Ethical pampering: A vegan and chemical-free beauty salon

And that’s why a vegan has opened in East Sussex, offering natural beauty treatments free of chemicals and animal products.

Vicky Wood opened the All Natural Beauty Room in a tranquil spot overlooking Greenleas park in Hangleton, near Brighton. She offers facials, massages, pedicures, manicures, eyelash tints and sugaring – an old Persian hair removal treatment – all from a cabin at the bottom of her garden.

Opening her salon last year, Vicky decided to swap her life in IT to work as a beauty therapist, offering something a bit different.

She said having struggled for years to find treatments that were suitable for her vegan lifestyle she was then faced with the difficult task of finding a salon that also used products free of all ‘nasty chemicals’, and it was then that the concept for All Natural Beauty Room was born.

As a vegan, she wanted to make sure there was somewhere people could go for treatments, and be sure no animal products such as honey, beeswax or lanolin were used in any of the products. She is also dedicated to keeping chemicals out of her salon, and that doesn’t just mean the products, even the paint is non-toxic.

“I would never use products that test on animals,” Vicky says. “As a vegan it is hard to find somewhere you know everything is going to be vegan and you do not have to worry about it.

“It seemed like the right thing to do so I set up the All Natural Beauty Room.

“I take a lot of care in making sure that products have no animal ingredients or nasty chemicals.

“There are so many stories out there of different chemicals and the effect on our health.”

From nail polish free of toxic ingredients to facials using products that don’t include any parabens, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) and other chemicals used in many cosmetics, Vicky uses only natural ingrediants.

And she’s even gone the extra mile by using only organic cotton wool pads that are fully biodegradable and cleaning products that aren’t harmful to fish if they end up being washed out to sea.

I decided to go along to try out a facial at the All Natural Beauty Rooms, for my first ever vegan and chemical-free facial.

Vicky quickly put me at ease, and despite being on the outskirts of a big city, being next to a park meant the cabin was quiet with a tranquil feel.

We started the facial with a gentle exfoliation, with a rice flour, bamboo silica and essential oil scrub. Then Vicky used a eucalyptus cleanser with heated flannels to clean the skin.

Next was a gorgeous smelling face mask with ginger, willowbark and clay, which was left to set. After another cleanse, Vicky used a vitamin toner, with ph-balancing rose.

Then, she applied a nourishing facial oil, with pomegranate, rosehip and vitamin E. She added a ‘skin reviver’ face cream and a an eye cream, and ended the treatment with an Indian head massage.

The experience and the results of the facial were as good as any I’ve had at other salons; my skin was glowing, and felt thoroughly pampered. Plus, you leave the treatment rooms feeling content in the knowledge that all the products were animal and chemical-free.

To find out more about the All Natural Beauty Room, visit: www.allnaturalbeautyroom.co.uk

Quote ‘etc magazine’ for £5 off a facial at All Natural Beauty Room.

This article first appeared in etc magazine on January 25.