Connock London: a beautiful beginning

If ever anyone was born to be a cosmetics entrepreneur, it’s Amanda Connock. The Hampshire-based business founder began learning about little-known natural beauty ingredients at about the same age most of us were learning to tie our shoelaces.

Fast-forward a few decades and Connock is running fast-growing fragrance and skincare brand Connock London, sold at the likes of Fortnum & Mason, with a new perfume developed exclusively for international hotel chain Jumeirah in the pipeline. And that’s in between raising her two young children.

So what is Connock’s story? The Week Portfolio caught up with her to find out....

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The Connock London website says your love of beauty and fragrance was inspired by your parents. Tell us about that...

So about 45 years ago my mum and dad launched a family business, A&E Connock, which is still going strong today. Both my parents had a passion for fragrance and nature, and in the early days they were distributing fragrance ingredients - essential oils, perfume compounds - but as time went on, they saw there was more room for creativity and innovation in toiletries and cosmetics.

At that point, natural ingredients were becoming fashionable and brands were looking for something a bit different to use in their products. My father started travelling to different parts of the world (my mum was busy looking after us five kids!) and finding out about different oils and how they were used in their native countries. He felt there was a lot we could learn from that. Over the years, the range just grew and grew.

When I left uni, I joined the family business and worked with Dad and my brother travelling the world, sourcing different ingredients. Then about 14 years ago, Dad passed away very suddenly. It was a terrible shock, but my brother and I were determined to continue the business and keep it in the family for the next generation. He and my sister still source the ingredients from all over the world and then sell on to cosmetic companies, from Unilever down to small aromatherapists.

But my main passion has always been for finished products, and I saw an opportunity to use my heritage and all those stories I’d heard from Dad, all those ingredients he found, to create a range of my own. That’s when I launched Connock London, about eight years ago.

The whole idea is that each collection we launch is based on one main ingredient from a different part of the world. Everything from the packaging, the colours, the maps we use on the packaging, the other ingredients, they’re all inspired by that main ingredient. The ingredients are always at the heart of the brand, and that’s something I will never compromise on.

How has the range evolved?

We launched, from day one, in Fortnum & Mason, and they’re still our most important retail partner. We have a staff member in there three days a week, so it’s almost like our London flagship. Our first range was the Kukui Oil Collection. Kukui [pronounced koo-koo-ee] is the ingredient I have the most history and experience with most history with, because my father was one of the first to bring the oil over here, about 30 years ago. We’re still the sole distributor of Hawaiian kukui nut oil in Europe.

To start with, we focused entirely on the kukui collection, but I’d always planned to launch several different collections from around the world, so last year we launched two new fragrance collections, Manuka and Andiroba. Manuka is a honey-based fragrance inspired by the flora of Australia, and Andiroba is a fresh, green fragrance inspired by the Amazonian Rainforest, so it really comes into its own at this time of year. They’ve both been incredibly popular, but the kukui is still our signature collection. We’ve now got 12 kukui products and it will always be our main range.

Do you have a favourite product?

Ooh, that’s a tricky one. It would have to be the Kukui Oil Rich Body Cream, I’m obsessed with it! It’s actually one of the first products we developed, when we first started the brand, but we didn’t launch it until last year.

I was very careful of how quickly we launched all the products, I wanted to make sure they were just right and that we didn’t just throw ten or 12 products out there all at once. We wanted to give each product the attention it deserved. I was so excited to finally launch the body cream, it’s a real indulgence product.

Describe your typical working day

For me, no day is ever the same. When you’ve got young children, you’re juggling a lot of different balls. My husband’s a pilot and he’s away a lot, so it’s very important to me that the beginning and end of the day are spent with the kids. I give them breakfast, take them to school and nursery, and then come to the office, which is only about ten minutes away from our home in the New Forest. I operate from an outbuilding my father built at the family home. I moved in after A&E Connock outgrew the offices and it’s lovely to be where it all began.

My day is filled with anything from product development to discussing the new fragrances we’re launching, meetings with press and retail suppliers and potential new partners, talking to the team and our investors. That’s a typical office day.

I also spend a lot of time in London, for events, pop-ups… we’ve recently done a pop-up in Chelsea with the resort wear brand Pampelone, and we had a Connock London therapist at another Pampelone event later in the week. It’s very, very varied!

My evenings are all about the children, and trying to squeeze a bit of exercise in after sitting at a desk all day. Once the children are in bed, I’ll go back on the laptop to get in another couple of undisturbed hours of work.

And finally, what next?

We have a new fragrance that I’m particularly excited about, because it’s slightly different. It’s actually been created in partnership with Jumeirah, the Middle Eastern hotel group, who have a resort in the Maldives called the Vittaveli. They were looking for a fragrance brand to develop a fragrance specifically for them. They gift a lot of fragrances to their top clients, and they generally use Hermès, but the Vittaveli wanted something a bit more personal - something that was inspired by the Maldives and the surrounding area, that they could give to clients and also sell in the resort and in duty-free in the Maldives.

I’ve worked with them to create a fragrance for the Vittaveli that we will also distribute through our network. Connock London is all about travel, discovery, well-being - there’s a well-being angle to all of our ranges - so it’s a perfect partnership. The fragrance has really fresh, floral, kind of beachy top notes, but then the base when it settles is very delicate oud, sandalwood, amber, so a really rich, opulent base that should appeal to Middle Eastern clients. It’s not really heavy, though, so it’s suitable for everyone, for men and women as well. It’s launching in September and I’m really looking forward to it!

Connock London is available at Fortnum & Mason and at boutiques and salons across the UK. For more information, see www.connocklondon.co.uk