The Somerset Toiletry Company

The Somerset Toiletry Company is a British family business that makes bath, body and home-fragrance products. It was founded in 1999 by the husband-and-wife team Roger and Sakina Buoy [7], and it operates from Clutton in North Somerset, England. The company designs and produces a portfolio of its own fragrance ranges, creates private-label lines for other retailers, and describes its aim as making "beautiful and honestly priced luxurious toiletries" [2].

The company remains active. It distributes to more than 50 countries, and in 2025 it announced an expansion of its travel-retail business across Latin America and the Caribbean and won a regional Family Business of the Year award [12].

⚑ Thinner sourcing. The article relies largely on the brand's own statements (T2–T3). Glowpedia is seeking independent sources.

Roger and Sakina Buoy started the company in 1999, after selling an earlier bath-and-body venture. According to the Giftware Association, Roger came from an entrepreneurial background while Sakina brought expertise in aromatherapy, and the pair set out to fill a gap they had identified for well-designed, reasonably priced toiletries [11]. The company frames this founding goal as creating "exquisitely made, honestly priced" luxury products.

The business began chiefly in private-label body care, making products for other retailers, and started launching its own brands around 2010. Sakina Buoy now serves as chairman and runs the company alongside family members.

For much of its first decade the company worked in private label before building out its own ranges. Two of its longest-running collections, Naturally European and Aromas Artesanales de Antigua, became its most popular lines.

In the early 2020s the company brought soap manufacturing in-house in Somerset, at a site it calls the Ministry of Soap Factory. The exact timing is reported inconsistently: a 2024 trade article states the factory "opened 2021" [14], while a September 2022 report by Gifts & Home described the company as bringing soap production in-house at that time [10]. The 2022 coverage appears to mark the public announcement rather than the factory's opening. The move was framed around reducing the company's carbon footprint and supporting the local economy, and chairman Sakina Buoy said the company felt "strongly about the environment, doing what we can to protect and conserve with full transparency" [10].

The company marked its 25th anniversary in 2024, when it also signed a licensing deal with the Royal Horticultural Society to produce an RHS-branded bath-and-body range, with retail availability planned for 2025 [14]. In 2025 it partnered with International Brand Builders Inc to grow its travel-retail presence in Latin America and the Caribbean, where it says it has traded for more than a decade.

The company's range spans bath and body care, hand care, soap bars, shower gels, hand creams, and home fragrance such as diffusers and scented candles. Its most popular ranges are Naturally European and Aromas Artesanales de Antigua, alongside newer lines including H2EAU, aimed at a younger audience, and Urban Café, launched into Latin American travel retail in 2025. In-house soap is triple-milled and made with what the company describes as responsibly sourced, RSPO-certified sustainable palm oil.

Products draw on essential oils such as lavender, rose and eucalyptus, shea butter, and natural exfoliants like sugar or salt in place of synthetic microbeads.

The company positions itself around natural fragrance, ethical manufacturing and accessible pricing, summarising its values as "Creative, Innovative, Affordable" [11]. It manufactures in the United Kingdom and states that quality "has always been at the heart of what we do". Historically its customers have skewed toward mature buyers who value fragrance and quality, though it has introduced more contemporary collections to reach younger consumers.

The company says all its products are cruelty-free and that it does not test on animals; it is listed in PETA's cruelty-free database, which records that neither its ingredients nor finished products are tested on animals [13]. According to the company, all of its products are suitable for vegetarians and over 95% are suitable for vegans, and most of its Naturally European collection is registered with The Vegan Society [6]. Its stated sustainability measures include RSPO-certified palm oil, removing colourants from soaps, introducing hand-wash refills, and packaging with recyclable materials and up to 50% recycled plastic content.

The company won the Albert Goodman Family Business of the Year Award at the 2025 Somerset Business Awards, and was runner-up for the Investing in Somerset Award [8]. Its products have also been recognised in the vegan and cruelty-free categories: at the 2023 Veggie Awards its Naturally European lines took a Silver in Best Vegan Body Care, and its Ministry of Soap Woodsman range took a Bronze in Cruelty-Free Body Care [6]. Trade coverage also cites an EB100 Sustainability of the Year recognition.

The company is active and independently run as a family business. Sources differ on its size: an April 2025 trade report states it employs 73 people [7], while its LinkedIn profile lists a band of 11–50 employees [9]; the higher, more recent figure is the more current account. Its most recent documented activity includes the 2025 travel-retail expansion and the 2025 Family Business of the Year award.