Connock London: a beautiful beginning

Fragrance and

Fragrance and skincare brand founder Amanda
Connock on exotic ingredients, exclusive perfumes and continuing
her father’s legacy

Profile Kari
Wilkin

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