Lee’s natural

Nov 29 2008 by Liz Hands, The Journal

Liz Hands speaks to a new mother about how her baby’s painful skin condition could lead to a better work/life balance for her family.

IT started as a mother’s labour of love. Lee Heads and her husband Andy both suffer from eczema. So when their baby Archie started showing signs of the skin condition, it came as no surprise.

At his worst, Archie, now one, was covered in tell-tale blotches from top to toe and was scratching so much his delicate skin was raw and bleeding.

And, though times have moved on since then and formulas and application techniques have improved, Andy’s skin bears childhood scars caused by steroid cream use – a route Lee was determined not to take for Archie.

“My husband had eczema all his life, so it’s no surprise Archie got it too,” explains Lee, 30. “When he was three months old, I took him to the doctor’s and she said he’d have it for the long term.

“When he’s got a cold or is a bit under the weather then it gets worse. There are hundreds of creams that you can try but, obviously, not all of them work for everyone.

“Eventually, it was getting really bad. It was so itchy, Archie was scratching his skin until it bled. It left his pyjamas stuck to his skin in the morning.

“The doctor did want to prescribe steroid creams but they thin your skin. It’s so damaging and we’re talking about putting it on a baby’s face.”

It was then that Lee started to do some research of her own online to find a cream using natural organic ingredients. She says she did find one which worked.

“But it was very expensive. I thought if he’s going to have this all of his life then I’m going to be buying an awful lot of this. I looked at the ingredients and saw it was made up of oils and beeswax. I thought ‘I can make this myself’.”

Former Hexham Queen Elizabeth High School pupil Lee, who is originally from Corbridge and now living in Gosforth, signed up for a course in Fulham, London, run by Aromantics to find out more about natural skin care.

“I’ve always been interested in natural beauty products,” she says. “I remember when I was little, making rose petal perfume with my Grandma.”

Originally, Lee’s only aim was to make a cream which worked for Archie but she says “the course put the idea that this could be more in my head.”

It came at the perfect time for Lee. She had worked at Matfen Hall in Northumberland for 10 years after doing her A-levels, eventually taking charge of the luxury hotel’s golf office.

Lee went on to do a PR degree at Sunderland University before working for a marketing firm in Newcastle and finally at Newcastle Council as a temp.

She also works part time with special needs children and young adults.

Now, what started with Archie as inspiration, has turned into a business for Lee.

She has called her firm Bria Organics. The name comes from her aim to make everything as natural and organic as possible – her suppliers are Soil Association certified and she is hoping to become certified herself. Bria is the end of Northumbria, but also means health and wellbeing in Hebrew.

The path she is taking perhaps seems like a natural progression for Lee.

She developed a love of the countryside growing up in Corbridge and so, when she was planning the move to her current home in Alwinton Terrace, Gosforth, she was disappointed not to have a garden where she could grow her own fruit and veg.

But when a plot became free at nearby Beaumont Allotments, Lee jumped at it, taking up the allotment even before her house sale went through.

“I got more into this way of living when Archie was born,” she says. “I now grow all sorts of fruit and veg. I think you’ve got to be more responsible and make sure you are giving children the very best.

“The movement towards natural and organic really started with food. Now people are looking at their beauty products and cosmetics.”

Lee’s range, all made in her kitchen, fits in with her aim to make organic products that are “trendy and not at all hippyish or old fashioned – something that’s going to perform well and look good in your bathroom”.

Archie became Lee’s guinea pig for her eczema range, which uses organic borage oil, rich in fatty acids to heal the skin.

She smeared her product down one of Archie’s arms and a more traditional cream down the other and soon realised hers was more effective.

“I looked at a lot of herbal remedies during my research,” says Lee. “But mine is unique. It’s a relief, repair and replenish cream. It combats the itchiness, soreness and dryness.

“But it is a very functional product and I started thinking about how the base would be good as body butter.”

Her range now includes bath oils, body butters, room sprays and hand balms, with delicious smelling ingredients such as frangipani, rose and lemongrass.

She has also created nappy rash creams, bath oils and room sprays for babies.

Her friends and family have all been called upon to try out the products – her brother’s sore hands have been soothed with her gardeners’ hand balm.

Archie’s condition has been very distressing for Lee and Andy, an area sales manager at Topps Tiles.

“I’ve had people just looking at his face and just saying ‘what’s wrong with him?’,” says Lee.

“I remember his health visitor telling me to take him to the doctor and that he needed to be treated even though he was already undergoing treatment at the GP’s.The doctor said it was just a lack of understanding.” While, of course, Lee would like Archie never to have developed eczema, she hopes that a lot of good will come from his condition.

Lee has been selling the Bria range at markets across the region and is working on securing other suppliers at the moment.

“This could be what gives me a good work/life balance,” she says. “I was working in PR before having Archie, but that’s the sort of job where it’s difficult to work sociable hours.

“With this, I should be able to spend as much time with Archie as possible.”

Lee will be at Alnwick Garden’s craft fair today, Newcastle’s Quayside Market tomorrow (weather permitting), and Newcastle’s Christmas Fair at Old Eldon Square on December 11 and 14.