The beauty industry loves a hero ingredient.

There is always one ingredient having its moment — the one appearing on labels, filling social feeds and suddenly being talked about everywhere.

Hyaluronic acid. Niacinamide. Bakuchiol. Peptides.

Some of them are genuinely wonderful ingredients. I use many of them myself.

There are some key conversations that I remember so clearly it’s as though they happened yesterday. Despite being diagnosed in 2023, with chemotherapy and radiation treatment long behind me, the moments when I realised that I had not protected what I had worked so hard to build in business still sit with me.

Petal & Crumb didn’t begin simply because I wanted to start another food business. It grew from one of the most challenging and difficult chapters of my life.