by Sarah Waldrop
Eve Taylor has been at the forefront of aromatherapy, skin care and wellbeing, providing professionals with products containing natural essential oils for 50 years.
Her latest addition to her range is a shelf line for teens called ‘Teen-Skin Actives.’ The line includes eight different products ranging from a clearing scrub and wash to an anti-shine balm. These products are for the busy teenager with a changing diet and hormones. Teen-Skin Actives encompasses all skin types requiring no consultation before use. After meeting with Eve for an afternoon, this is what we learned about her products, company and values for heath and wellbeing.
Q: What inspired your work with essential aromatherapy oils?
A: “After attending a lecture given by Madame Maury on Aromatherapy, I was hooked, and wanted to study more.”
Q: Which products are the key to your range and why?
A: “Our original blends are still the core of my business, although we have taken that concept and expanded, moving into a larger market of both face and body products.”
Q: Is there a dynamic regarding skin care that you have found instrumental in your routine?
A: “A must for my routine is to cleanse – exfoliate if required – and treat. I use Q10, then tone, a moisture/hydration product that has SPF content 25. I use Solar Shield, which is great daily and can be mixed with foundation if needed.”
Q: What are some benefits of aromatherapy oils that people are often surprised to learn?
A: “People are always surprised how a small amount of our blend is needed for the face and neck. The blend is not cheap, but caring for your skin is important. You only have one, but it can be damaged, ignored thinking that it can be looked after later. Going back to repair damage from smoking, lack of sleep and harsh products can cause a lot of damage long term – start early.”
Q: If you were stranded on an island what products would you bring with you?
A: “I would certainly take my number one blend, it is universal and it has effects of oxygenating the tissue and every cell needs oxygen. I would take the toner and also I would take a body oil and a body blend. The body blend would probably now be the 301 and that we would use in my age group. I could not do working without essential oils, I could not do it. With respect, at my age I have never had a menopausal turn in my life, because in the Eve Taylor blends there is a small amount of soya, natural estrogenic properties.”
Q: What do you see next for your range and your company?
A: ” The range will not expand unless there is a beneficial reason – maintain the improvement that we commence with our initial treatment advice. We review the range regularly, as more and more ingredients are found, but we always consider the original concept. Your skin reflects what your body is experiencing, physically and emotionally. You are what you are by wheat you experience, eat and inherit. Consider the effects of love on the skin.
Q: Your target has been the education and wellbeing of human beings through skin care, how have you continued this today?
A: “I do not do a lot of hands on teaching, i I do continue to advise people. This requires a full consultation. It’s not just selling a product, but understanding what you want it to do and how to benefit the client’s skin. Sometimes there is an underlying emotional reason more difficult to deal with.”
Q: How have you maintained and incorporated a strong sense of family while also maintaining the company?
A: “This is and always has been the hardest part of running the company over many years. I have 5 sons, all independent types, but with ambition to work and succeed. We do clash on a number of occasions, but I care for them and their families, my grandchildren. At the age of 82 now, I guess I must loosen the reins more, but I still take an active interest. I cam into this business because I was surrounded but the male person, so what became necessary was to try and balance by working with female persons worldwide. I think that experience has proved correct for me.”
Q: How has the industry changed since you first began your company and how are you adapting to rein at the forefront?
A: “How have I adapted to changes in the industry – by learning to keep up with advanced information, although much of it has been around for a long time and is being reconstructed. I always tell my students to listen to Grandmother and her knowledge from the past. It worked then, and is the same information but different application now. I envy the Chinese still listening to their grandparents, I love to hear their stories. What I learn I try to prove or change and teach.”
Q: When looking back what would you say were you greatest accomplishments, and what do you still wish to achieve?
A: “I have experienced so much and so many things that I wonder where it all comes from. Each day brings some new view, good or bad, and makes you feel and think. Visiting Buckingham Palace to receive my OBE award was a wonderful event, but it is now that I understand just how much. When it happened, it was so overwhelming. Keeping the memory and feeling I review the DVD of the event and experience it all over again to see more and more about the day. My great grandson gives me so much pleasure now. The wonder of seeing him trying to do things which my sons seemed to take so much longer to learn. I love this time now. It is exciting, but also frightening because of realizing that I cannot experience all he has before him.