Some months one has favourites, and some months one has favourites. May is firmly the second sort.
Below: five small, founder-run brands currently doing the heavy lifting on the Söstter shelf — the ones we keep finding excuses to mention in conversation, even to people who absolutely did not ask.
Baie Botanique.
Sophie's Rose Renew range — serums, oils, eye creams, the works — is what one might cautiously describe as quietly luxurious. Vegan, organic, made by someone who has spent twenty-odd years in the beauty industry and rather decided to do it properly. The sort of bottle one is genuinely happy to leave out on the bathroom shelf, rather than hiding behind the larger, uglier ones. The Hyaluronic Face Serum is, if you must start somewhere, the place to start.
Bellybambino.
Handwoven seagrass baskets, hand-embroidered with animal characters whose faces are slightly different from one another because — well, because they are made by hand, by Helen, in Norfolk. Lions, seahorses, jellyfish, octopuses, the occasional dinosaur. Award-winning at the Made for Mums Awards (twice), photographed in Vogue, Tatler and House & Garden, and recommended by Stacey Solomon, which is precisely the kind of cross-section of approval one rather likes. Built to contain the chaos and look properly considered while doing it — works equally well in a nursery, a living room, the corner where the dog has decided to live, or, frankly, the boat. New designs are tested on Helen's own children first, which is the most rigorous quality assurance available to a parent.
Bramble England.
Candles, made properly. Hand-poured in England, with the kind of fragrance work that suggests someone has actually thought about what a room ought to smell like, rather than reaching for the nearest "fresh linen" cliché. Burns slowly, evenly, and without the headache one has come to expect from less considered alternatives. The sort of candle one lights when one wants the room to behave.
Print Sisters.
Sisters Alexia and Claudia, who founded the studio during the first lockdown — that strange, suspended spring when a great many sensible projects were started by people with suddenly unscheduled afternoons. Print Sisters does the thoughtful work of reviving rare artworks, historical prints, and textile patterns that had quietly slipped out of view, and reimagining them for walls that have, frankly, been waiting. Art Nouveau forms. Botanical motifs. The sort of print that makes a hallway look as though one has thought about it for some time. (We have not. The print did the thinking.)
Kuishi.
For when the plastic Method bottle by the kitchen sink has, frankly, worn out its welcome and one is rather hoping for an upgrade. Kuishi makes B Corp-certified amber glass dispensers — refillable, carbon-positive (rather better than merely carbon-neutral, which one is given to understand is the point), and made in the UK. Beautiful basics. Over a million single-use bottles avoided to date, which is the sort of statistic one rather likes having on one's countertop.
Five small brands, five small reasons to spend a slow May afternoon at the shelf rather than the screen. We rather think you'll find something. And if you don't — well, there is always next month.
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