A short version of how a childhood surrounded by plants turned into a way of working.

I grew up in the countryside in Brittany, in the west of France, where lavender, rosemary and thyme were as ordinary as anything else in the kitchen cupboard. My mother reached for essential oils the way other households reach for a first-aid box — for a cold night, a long week, a bit of quiet. I didn't think of it as anything unusual at the time. It was simply how she looked after us.

That everyday familiarity stayed with me long after I left home. Wherever I've lived since, a bottle of lavender oil has come with me. It became less of a habit inherited from my mother and more something I wanted to understand properly — the plants themselves, how they're extracted, what they're actually made of, and how to use them well and safely.

That's what led me to formal training. I'm currently completing a clinical aromatherapy diploma with the Penny Price Academy, working alongside the treatments I already offer through Aromatherapy With Cinderella, based here in Harwich, Essex. The diploma has given structure to something I'd absorbed informally for years — proper study of chemistry, safety and practice, on top of a childhood spent around the real thing.

Alongside my treatment work, I'm developing Rella — a small range of pure, single-note essential oils, chosen with the same care I'd want for my own kitchen cupboard. It's early days, but it comes from the same place everything else does: a French countryside upbringing, my mother's example, and a genuine, ongoing interest in doing this properly.