Earlier on in the year, the amazing Shelley Loves interviewed me about Vesta and the inspiration behind it, so I thought I’d post the interview here too..
Shelley has a great blog with lots of amazing fashion tips and interviews with inspirational woman.
http://shelleyloves.net/2019/04/11/reusable-cleaning-wipes/
Daisy and I have been using these to wash our faces both morning and evening and are very impressed with them. When I have put them in the washing machine on a 30° wash any mascara, lipstick or foundation stains have washed off and they still feel just as soft. To quote Daisy, she said ‘mum, they are like washing my face with velvet.’ And I have to agree, they really are that good. Daisy likes the little face wipes I like the big baby wipes. I have also been using them in the kitchen, bathroom, and just for spillages.
I was intrigued to find out more about the founder Bryony and why she started Vesta Living, so I wrote to her and asked if I could question her for my blog. As you would expect she was super friendly and was so happy to spread the love of reusable items over disposable.
Tell me a bit about yourself
My name is Bryony. I live in Birmingham with my husband Max and our two boys Jasper and Robin and our cat Milly. I’m a cusp star sign, the cusp of oscillation, which describes me quite well. I swing from needing to get to London to soak up that crazy energy and then immediately after needing to be in nature. I love being in water, mainly the sea, but rivers, pools and baths work well too. I have a huge pink roll top bath I get in every night without fail. Equally, I love getting dressed up and drinking champagne with good friends in a fancy place. Live music and singing is a passion too and the summer is my favourite season. I adore feeling warm in the sunshine.
What inspired Vesta Living?
I had, like most people, watched Blue Planet in pure horror last year and despite trying to make some changes to our buying habits already, I knew that we couldn’t go on consuming as we once had. I listened to a podcast where someone talked about simply starting by making replacements in house hold items from disposables to reusables. By doing this, you could tackle one area at a time and make huge differences, without feeling overwhelmed and as though you had to be immediately perfect at Zero Waste. So buying a reusable travel coffee cup, swapping out plastic toothbrushes for biodegradable bamboo ones, plastic bags to reusable bags and disposable wipes to reusable wipes. Simply buying products in glass over plastic and avoiding fruit and veg wrapped in plastic. When I started to research reusable wipes, I found that there weren’t many places in the UK you could find them, at that time. So I decided to start making and selling my own. The emphasis being on ensuring that using reusable products didn’t impact your lifestyle.
Why do you think it’s so important that we all use reusable wipes?
Disposable wipes are a massive tax on the planet. Most wipes are made of plastic and come in plastic packaging too. Most wipes don’t degrade, and even the ones that do, take 20 or so years to degrade and in that time have already caused damage. So many wipes end up in our sewer systems, they form colossal fat bergs which cost the UK £100 million to remove each year. They also shed fibres, known as micro plastics which are found in marine life and in return are in our food chain. The whole wipes that make it out into the ocean are swallowed by marine creatures such as turtles who mistake them for jelly fish. They then sit in their stomachs, unable to be digested and slowly kill the creature.
I think we all need to start taking responsibility for our planet. I wish retailers and large corporations would make the changes when it comes to single use plastics, but they just won’t. So it must come down to the consumer. And we are powerful, we make decisions about the kind of world we want to live in every time we spend our money.
What were you doing before Vesta Living?
Before Vesta Living, I was a Lingerie and Swimwear Buyer but I was made redundant whilst on maternity leave. After that I worked for a “value” retailer with very debatable ethics and lasted 6 months or so. After the birth of my second child, I started my own shop selling organic kids clothing and then had a couple of jobs working for local small businesses. It’s so clear now how my past job experiences have propelled me into this role.
What impact do you want to have on the world?
Wow… that’s a big question.
I’d like to think that where I achieve success I can bring someone along with me. Vesta is a collaboration, of creatives, photographers, graphic designers, sewists, makers… I couldn’t do what I do without them and in turn I’d like to support them too.
But, I’d like to live a fairly low impact life. Consuming less and experiencing more.
