… and found that the routine I had relied upon for years was no longer working for my skin. The layering paradigm - cleanser, toner, serum, day cream, night cream, eye cream, lip cream had always felt like a bit much, but even when I tried it, I didn’t really see results. Soaps and cleansers had become too harsh, and no hand cream could repair my hands.

My hospitality career began in Spain in 1999, where I adopted a Mediterranean kitchen standard: a brisk, end-of-shift hand-scrub-down with olive oil and salt - a no-nonsense, readily available exfoliant and moisturiser for workers’ hands.

Commercial cookery in the years that followed grew my understanding and appreciation of natural oils, butters and fats. Inspired by the early learnings from Barcelona, it seemed a natural step to take on skincare for the whole body using the same minimalist principles I use for recipe creation - shortest possible ingredient list of only necessary, high quality items. It also made sense that anything applied to the skin should also be safe to eat. And the Neptune Street Apothecary was born.

It’s a joy to make these products: I use them everyday and find my skin is better than ever. I hope you’ll enjoy them also, and find them useful, practical and luxurious all at once.

Adele Arkell
Self-Taught Cook, Restaurant Owner, Maker of Things