Five minutes with... Anna Brightman of UpCircle Beauty

Your Name: Anna Brightman

Your Business: UpCircle Beauty

Nature Of Your Business: At UpCircle, we elevate leftover natural ingredients, bringing them back to life as beauty products your skin will love. We use the highest quality ingredients for the best possible results. Our skincare range is sustainable, vegan, cruelty-free, palm oil free, handmade in the UK, 100% natural and housed in 100% recyclable packaging.

How And Why Did Your Business Start? We launched our signature coffee scrub range three years ago. The idea was sparked after receiving a cafetière for Christmas one year. Using it each morning I became aware of the large quantity of coffee grounds I was discarding daily. Subsequently I decided to investigate the benefits of using coffee on your skin. After learning that coffee was an excellent natural exfoliator packed with antioxidants I realised there was an opportunity. I started to reach out to coffee shops around London and learned that they have to pay the council to dispose of their used coffee grounds. I had identified a gap in the market where we could promote a circular economy by putting the discarded grounds to use, whilst also producing a product that delivers real skin benefits. That is when we started to investigate formulations and other natural ingredients that would enhance the properties of the coffee and further nourish the skin. 

What Can Box Recipients Expect From Your Particular Product? Reused, repurposed, reloved. Our face scrubs are made with top-quality Arabica coffee grounds sourced from artisan coffee shops. Buff away dry, dead cells to leave you feeling soft, smooth and glowy. The scrubs are blended with shea butter to nourish the skin post-scrub.

High in caffeine and antioxidants, coffee has anti-inflammatory and skin brightening properties. Antioxidants help repair the damage caused by free radicals including spots, wrinkles and fine lines. The antioxidant levels in used coffee grounds are higher than in freshly-ground coffee!

Suitable morning and night, we recommend you use our face scrubs up to three times a week.

How Can Wednesday’s Child’s Followers Find Out More About You Or Follow You And Your Activities? You can find out more about us on our website or follow us on social media – via instagram or facebook! We also post new articles to our blog each week!

@upcirclebeauty
www.upcirclebeauty.com

Why Are You Pleased To Be Working With Wednesday’s Child? Mental health is something our generation struggles with enormously and whilst it is becoming increasingly acknowledged as a problem we still lack the knowledge, infrastructure and tool kit to help those struggling. Your work is vital in helping change the status quo.

What’s Your Top Tip For Achieving A Moment Of Calm In This Crazy World? Getting out into nature. I sometimes find that our modern world can be really over stimulating which can be exhausting on both a physical level (blue lights, traffic etc.) and a mental level (mind, judgment, social interactions, comparison). Getting outside can really help bring some peace and stillness.

Who Or What Makes You Feel Happy? Being surrounded by friends, family and nature. Being out in nature helps you realise you are part of something so much bigger – it always gives me much needed perspective. Running your own business can be overwhelming, it’s important for me to take a step back and allow myself to properly switch off from work mode. I am a very sociable person, so I fill my free time with the people I love – they are what make me feel happy (and who keep me sane!)

Kindest Thing Someone Has Done For You: For me it’s not so much one specific deed that stands out, but rather all the small gestures in every day life that build up over time. I believe we all have an ingrained desire from childhood to feel seen and heard for who we truly are - to feel valued and appreciated just as we are. I live with my sister and everyday she loves me and holds space for me to just be me – that is one of the greatest gifts I could ask for.

One Wish, Tip Or Hope You Have For A Mental Health Warrior Who Is Currently In The Midst Of A Battle? The word battle is very appropriate when we talk about mental health. For those struggling with their mental health everyday can be a battle, taking enormous energy and resolve. To just get through a day can be physically and mentally exhausting. I hope that people suffering get that energy back one day. That one day they don’t have to spend their energy fighting but can spend it living and loving.

Best Piece Of Advice You’ve Ever Heard? It is more of a quote but it resonates deeply as advice I try to live by everyday –

‘The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves’ – Alan W. Watts