OUR STORY
Begin Again started in 2019 almost by accident.
​
Two school mums — Lara & Sharon — with full-time jobs, families, animals, a mutual love of gin, candles, upcycling and beautifully fragranced homes (alongside an equally strong dislike of chemical nasties, unnecessary plastics and throwaway culture) began experimenting with ways to repurpose empty gin bottles into something beautiful and useful. The idea was simple: the bottles would literally begin again.
​
What followed was far less simple.
​
There were wax-covered kitchens, glass-covered sheds, endless wick tests, fragrance trials, broken bottles, safety testing, ratio calculations, sanding, cutting, legal research, product reformulation and more than a few moments of wondering what on earth they had started. At least friends and family benefited from wonderfully fragrant homes while they figured things out!
​
With a small candle collection finally ready, Begin Again started attending artisan and sustainable markets around London and the Home Counties to understand whether people genuinely connected with the products and, just as importantly, how they could be improved. Those early market conversations became one of the foundations of the business and still shape the brand today.
During those first market years, Lara & Sharon also began experimenting with aromatherapy-inspired formulations alongside their home fragrance ranges. A simple handmade sanitiser originally created for personal use unexpectedly sparked customer interest and ultimately led to the development of Begin Again’s skincare and wellbeing collections, rooted in traditional aromatherapy, herbalism and nature-led wellbeing practices.
​
When the pandemic arrived in 2020, those products suddenly became far more important than anyone could have anticipated. Begin Again quickly became one of the area’s small independent suppliers of hand sanitiser to the general public, creating products designed to be both effective and exceptionally moisturising at a time when many people were struggling with harsh, drying alternatives.
​
Alongside supplying customers, a charity donation initiative was created which enabled large refill bottles of sanitiser to be produced and donated to local hospices and healthcare workers during the Covid-19 pandemic — something that remains one of the most meaningful chapters in Begin Again’s journey so far.
​
Today, Begin Again continues to evolve under Lara’s creative direction as a sustainable lifestyle brand focused on creating cleaner, more thoughtful alternatives for modern homes. From candles using non-soy vegetable wax blends through to refill and re-use initiatives, skincare, wellbeing products and consciously sourced ingredients, sustainability and wellbeing remain at the heart of every collection.
​
Begin Again consciously avoids unnecessary plastics, excessive packaging and certain ingredients or trends where environmental or wellbeing concerns may exist, believing sustainability should never come at the expense of quality, beauty or accessibility. The aim has always been to create products that feel both premium and attainable for everyday life.
​
From local artisan markets to retail partnerships and a growing loyal customer base, Begin Again remains rooted in the same values it started with: thoughtful products, honest ingredients, conscious consumption and creating things designed to be loved, reused and enjoyed again and again.
Looking ahead, Begin Again aims to continue expanding its refill and re-use initiatives, develop further nature-led, lower-waste product innovation, and explore opportunities for wider community access through retail partnerships, sustainable collaborations and future community-facing spaces centred around conscious living, creativity and wellbeing.