About Us
Made by hand in Gloucestershire
I'm Jo. I formulate, make, pour, label and pack every order. Bloom Skin has been trading since January 2025, but the formulas behind it took years of making, testing and reworking before I was willing to sell a single pot.
Shop the range | Sensitive skin
How it began
It was my own hands.
I have severe allergies, and for years they showed up as eczema and dermatitis. I work as a registered nurse, so my hands are constantly washed, gelled and shut inside gloves. They were cracked, sore and split open more often than not. I worked through the prescriptions and the pharmacy shelf and never found the thing that suited me.
So I made my own. Small batches, in my kitchen, testing on the worst skin I had access to, which was mine.
Within a few weeks my hands looked better than they had in years. That said, it wasn't happening in isolation. I'd also been changing what I used around the house and paying proper attention to what I was eating, and that had been going on for a while by then. A lot of the groundwork may already have been laid. I noticed the shift when I changed my skincare, but I can't tell you how much of it was the balm and how much was everything else.
What I can tell you is that it settled, and it stayed settled. It's also why food and daily habits interest me as much as formulation does, and why I'll usually ask about both if you ask me what to try.
People noticed, then people asked. That's really how Bloom Skin came about, and it's still the reason most messages land in my inbox. People want a straight answer about what's in something and whether it might suit them.
I've also got two small children, which is how half the range ended up existing. The gentler formulas were made because I wanted something I was happy putting on them.
How I make things
Every formula starts with a purpose. I decide what a product needs to do, then build it from the best ingredients I can get for that job, without looking at cost while I'm developing it. Cost comes into it later. It never gets to decide the formula.
I work with raw, unrefined, cold-pressed butters and oils, and I keep ingredient lists short. Most of the range is anhydrous, meaning no water, which is why the textures are rich and a little goes a long way. Everything is made in small batches by hand and assessed by an independent cosmetic safety assessor before it goes on sale.
If a product doesn't perform, it doesn't launch. I've shelved plenty.
What organic means here
I use organic ingredients wherever I can source them, and I mark them on every label. What I'm not is certified organic. Certification costs more than a business this size can justify, and I'd rather put that money into ingredients. So I'll tell you exactly what's in something and where it came from, and let you make up your own mind.
Skin, and then everything around it
Bloom Skin began with skin. It's grown into something wider.
Scent reaches the limbic system, the part of the brain tied up with emotion and memory, before you've consciously worked out what you're smelling. It's why a smell can drop you straight into a memory. I build my blends with that in mind, layering several essential oils rather than one or two notes, so each one has its own character. I've written about why that happens here.
That thinking sits behind the candles, diffusion and perfume oils, and it's why I think of the range as ritual rather than routine. Five minutes with something that smells good is a small thing, and some weeks it's the only five minutes going.
Essential oils also contain real, regulated allergens, and I keep my levels well below the limits I'm allowed to work to. Here's exactly what I do and why, including who my products may not suit.
What your order arrives in
Orders go out in a cardboard box, stamped by hand with my own ink stamp, packed with shredded card and wrapped in tissue paper. Shredded card costs more than the plastic alternatives. I use it anyway.
Jars are amber glass with aluminium lids. Both recycle well, and the glass is worth keeping. Deodorants come in cardboard.
The one piece of plastic in a Bloom Skin order is the label. Mine are vinyl with a laminate overlay, because paper labels don't survive a steamy bathroom or oily fingers. I haven't found a natural alternative that holds up yet, and I'd rather tell you that than quietly leave it out.
Everything else, box, infill, tissue, ink, glass and aluminium, goes straight in your recycling.
A few things I'm proud of
The Wild Petal deodorant balm won silver in the Green Parent Awards 2026. The Barrier Repair Balm was named a Best Buy in the same awards. The Sun Balm took bronze in the Free From Living Awards 2025.
Lovely as those are, the reviews mean more. There are over 150 across the shop and I read every one.
Where to find me
Online here, stocked at Royle Collective in Broadway, and exclusively at Koco Bloom Pilates & Wellbeing Studios in Cheltenham from September 2026. I also pop up at markets and events across the Cotswolds through the year, which is the best way to smell everything properly before you buy.
See the full list of stockists and upcoming events
If you run a shop or a studio and you'd like to stock Bloom Skin, drop me a line and I'll send over the wholesale information.
If you're not sure what you need
Tell me what your skin is doing, what you've already tried and what you're hoping for, and I'll point you at the right thing. If I don't make the right thing, I'll say so.
Jo x
Founder and formulator, Bloom Skin