In October, during our limited freedom to mingle and meet people, I met Clare Price for an extended brunch in Notting Hill! We were so happy to be able to connect after a very tiresome summer. We still felt the looming anxiety on what was next with the pandemic but we also felt grateful that there are many businesses like Clare’s that are doing the best they can despite the climate and inspiring many other women around the world.
Clare is extremely warm and passionate and has created products that have really done wonders to my hair.
- What inspired you to start your own brand?
With Guava & Gold, my goal was to create an elegant capsule collection of luxury bath and body products, with ethical credentials and kind-to-skin ingredients, which reflects the colour, vibrancy and fun of your best tropical beach holiday ever.
I come from a very different work background. Before I set up Guava & Gold, I was a barrister in London. It was a fantastic, stimulating career but I wanted a new challenge and having the opportunity to do something which could be more than a business was important to me. I’d like Guava & Gold to be a brand which does as much as it can to make a difference. From the beginning, the brand has donated products to help alleviate hygiene poverty and, during the pandemic, it has donated money from sales to the same cause as well as products to frontline workers. As the brand grows, I’d like it to do even more.
- How would you say it is different to your past career?
Developing Guava & Gold as a new brand and all of the creative process which goes with that is very different. I’ve learnt so much. However, a lot of what I’ve done in the past is also relevant now, such as the importance of focusing on the detail of every aspect of the brand so we get everything right for our customers.
- Which role models have inspired you along the way?
I admire people who develop luxury products in a sustainable way, have a set of clear guiding principles they work by and demonstrate their corporate accountability by giving back. Brands like the Six Senses Hotels and Spas who successfully mix gorgeous hideaways with ecological friendliness and social responsibility and Stella McCartney and Vivienne Westwood who have set the bar high for social and environmental sustainability in the fashion industry.
- The products have done wonders on my hair! Why is that?
It’s fantastic to hear that, thank you!
All of Guava & Gold’s phthalate-free perfumes were created exclusively for the brand in collaboration with the expertise and inspiration of an international fine fragrance house. The fragrances with their distinctive scents of fruits and flowers, including delicious guava and cherimoya, fragrant pink magnolia, white floral facets of tuberose, sweet vanilla orchid and enchanting orange and plum blossom, have been expertly blended by them with natural extracts including ylang-ylang oil, lemon peel oil and pink peppercorn extract.
These unique fine fragrances and the variety of gentle, moisturising oils in all of the Guava & Gold products such as macadamia, sweet almond and manuka oils are what sets them apart from other mainstream brands.
- Your favourite spots in London?
I love London and there are so many! I like to be able to wander round the shops in Knightsbridge, Covent Garden and the King’s Road. I think the renovation of St Pancras is fabulous, and Granary Square and Coal Drops Yard have brought something wonderful and different to London’s shopping and dining scene with a great mix of independent shops and signature brands. I also love the charm of the 300-year- old Dr Johnson’s House in Gough Square and the inspiring beauty of the Shard with its breathtaking views.
- Why did you want to focus on hair and body for your brand?
Having worked in a demanding profession whilst also bringing up three children and commuting, I’ve always believed that we need to make time for ourselves and our own self-care and relaxation. I think caring for ourselves and others is even more important to us all now.
Along with a love of travelling, that’s what inspired me to create a luxury bath and body range which is all about turquoise seas and sun-drenched golden beaches and has personal wellbeing at its heart. I think we all like to escape the everyday and bring a little paradise home to our bathrooms sometimes.
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