Noughty Natural Haircare: Interview With Lorna and Rachel
Noughty is a natural haircare brand that launched in September 2016. Made in the UK, its shampoo and conditioning products are 97% natural and 100% cruelty-free and vegan.
As the brand says, "We don't believe in testing any of our ingredients on Bambi, Lassie or Skippy" and it has received special accreditation from the Vegan Society, so Noughty doesn't test on animals and its products are free from animal ingredients.
No matter what type of hair you have, Noughty is for everyone. Its products work to fight frizz, battle build-up and give curls bounce and definition. Products are free from parabens, sulphates, petrochemicals and silicone. They contain high-quality ingredients: natural oils and botanical plant extracts - so Noughty is safe and gentle on your hair.
I interviewed co-founders Rachel Parsonage and Lorna Mitchell. I wanted to find out more about Noughty and the people behind the natural haircare brand.
What inspired you to set up Noughty?
Performance was key. Women want the product to fix the issue they have and this was important for us to achieve at a price that’s affordable. We believe everyone has a right to good hair. So, sensibly priced performance led products that solve every hair problem has become our obsession.
Why were you keen on creating a haircare brand that's vegan, cruelty-free and 97% natural?
Vegans are a passionate and savvy community and are increasingly looking for beauty brands to support their lifestyle choice. We knew from our own research that beauty is one of the most challenging categories to fit with their principles and lifestyle because the choice is limited and one or two products is no longer enough.
We challenged ourselves that we should bring the best of natural beauty from a cruelty-free standpoint and if we can also achieve it as a vegan formulation then we should aim for this too. That’s what we set out to do. Bambi is a babe just like you so from plant to bottle, we don’t test on animals and we wouldn’t dream of using animal or animal-derived ingredients.
What inspired you to create a vegan beauty product?
Our core inspiration for creating Noughty was to deliver a performance and benefits-led naturals brand. In addition, the beauty offer for vegans was hugely limited and in fact, was largely un-catered for specifically within haircare. The Vegan community is passionate, savvy, and increasingly looking for new products and brands to support their lifestyle.
Our experience in formulating natural products, also meant we knew restricting ingredient choices to vegan-friendly options was going to be a hard challenge, especially when we weren’t prepared to compromise on performance and benefits.
So we decided to lead the way in creating more choice for vegan haircare customers, to improve the quality of the offer, and to innovate in formulation development within the category.
Where do you see vegan beauty in the future?
Vegan beauty brands will become more commonplace as consumers demand more choice in cruelty-free and vegan products to overcome the perceived lack of value for money that still exists with most vegan-friendly products. Brands have to listen to what the customer wants if they are to survive, so vegan-friendly choices will dominate a wider selection of beauty categories.
In-store retail spaces will be dedicated to vegan beauty and this is likely to be led initially, by pop up initiatives. Product performance will also improve as more R&D investment is generated through increased sales. More vegan-friendly ingredient options and product alternatives will come to light such as the development of vegan-friendly probiotic.
Where do you see the brand in five years' time?
Creating more products that people love. Noughty has many more products coming through. As the development takes time to test and trial, finding the best natural actives we can, we are always working 18 months ahead most of the time. Watch this space for more shampoos, conditioners, stylers and treatments.
Ultimately we want to share the Noughty message that great performing natural haircare does not have to break your bank balance. We are already sharing that Noughty love in 14 countries so if we can add a few more countries along the way we will.
