We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Llewelyn Thomas-Wood a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Llewelyn, thanks for joining us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

Welcome to Buddha Beauty Skincare, where natural beauty and mindfulness combine. A place where transformative skincare products have been crafted with love and care to enhance your skin’s natural health and radiance while the delicate aromas have been chosen to lift your spirits or provide calm when the mind needs it.

“Buddha Beauty is aimed to make you feel good” this really brings alive the simplicity of the brand. This is the straightforward message the founders of the company are looking to portray.

The Buddha Beauty brand name was originally born through Llewelyn’s love of the Far East and specifically Thailand, a country renowned for its mysticism, beauty and allure.

While there practicing meditation and massage the idea of the brand was born. A beauty brand that also gives back and helps where is can. A buddhist principle that Llewelyn follows though his business actions.

Over the years Buddha Beauty has raised funds to build sleep pods for the homeless, supported women refuges in Manchester, raised funds for the rehabilitation of elephants in the Far East and also been supporting many other small animal charities throughout the UK.

Llewelyn, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My original career was as a flight attendant but after 15 years in the sky, I felt it was time to hang up my wings and seek a more spiritual career. This is where i started my original journey in to holistic therapies. Reiki Healing was my first therapy I trained in closely followed by Aromatherapy, Swedish and Reflexology. Though these treatment I gained my love of essential oil and the power of what they could achieve.

Over time my creation of personal blends turned into creating bespoke products for treatment and eventually through demand a brand was born. A brand I ensured was fully vegan from its launch. I do believe we were one of the first truly vegan and cruelty-free skincare brands. My aim with this was to create a brand that was available to all. No use of animal ingredient or test has ever been involved in what we do and we will continue all business this way!

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

We make and manufacture all of our products in our Manchester based warehouse. Buddha Beauty started from my love of spiritual enlightenment and how i wanted others to experience a little bit of my knowledge about holistics and skincare combined. Buddha Beauty is a simple, yet effective, brand that i am so happy to have built. As a vegan myself, i am very much against animal cruelty, hence my decision to make my brand vegan and cruelty free! As a trained aromatherapist, we can create bespoke blends for each of our clients individual needs, which majorly sets us apart from our competitors. I, personally, went under years of extensive training to become an aromatherapist and, therefore, build my vegan and cruelty free beauty brand to what it is today!

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

Buddha Beauty started as a side hustle when I was a part of Thomas Cook airline staff. When Buddha Beauty grew, I left my job as a flight attendant to pursue my dream as a holistic therapist and business owner. Buddha Beauty is my passion and has been for the past 12 years. Winning Best Vegan Online Retailer 2020 by Vegfest was very much a ‘pinch me’ moment. Watching my brand grow to what it is today, has been such an exciting experience for me. It’s not been an easy journey, but it’s been worth it, seeing what my brand has now become! Being a flight attendant was understandably difficult while running a business, long times away from home meant i couldn’t put my all into the brand. Although i do miss my airline family, Buddha Beauty has become my passion – and we’re still growing!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.buddha-beauty.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buddhabeautyskincare
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BuddhaBeauty
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/llewelyn-t-2485a93b
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/BuddhaBeautySkincare
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@buddhabeauty www.ownlabelskincare.co.uk

Image Credits
some of my images would not upload we tried many times, if you would like a few other please email me.