"As children, my brother and I would blend our own fragrances from Dad's old samples of perfume and make our own floral waters in buckets in the garden shed."
In 1973, not long after they were married, my parents set up A&E Connock, suppliers of speciality ingredients to the perfumery and cosmetics industry. My father, Alan, had a passion for fragrance and nature having studied Horticulture and followed this with over 12 years technical experience in the industry. My mother, Elizabeth, had an Honors Degree in Biochemistry.
4 years later, I was born, the second of five children, and we moved to a fourteenth century Mill House in Dorset where the company is still based today. As a young child, I would sit in Dad's office while he worked and smell all the different bottles of fragrance on his desk. He would give my brother and me old samples of perfumes and we would blend our own fragrances and make scented bath salts that we would sell to Mum and Dad and their friends. We would also love to make our own floral waters in buckets in the garden shed from rose petals and cherry blossom.
As Dad's reputation within the industry grew so did his search for innovation in the field of cosmetics and toiletries. He began to travel to all corners of the globe to seek out unusual, exotic and innovative natural ingredients. He would come home with wonderful oils and stories of how they were used in their native countries.
There was no doubt that I wanted to follow in Dad's footsteps. He recognised my interest and, after completing a business degree, I joined the business and worked closely with him for 4 exciting years before he sadly passed away very suddenly.
But his passion is still very much alive in me. I realised that there was an opportunity to develop a range of products and to tell Dad's stories again using my own experience and my family's heritage in the industry. And so Connock London was born.