Welcome to the next instalment of the #beautyinsider Q&As, where you can find out who is behind some of your favourite beauty brands, what they are working on and how they got there. This month’s guest is Lucy Cardwell, Founder of Lucky Cloud, a botanical skincare brand hailing from Scotland and featuring handmade, vegan and cruelty-free products designed to nourish dry sensitive skin. Stocked by the likes of LoveLula, Wolf & Badger and independent boutiques, I’ve previously featured Lucky Cloud’s star product, the Balancing Face Oil, in my posts Top 5 Natural Facial Oils and Emerging Natural Brands. If these posts have whet your appetite then read on to discover the benefits of some of the brand’s key ingredients as well as Lucy’s top 3 desert island beauty products.

Hi Lucy, thank you for being my Insider Q&A guest this month. Let’s start from the beginning: every beauty brand has a story, what is Lucky Cloud’s?

Hi Julia, thanks so much for asking me to be involved!

I founded Lucky Cloud Skincare in 2015, a brand of luxurious botanical skincare for people with dry, damaged and sensitive skin. Vegan friendly and made by hand in small batches, I use quality raw ingredients to create moisture rich, nourishing and soothing products.

Each product is formulated in house using natural, ethically sourced ingredients so we can offer you effective skincare that’s easy to use and good for your mind, body and soul… and the environment too of course!

Lucky Cloud Skincare was born out of my own issues with sensitive and dry skin. I’d suffered from skin conditions like dermatitis from a young age and was quite reliant on steroid ointments. Because of this I’ve always had an interest in skincare and skin health, but never really understood it. Until that is, I started researching ingredients and developing products.

I always find the inspiration behind brand names intriguing – how did the name Lucky Cloud come about?

Haha! I do get asked this a lot! There were definitely many, many hours spent researching and trying out different names. In the end, this is the one that won. To start with, the letters L and C are my initials, and I used to get called Lucky when I was in my 20s. So that combined with the beautiful natural phenomenon that provides the earth with a source of moisture – clouds – it was a perfect fit!

Insider news please! Can you share with us some of the star ingredients in your products and their benefits?

Oooh, this is a good question! Ok, I have loads of ingredients I love, so it’s hard to choose. I’ll list three of my most used oils, how does that sound?

• Jojoba Oil (INCI: Simmondsia chinensis, pronounced ho-ho-b): This is one of my favourite oils and I use it in all my face care products. The thing about Jojoba is that it’s not actually an oil, it’s a wax which is liquid at room temperature! It’s really light textured and deeply penetrating, which means it has excellent softening and moisturising properties. It also resembles the skin’s own natural sebum levels, so it’s ideal for all skin types as it can re-balance oily and problem skin as well as helping to nourish and repair dry and damaged skin.
• Safflower Oil, also known as Thistle Oil (INCI: Carthamus tinctorius): This is another oil I use in almost all my products. It’s an excellent source of Essential Fatty Acids (omega 3 and omega 6), making it a wonderful oil for all skin types. It’s quite a dry oil, so it doesn’t have a fatty feel on the skin which makes it a wonderful accompaniment to other more heavy oils. Not only that but because of its high levels of Omega 6 it can help to re-balance skin with large pores.
• Evening Primrose Oil (INCI: Oenothera biennis): You’ll find this in both my Face Oils as well as the Soothing Super Balm. Another light oil, it’s easily absorbed and very high in Gamma Linolenic Acid (GLA), another essential fatty acid. It’s used for a variety of skin conditions including eczema and acne. It penetrates deeply into the skin which as a result become softer, preventing it from drying out

As founder of a natural beauty brand, what so far has been your proudest moment?

At the risk of sounding totally goofy, my proudest moments are every time I get some really fantastic feedback or reviews about my products. Knowing that I’ve created something that is really helping people to heal their skin and make them feel good about themselves is truly heart-warming.

What skincare recommendations do you share most often with your customers?

• Drink lots of water
• Don’t over wash your skin
• Find the right products (and ingredients) that work for you. There’s no one fix for each person.

Let’s get personal: what would be your 3 desert-island beauty products?

Hmmm, ok…

• A multi-purpose oil or balm. One that can double as a cleanser and moisturiser
• Some sort of eyebrow make up. It’s the one type of make-up that I have a lot of trouble leaving the house without!
• Lip balm. They can also be quite multi-purpose

And finally – What exciting projects do you have coming up in the next few months?

Oh, so much! As it’s the lead up to Christmas, I have a load of festive events in the diary. But more excitingly I’ve a new product that’s in its final stage… keep an eye on my social for any new info and a release date!

If you have any burning questions you’d like to ask Lucy why not leave a comment below? Or you can get in touch with her directly on Instagram and Twitter.