We meet five Sussex women – including mums – who help make Mother’s Day magical with their spectacular skills and bespoke, hand-made products
THE PERFUMIER
Nancy Meiland Perfumes, Brighton
There’s a good reason perfume is such a meaningful present to give and receive on Mother’s Day. ‘We have a limbic connection to scent that begins with the maternal bond,’ explains perfumer Nancy Meiland. ‘The sweet scent of vanilla is inherent in breast milk and is partly why we are so attracted to sweetly scents. There is a nostalgic, nurturing sense of ‘coming home to ourselves’ when we pick up a perfume or aroma that evokes our mothers in some way.’
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For Nancy, 43, it is the smell of her mother Jenny’s skin in the sunshine along with the notes of violet, iris and honeysuckle from the Byblos perfume she always wore that connects them.
‘My mother lives in Florida so we’re thousands of miles apart,’ says Nancy who lives in Lewes and is
inspired by nature’s wildest landscapes when creating her botanically-charged scents.
‘Sage, rosemary, thyme, peppermint, lavender and chamomile are among my favourites,’ says the mother-of-two, who makes her scents at her perfume house on Nile Street in Brighton. ‘I always test my perfume ‘drafts’ by walking with my cockerpoo, Banjo, up on the South Downs. I like to know that they loop back to the natural world.’
Mother’s Day is unsurprisingly a busy time for Nancy, who says that the most popular scents for mums include FIORI, with notes of mandarin, petitgrainm, fig leaf and cinnamon and the bestselling SOUS BOIS (£85/50ml), which, with its nod to firs and pines of the Highlands, is perfect for nature-loving mums.
Nancy, who hopes to spend Mother’s Day doing a wild swim and then pub lunch with her family in Lewes, loves to receive handmade gifts from her children, Lila, 14, and Heath,11. She remembers one Mother’s Day when they were younger teaching Heath’s class how to make perfume.
‘Once the children had finished their scents and stuck labels, I asked what they would like to name their perfume - without exception every child said ‘Mum’ or ‘Mama’.’
THE CHOCOLATIER
Rowdy & Fancy’s Chocolate
Chocolates are a go-to gift for Mother’s Day and Annys Kirkpatrick, 29, should know as she runs a business creating handmade chocolates bars and treats with her mum, Angela, 58, in the lead up to Mother’s Day.
In fact, Rowdy & Fancy’s Chocolate is an all-female family affair that also includes her sister Hannah working with them at their small workshop in Forest Row. Fortunately, the trio all get on well and despite spending so much time together, family squabbles are few and far between.
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‘We sometimes disagree but I prefer to discuss differing opinions rather than argue,’ says Annys. ‘We all want what’s best for the company so as long as we hold that at the front of our minds it all works out.’
The Rowdy & Fancy’s range includes chocolate bars in unique flavours, such as coffee and cardamom, fig and cinnamon and St Clement's oranges and lemons, as well as luxurious plain dark or smooth milk.
‘The bestsellers around Mother’s Day, however, are our milk chocolate “Sweet Rose” bar, or our dark chocolate “Chocolate Love” bar, which is raspberry,” explains Annys.
Each bar is made with the highest quality organic chocolate base and no artificial ingredients, while the packaging, which has been designed by Ashurst Wood artist, Dean Rush, is completely recyclable – the outer wrapper is made from cardboard and the inner wrappers are made from wood pulp.
THE AROMATHERAPIST
Pip de Villiers, 360 Botanics, Lewes
Pip de Villiers, founder of Lewes-based 360 Botanics, a plant-based natural skincare and wellness brand, grew up with a fascination in nature thanks to both her parents.
‘My father was a keen gardener and really knowledgeable in horticulture, medicinal plants and wildflowers, while my mother always used homeopathic remedies on me and my brother growing up and was also interested in naturopathy and herbalism,’ explains Pip.
For years after qualifying as an aromatherapist, Pip, now 50, would formulate and make products for friends and family but it wasn’t until she moved back to the UK from rural France that she decided to set up 360 Botanics and sell her products to the public.
‘I always knew that I wanted to create a range of natural skincare and wellness products for everyone, covering everything from cleansing and bathing to skincare and home scents - products that not only worked well but would also look good on your bathroom shelves too,’ says Pip, who finally launched her brand in 2018 and sells her products online as well as in Seasons in Lewes and Ethel Loves Me in Rye.
The range, which is formulated, hand-blended, bottled, and packaged in Lewes, includes products such as the Sleep Aroma Mist (£9.50/50ml), Hydrate Body Oil (£12.50/50ml) and the award-winning Super Serum Facial Oil (£24.50/30ml), as well as special Mother’s Day gift sets (from £22.50), which Pip says always fly out the door.
‘The line is fully plant-based and cruelty free. We, as a family, feel very strongly about the health and future of our planet and I think it’s completely unnecessary to use products on our skin that are not completely natural,’ says Pip whose top pick for tired mums is her Deep Sleep gift box £24.50, which contains a 300g jar of Deep Sleep Bath Salts, a wooden scoop spoon and a bottle of Sleep Pillow Mist.
This year Pip will be spending the Mother’s Day weekend celebrating her son’s 18th birthday, which lands the day before Mother’s Day, but will make sure she makes time to show gratitude to her own mum, Jo, 74, who fought her way through Stage 3 breast cancer during lockdown. ‘I never take it for granted how lucky I am to have her in my life,’ she says.
360botanics.com – Sussex Life readers can get an exclusive 10% discount off their order by using the code SUSSEXLIFE10
THE FLORIST
Christine Bulman, Blooming Awesome, Lindfield
‘Aside from Christmas, Mother’s Day is our busiest time of year,’ says Lindfield florist Christine Bulman, of Blooming Awesome. ‘Roses are always popular but the bouquet I always recommend for Mother’s Day, as it is full of seasonal flowers, features some of my favourites at this time of year – Narcissus, Tulips, Hellebores and Ranunculus.’
Christine, 58, who has created arrangements for some of the county’s most prestigious venues, including Buxted Park, Wakehurst Place and Ditchling Court Garden Vineyard, says her mother Margaret, 88, influenced her love of flowers.
‘When I was young, I’d spend hours helping Mum in the garden and learning what all the flowers were called,’ she says. ‘I used to press them in an old scrap book.’
But when she left school moved into banking and didn’t take up floristry as a career until she was 49. ‘I did an eight-week evening class, which I adored and whetted my appetite,’ she says.
Christine then retrained and now loves running her business from a studio at her rural home.
She will be busy making deliveries on Mother’s Day morning but is looking forward to having her mum and mother-in-law over for a Sunday roast in the afternoon, when she will present them both with an extra special personalised bouquet of some of their favourite flowers including, alliums, roses, clematis, delphinium and alstroemeria.
bloomingawesome.co.uk
THE ARTIST
Nessie Maclay, This is Nessie, East Grinstead
Family walks on Ashdown Forest with her four children are what inspired East Grinstead artist, Nessie Maclay to create her iconic Wellie Boot print in 2014.
Now her bestselling product, the print features illustrations of wellington boots personalised to different family members.
‘When The Wellie print launched, it was so successful we had to grow the business really quickly to cope with the huge increase in orders,’ admits Nessie, 50.
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She started her gifting business, This is Nessie, in 2002 after her father asked her to create some Christmas cards for him to send to family and friends but after other people saw them she ended up with orders for 10,000. ‘It really opened our eyes to the possibilities for my designs and gave us the cash to invest in new machinery to produce a wider range of products.’
That range now includes cards, prints, ceramics, glassware, wooden items, leather and textiles, sales of which always see a massive spike in the lead up to Mother’s Day.
‘We start planning for Mother’s Day in October – as soon as the Christmas prep is done,’ she smiles.
But Nessie jokes that she doesn’t expect much from her own children, Jack 20, Sammy 18, Olly 16 and Daisy 13 this Mother’s Day.
‘If I am very lucky I might get a cup of tea in bed,’ she laughs. ‘But after that I will almost certainly be charging round the county watching hockey or taking someone to winter cricket training – and I wouldn’t change a thing.’
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