Why I Left a Corporate Career to Grow Lavender and Make Soap

I left a corporate career to build The Soap Academy because I wanted work that was slower, more honest and closer to something real, and growing my own lavender and rosemary became part of that decision almost immediately, since it let me understand exactly what was going into what I made, from a specific bed on my own allotment through to a finished bar.

This is the story I get asked about most often, usually by people standing at their own version of the same decision.

What I was leaving behind

A corporate career gave me structure and stability, but very little that felt genuinely mine. Decisions made by committee, work measured in metrics that rarely reflected the actual value of anything, and very little space for slow, careful craft. It was not a dramatic falling out, more a slow, quiet recognition that I wanted something different.

Why soap, specifically

Soap making found me partly through frustration with what I was putting on my own skin, and partly through a growing pull toward working with my hands rather than a screen. I made soap badly for a full year before anyone properly explained the why behind the what, which is exactly why my course and workshops exist now, so nobody else has to lose that year the way I did.

Why the allotment mattered so much

Once I was making soap seriously, growing some of what went into it felt like the natural next step, not a marketing decision but a genuine desire to know my ingredients properly. Lavender and rosemary were the two that made most sense to grow myself, and both now sit at the heart of my range, one dried as a gentle botanical, one distilled as an essential oil, both cut by my own hand from my own plot.

What this decision actually looks like day to day

It looks like early mornings harvesting lavender before the heat of the day takes its scent. It looks like six week cure cycles that require genuine patience rather than instant results. It looks like teaching workshops at Westbury Arts Centre and building an online course so this way of working can reach people well beyond Milton Keynes. Slower, by every measure, than the career I left, and considerably more mine.

Where this is heading

My longer term hope is for The Soap Academy to become a genuine, trusted authority on soap making in the UK, and eventually a proper book on the craft itself. Both ambitions started in exactly the same place as everything else here, a decision to slow down and do one thing properly.

Frequently asked questions

What did you do before starting The Soap Academy?

I worked a corporate career before leaving it to pursue soap making and teaching full time.

Why do you grow your own lavender and rosemary?

So I know exactly how the ingredients that go into my soap were grown and tended, rather than sourcing everything at a distance.

Do you still work with other suppliers alongside your own growing?

Yes. I grow lavender and rosemary myself, while carefully sourcing other oils and ingredients from trusted suppliers for the rest of the range.

If this story resonates with you, the range it produced, and the workshops and course built around teaching it properly, are all on my website.