LAURA THOMAS

The environmentalist has become a very successful entrepreneur whose products are stocked by Scotland's best hotels

- Catherine Coyle

Laura Thomas can trace her connection to nature all the way back to her childhood in rural Perthshire. Growing up on a farm, life was busy and the working day was long. Laura would get on her horse and spend hours in the forest, just riding around, heading home only when she got hungry or when darkness fell. It was a different time; screens weren't really a thing for kids then, and her home life revolved around the outdoors. You could say that's where the idea of using nature in her working life first germinated.

Those early years of picking flower petals and smooshing them into a homemade perfume, smelling of pine after a day spent kicking about in the woods near the farm; it was here, even though she didn't yet know it, that Laura's affinity to scent, natural materials and the desire to be grounded to the earth took hold.

Fast forward to 2003, and she was in New Zealand, buying and selling cafes for a living. Laura adapted quickly to the Antipodean way of life. "The pace was definitely slower," she smiles. "It's the only place I've been where a lot of the kids walk to school barefoot." The beach, the early morning rises, the exposure to organic produce, a much greater awareness of environmental issues, a bigger commitment to sustainability and a huge focus on wellness: the New Zealand lifestyle really seeped into Laura's bones. When a colleague gave her a present of a vintage teacup filled with a candle, she had a revelation. "That was the moment I realised I wanted to run a product-based business," she explains. "I bought all the kit and started experimenting and playing around with wax, scents, wicks... I knew I wanted to make completely natural products, with nothing synthetic at all, and so I spent a long time doing as much research as I could."