Sure is Pure

IN the basement kitchen of her Harrogate home, Niky Keane stands over her cooker carefully adding ingredients to a glass bowl resting upon a pan of simmering water. The brightly-coloured kitchen displays all the marks of a much-loved family room: pictures of Niky, her four kids and partner Gareth, plaster the wall; quirky magnets cover the fridge and a hyperactive chipmunk runs amok in a cage, creating a constant rattling background noise.

It's lunchtime, but Niky isn't preparing something for us to eat. Rather, she is cooking up some face cream for a client who placed an order via the Internet that morning.

It is just 12 months since Niky set up her company Pure 'Nuff Stuff, selling hand-made, natural beauty products with the emphasis on using organic and environmentally-friendly ingredients.

At first, it was just a hobby. Niky became interested in natural beauty products while editing Organic Living magazine, where she carried out a lot of research into the ingredients of High Street cosmetics and toiletries. During this time, she also collected recipes for DIY beauty products which you could make by literally raiding the kitchen cupboard.

She said: "I started looking deeper into what those long and scary names on the ingredients lists on shampoos, face creams, mascaras and bubble baths really were and found that the bathroom is probably the most dangerous room in the house."

From her investigations, she discovered research suggesting many of the chemicals used in everyday cosmetics posed a health hazard.

"I became increasingly alarmed," she confessed. "There are some 7,000 chemical ingredients permitted to be used in cosmetics and more than 1,000 are known to be toxic or carcinogenic. The industry says that they are not a threat because they are used in such small quantities. But just think about how many products you use in a day, from shampoos and soap to bubble bath and foundations, and it becomes quite a cocktail."

For many years Niky had been convinced of the benefits of healthy eating and buying organic food and decided it was about time she applied the same care to what she put on to her body.

So she began experimenting on making home-made beauty products and trying them out on girlfriends. They went down so well that she saw the prospect of a business venture. And so Pure 'Nuff Stuff was born. Niky began selling her wares at local fares and markets, then set up a mail order business, which is now on-line too.

Products available include shampoos and conditioners, bubble bath and shower gel, soap, salts and bombs for the bath, body lotions, hand and foot creams and a selection of gift boxes. Another emphasis is on affordability, with products reasonably priced: a 200ml bottle of shower gel costs £3.95; 100g of bath salts £2.50 and 100ml of avocado cleanser is £4.95.

Niky has also just clinched a publishing deal for a book on organic beauty products. Out next spring, it will combine an expos of the ingredients in mainstream products with easy-to-use, natural recipes for readers to try at home.

One of Niky's biggest fans is 12-year-old daughter Aimie, who is keen - along with her school chums - to act as a guinea pig for new products. It's thanks to Aimie's pester-power that Niky has decided to expand her soap and toiletries range into cosmetics. A lipgloss will be launched in May, followed by eyeshadows and foundations. Other novelties include bath confetti and mud masks. Niky also makes men's products, which have been tried and tested and thoroughly approved by Gareth, a sound engineer with Yorkshire Television who works on Emmerdale and was a one-time devotee of the Body Shop.

With organic food crossing over into the mainstream and becoming more widely available, Niky believes consumers are now ready to be educated about the benefits of natural cosmetics. "It's a natural progression," she said. "People are concerned about what they are putting into their bodies and will start to be concerned about what they put on them as well."

- For more information about Pure 'Nuff Stuff visit the website: www.purenuffstuff.co.uk or for a mail-order brochure telephone 01423 508256

Recipes:

Try Niky's natural recipes at home simply by raiding kitchen cupboards and fridge.

Cleanser

Natural yoghurt

Apply using a cotton pad - you will be amazed. It even takes off mascara

Shampoo

2 eggs

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

2 tbsp rosewater

Whisk all the ingredients together. Pour half the mixture on to wet hair and massage through. Rinse and pour the remaining mixture on to your hair and rinse with cool to warm water. Although the mixture smells quite vinegary your hair will not

Hair shine

1 tsp honey

4 tbsp warm water

Stir the honey into the warm water. After shampooing, rinse with the mixture, working it well through your hair. Do not rinse out - we promise you won't end up with sticky hair

Honey conditioner

5 tbsp honey

3 tbsp olive oil

Mix the honey and olive oil together. (Use just two tablespoons of oil for normal hair to avoid over conditioning). Work a small amount at a time through dry hair until completely coated. Cover hair with a shower cap (or a plastic carrier bag) and leave to marinate for 30 minutes. Remove shower cap and work copious amounts of shampoo through your hair before wetting, then lather well. You may need to repeat the washing process if the hair still feels oily.

Hair spray

Two lemons

2 cups of water

Vodka

Chop two lemons, add two cups water, bring to the boil then simmer in a pan over low heat until lemons are quite soft. Cool, then strain through muslin (or a clean tea towel). Pour into a spray bottle, add one tablespoon vodka and shake the solution. Dilute with water if too sticky.

Home-made hair gel

to 1 teaspoon unflavoured gelatine

1 cup warm water

Dissolve gelatine in one cup of warm water. Keep refrigerated and use as you would a commercial gel.

Updated: 09:23 Tuesday, April 01, 2003