Westlab

Westlab is a British bath and body brand that imports, produces and sells mineral-rich bathing salts, including Epsom, Dead Sea, Himalayan and magnesium varieties. It was launched in 2004 by two childhood friends, Scott Livingston and Penny Hamilton [1], and describes itself as "the UK's No.1 Bath Salt Brand" [2]. The company remains active, with a current site, a recently introduced Skin Repair range and wide distribution across British grocery and pharmacy chains.

Westlab grew out of the founders' search for gentle ways to soothe their children's sensitive skin. According to the company, Livingston began exploring the benefits of Dead Sea salt after his young son developed childhood eczema, while Hamilton had been working in beauty and spas and researching what she saw as unnecessary chemicals in cosmetics, opening one of the UK's first day spas to stock only brands free of harsh chemicals [3]. A Gulf News wellbeing feature records that it was their children's eczema and asthma that led the pair to explore salts and eventually launch Westlab in 2004 [1].

The sourced founding year is not entirely uncontested. The brand's own UK and US pages and the Gulf News feature all place the launch in 2004 [1][3], whereas trade publication The Grocer described the business in 2017 as "established in 2014" [4]. The 2014 date appears to be an outlier, likely referring to a corporate restructure rather than the brand's launch.

In May 2017 Westlab acquired the birch water brand Sibberi, and Sibberi's co-founders Mehdi Meghzifene and Clara Vaisse were appointed to the Westlab board [4]. Livingston, identified as founder, described the two businesses as a natural match through their shared focus on health-led products, saying the deal was intended to expand the customer base, attract new retailers and widen market awareness [4]. No larger parent company is documented.

Westlab positions itself around the idea that nature already provides what the body needs to restore itself. The company states its mission as harnessing "the natural intelligence of mineral rich salts to support healthier bodies and calmer minds," and promises products that are "pure, purposeful and honest" with "no fillers, no shortcuts." Its marketing carries the tagline "Discover Your Moment of Restoration." The brand aligns itself with clean-beauty and slow-beauty positioning, and its ethical marketing policy states an aim to "normalise normal skin" rather than to fix or perfect it.

The range centres on bathing salts sold under health and wellbeing collections, alongside foot soaks, bath and shower gels, and a Skin Repair line comprising a bath salt and a mineral cream. Hero ingredients include Dead Sea salt, Epsom salt, magnesium and Himalayan salt. Hamilton has identified Epsom salt as the brand's most popular product [1]. The company says it sources its Dead Sea salt exclusively from Jordan, where it is processed by solar evaporation, and that the salt is independently tested in the UK to German BVL quality standards for mineral content and purity.

Westlab states that its products have "always been 100% vegan and cruelty-free" [3] and that they are mostly fully natural, never containing less than 97% naturally derived ingredients. On sustainability, the company cites eco-friendly packaging, a stated commitment to preserving the Dead Sea as a natural resource, and membership of Provenance, a service for independent verification of social and environmental claims.

Westlab is active. Its site carries a 2025 copyright, an actively marketed "New" Skin Repair range, and broad UK distribution spanning retailers such as Boots, Superdrug, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Holland & Barrett and Ocado, alongside a US operation at westlab.us.