information, telephone 01249
730100; visit http://www.quintessentiallyenglish.co.uk
or drop into the shop at 11 West Street, Lacock,
Wiltshire, SN15 2LH.
One swallow doesn’t make a summer
Well yesterday was the most incredible day the sun was blazing down and a group of swallows were wizzing around outside my office gleefully spreading their wings happy that the sun was shining and they could at long last have some fun after 90 days of rain!
I watched them for a while because I don’t think I have ever seen so many over Lacock it really was quite a picture!
Then the old saying ‘one swallow doesn’t make a summer’ popped into my head and I thought oooh, I haven’t heard that in a long time! It made me look up the origins of the proverb.
This old proverb is listed in several early glossaries, notably Richard Taverner’s transcription of the [Latin] proverbs of Erasmus – Prouerbes or adagies with newe addicions, gathered out of the Chiliades of Erasmus, 1539:
It is not one swalowe that bryngeth in somer. It is not one good qualitie that maketh a man good.
And I also know of another instance by Aristotle (384 BCE – 322 BCE): “One swallow does not a summer make, nor one fine day; similarly one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy.”
And even Shakespeare had his version of it..The swallow follows not summer more willing than we your lordship. William Shakespeare, The Life of Timon of Athens (Second Friend at III, vi)
So in todays speach – do not take an isolated incident and make a generalisation from it. Don’t make a decision based on one or two incidents. Just because you see one swallow doesn’t guarantee that there’s not another rainy spell on the way!
Well thankfully I didn’t see one swallow but at least a dozen or so! On the subject of sunshine why not try our sunshine range of soaps, luxurious body lotion, silky shampoo and shower gel. Each is made with a gorgeous SLS and Paraben Free Base with ingredients that are of the finest quality.
How to buy a gift for a loved one
The perfect gift box for a man, lime and ginger body wash with a soap and shaving cream. £28I see so many customers in our store looking for the perfect present for a friend or a loved one and it got me thinking how do you pick out that perfect present! The customers who are buying for themselves look focused and make the purchase within minutes! The customers still looking for a gift after 10 minutes or so are usually agonising over what to buy! Its that balance between guessing what the person would like against what they would choose for themselves that is often the stumbling block. Do you know the person well, is it a relative? It generally makes little difference as to how easy it is to choose! There’s also the risk element, if you get it wrong they might think I can’t believe he or she thought I’d like that!
So here are a few tips to finding the perfect gift…
1. Golden rule, don’t choose what you’d want, take time to consider what hobbies and interests your friend likes, make a note about them before you shop so that you don’t get overwhelmed by the choice of gifts once you are in the shop.
2. Ask if the store has a voucher system so that your friend can choose themselves, personally I prefer surprises so I’d avoid this its a bit of a cop out!
3. A giftbox is an excellent solution and means you could add in several items so that you don’t put all your eggs in one basket so to speak!
4. Something unusual and quirky often makes the perfect gift.
5. A treat is often the perfect gift a busy person will often buy the essentials and not make much time for a little luxury.
6. Listening to what the person is most interested in for a few weeks beforehand is a good idea, peoples interests can change and so being switched on to what they are up to is a good idea.
7. Ask someone close if they have a wish list, I’d avoid these online wishlists I think they take the element of surprise out and thats what a present should be.
And if you get really stuck try our website out http://www.quintessentially-english.co.uk where you will find a lovely selection of gift boxes filled with luxury soaps and toiletries and if you call us we will put together a bespoke box of your choosing.
London on Film: The West End
How to relieve anxiety symptoms using a simple essential oil
Today I am going to talk about Neroli Oil one of the lesser known essential oils. Neroli is an oil that is extracted from the gathered blossoms of the bitter orange tree. Its latin name is citrus aurantium.
Its has a delicate yet pronounced scent that is slightly flowery but with a twist that is ever so slightly rooty and sweet, meaning it is an oil that is often used in perfumery and aromatherapy. Its a very expensive oil so its often blended with a carrier oil to dilute it. I’d say that if you were to walk through an orange grove and brush a few blossoms as you walked through, it would be the ever so sweet but light fragrance that would be left behind.
It was made popular by an Italian Princess, Anne Marie Orsini who was Duchess of Bracciano and Princess of Nerola in Italy. She loved it for its delicate aroma and used it widely making it very fashionable and her favourite perfume.
It takes an astounding number of orange blossom flowers to make 1 lb of Neroli oil, about 1,000 lbs! So its not surprising that it is one of the more expensive oils.
If you are feeling stressed I’d say Neroli should be right up there on your magic list of oils to soothe and comfort. Its perfect for massage if you add a few drops to a carrier oil. The effect is one of utter tranquillity and peace. I’ve also known it be added to oils to help with stretch marks and a little added to a bowl of water on your bedside table will have a sedative effect if you inhale it. Its also supposed to be good for minor aches and pains so a gentle massage into the skin will help ease those tired muscles. If you gently warm the carrier oil up a bit first before dropping in a few drops of Neroli oil it will help the oil to ease the muscle.
At Quintessentially English we’ve added it to our soaps for years and our Buttercup and Neroli range contains a generous touch of Neroli giving the soap a truly distinctive aroma. We’ve also created a very gentle day cream which is perfect for mature or delicate skins. The range is complimented by the addition of real buttercups which I felt was the perfect partner. To help you relax our Buttercup and Neroli bath oil is perfect for a long luxurious dip make sure its a good half hour, no rushing!
So I’d say take a long bath, add a few drops of Neroli to a bowl of water by your bed and you’ll forget all those worries!
For more information or to purchase our bath oil go to quintessentially-english.co.uk
Happy Official Birthday ‘Your Majesty’
Watched the Trooping of the Colour today, always a spectacular event and all the more special today!
Here is a little background about it:
Dating back to probably the time of Charles II when the colours of a regiment were trooped in front of soldiers each day at a rallying pointto remind them which regiment each man belonged to.
Since 1748, the parade has marked the Sovereign’s official birthday and from the reign of Edward VII the Sovereign has taken the salute in person at Trooping the Colour.
The Queen is greeted bya Royal salute and then carries out an official inspection of the troops
The massed bands perform and the Regimented Colour is carried down the ranks also the Foot Guards and Household Cavalry always march past Her Majesty plus The King’s Troop and Royal Horse Artillery rank past.
The Queen used to ride a horse at the head of her guards but now rides in a carriage back to the Palace where she takes the salute.
Today the Royal Family joined The Queen as usual on the balcony as a fly past went over and there were many more people than I had ever seen in The Mall to cheer as the Red Arrows flew over. Here is a beautiful photograph taken of the Queen at her coronation. A true English Rose.
How to start a 6 figure business with less than $100!
Well I have just finished Chris Guillibeau‘s book and it is truly inspirational, he has travelled the world and spoken to hundreds of micro businesses with all sorts of unique business ideas.
I’d say the top lessons learnt were:
1. Find a gap in the market and do it
2. Think about what irritates you then think of the one thing to correct it, there’s a business in there
3. More importantly sell happiness! In any form!
Well there you are buy the book!
And happiness comes from a lovely little product like the Quintessentially English Buttercup & Neroli mini guest soap. Buy one and it’ll make you smile! http://quintessentiallyenglish.com/
Quintessentially English News 