Alison Leighton had long known the benefits of castor oil, but to bring the therapy to market she needed to bring it into the 21st century. She tells Sam Hawcroft how she did it…
If you’re of a certain age, the very mention of castor oil might send a shiver down your spine as it conjures up images of your mother trying to force it down your neck as she insists “it’s good for you”.
The thing is, your mother was right. However, it turns out that there are other ways to use this extremely beneficial traditional elixir that don’t involve ingesting it – and Alison Leighton has hit on a method that is fuss and mess-free and can relieve dozens of complaints from digestive disorders to hormone imbalances.
South African-born Alison is a qualified nutritional therapist and colonic hydrotherapist. She has been in East Yorkshire for 17 years after moving to the region “for love” – as many people do.
“I used to live in London,” she says, “but was planning to move back to South Africa. Just before I did, I met my future husband. I didn’t think then that anything was going to come out of the relationship, and I left London without any of his contact details. And then three years later I came back to England for a friend’s wedding and he was there – and it was love at first sight. I was away on holiday, so we did six months long distance, and then I moved to Hull to be with him. I’d never even heard of the city before!”
Alison learned about castor oil as a therapy at various points during her studies in nutrition and colonics. It can aid liver detoxification, reduce period pains, combat constipation and boost the circulation, and has long been associated with hair strengthening and regrowth remedies. “Castor oil is an ingredient in more than 700 beauty products – and it’s not a new fad. It’s been around for centuries,” she says.
Once Alison began practising, she often told her clients about what castor oil could do, but few bothered to investigate further because the application of it was “too much of a faff”.
“It’s such an old technique and the benefits are just incredible,” she says, “but people are busy. So I thought, is there a way of making this easier to use? I played around with the idea. I wanted it to be completely natural, organic and toxin-free, because one of the traditional ways of doing it was wrapping yourself in cling film, and that went against any learning that I did because oil and plastic really don’t work well together.”
Despite this being in the middle of lockdown in 2020, Alison had the benefit of time and the fact her husband was earning meant there was no great pressure on her to find the right solution quickly – she could research and experiment at length. A chat with a friend – who said the idea had “really got legs” and urged Alison to go for it – was motivation enough for her to seriously pursue it.
She had an idea in her mind of what the product would look like – easily applicable packs that could be applied to the body without the oil spilling – and so she began a “journey” to find the “cleanest, most organic” fabric along with a waterproof outer casing.
“One of my colonic hydrotherapy clients came to me, and she happened to be a fashion designer,” says Alison. “I asked her whether she knew anyone who’d be able to make these packs, and she put me on to a woman who used to sew for her. When we first started, I made a basic template of what I wanted. And then a friend of mine’s mother, who had an overlocker sewing machine, made me 10 packs and that was where we went from. It all just organically happened, and fell into place at the right time.”
Sometimes you make your own luck, though, as they say. Just before Alison was ready to launch Castorvida, she received an email from a nutritional supplier she worked with. At the bottom, it read, “If you are interested in our products or want to add a new product, just message us.”
“At first, I thought, I’m not ready yet – I’ll wait until I am,” she says. “I’d already decided not to contact potential stockists until we were ready, but then this email came in and I thought, why not message them? They came back almost immediately, saying, you won’t believe this, but we are looking for castor oil packs!”
The branding and website also slotted into place nicely. Alison discovered Canva via word of mouth and “within five minutes” she had come up with a design; she later asked a friend to help her build a website. And through her nutrition business she found an “amazing photographer” who created the product images.
The product itself didn’t happen overnight, though – it took many months of trial and error to get right, especially as Alison was determined to bring an age-old method bang up to date for the 21st century, using only the best materials.
“What people used to do is they took a flannel, soaked it in castor oil, and put it on the area that they needed healing. Then you would wrap cling film around you, and cover yourself in a blanket, so you literally couldn’t move and it was very messy. What I’ve done is I’ve taken organic fleece cotton on the side that you put on the body, and on the back you’ve got a non-toxic, eco-friendly, waterproof backing, so the oil can’t seep down. And then there are organic ties that allow you to strap it into place. Ideally you want to be sitting and relaxing, but it means you can still get up and do stuff.”
She also refused to compromise on the quality of the oil – which is cold-pressed, organic and hexane free and is sourced from India via a UK distributor – as well as the containers, which must be brown glass bottles so as not to spoil the contents.
As we often note in these pages, being an entrepreneur can be a lonely place, but from the outset Alison sought to make connections with people who could help, and she wasn’t afraid to ask for advice, either. Local authorities often get more brickbats than bouquets, but Alison cannot speak highly enough of the support she has received from East Riding Council in setting up her business.
“Everyone at the council, from finance and business advisers to international trade, has been amazing. They’ve gone above and beyond. They can’t always directly recommend things, but they advise you and help you in the right direction. For instance, when we were looking to get our product into Europe, they connected us to the right people and started that conversation.”
Alison has similar praise for Brough Business Centre, where the business is now based after she started out from home tripping over boxes and boxes of castor oil. “It took over our lives, really,” she says, “so getting the office space was a massive step. We got the house back! It’s interesting working for yourself and running your own business. It comes with all the benefits, and being your own boss is wonderful, but it never leaves you. At the business centre, they also cannot do enough for you – if you have the courage to ask for help, and you’re willing to work hard, there are people who will reach out to you.”
Now surrounded by a small and dedicated team, Alison has plans to further expand into the retail market – here in the UK and beyond. “We want to increase our sales and our exposure, as we’re very much online at the moment,” she says. “We sell online to Europe at the moment, but we’d love to be in Australia and South Africa as well.”
The impact of influencers on the business has been “phenomenal”, Alison says. After Katie Brindle, a Chinese medicine practitioner with her own wellness brand, found the product towards the end of last year, “it has taken us to a whole new level,” she adds. “It took us completely by surprise! The run-up to last Christmas was crazy, and we were packing boxes at midnight just to get all the orders out – but it was brilliant.”
In April, Alison took Castorvida to the Natural Food Show, one of the largest trade shows in the sector, run by Natural & Organic Products Europe.
“That was interesting because you had a whole lot of shops and retailers coming to look for new products. You message people and you try certain avenues and if they don’t work, you try different ones. At the moment it’s organically growing and we are getting lots of people interested in stocking our products. And I’m still learning!”
