About Julie and Andrew Coleman

Julie Coleman spent several years working as a Personal Assistant in London, before working full time developing Poppy Organic.  Julie has a particular interest in organic cosmetics, natural healing and organic food. 

Andrew Coleman  graduated from Anglia Polytechnic in 1994 with a BSc (Hons) in Rural Resource Development (Wildlife & Conservation Specialism).  Andrew manages several successful environmental businesses and has extensive knowledge of environmental, ethical and organic impacts associated with ‘green’ product development and accountability.

Julie and Andrew have four children and live in Wickford, Essex.

BACKGROUND

It has been quite a journey developing Poppy Organic…but it is all worthwhile when you reach your goal!   Here is the story of why and how we developed Poppy Organic…

We originally learnt of the treatment from an old lady that we met on three occasions.  Her name was Maria.  Maria had heard that we were interested in natural remedies etc. and had come to visit us in our house.  Unfortunately our command of the Spanish language is still quite basic, but fortunately Andrew’s mother (who has a house in Malaga) was visiting for the day and was on hand to help translate.  However, like accents in English, the accents of locals’ in Carratraca is very strong and translation of the conversation was difficult (infact our incorrect translation lead to our first big problem!)

And so Maria spoke about her childhood and about a cream that she used to make for her grandmother. The cream, she said, was ‘used to help skin damaged by the sunshine’ and we presumed by this she meant that the cream worked like any modern day face cream.  To make the cream Maria collected olives, almonds, citrus fruits, herbs, resins and other local ingredients (one of which we were unable to translate….but initially thought that it was poppy petals…hence the name Poppy Organic) from the mountains surrounding the village.  And so we wrote down the recipe and sourced the oils and other necessary ingredients and made our first batch of face creams. 

We didn’t meet Maria again for 18 months and it was by pure chance that we met her in a nearby village.  We told her about the cream that we had made and invited her back to the house for lunch and to show her the cream.

However, to our dismay Maria took one look at the cream and said ‘No’ and as far as we could tell she was saying that the colour was wrong.  We showed her the ingredients we were using and she immediately pointed at the poppy petals and left the house.  At the time we thought that we had in some way offended her and that we would not see her again, but 2 weeks later we were delighted to see her walking up the street – greeting us with a big smile.  She headed straight into our house!

She sat at the kitchen table, emptied a carrier bag of plastic containers and bottles containing oils……and then from her pocket she produced a handful of what was clearly birch bark, which she then started to treat, blend and mix.  (Birch doesn’t grow in or around Caratracca and infact only grows in temperate climates of the northern hemispheres.  However, eastern Europe has great tracks of birch forests and we suspect that this is a link with the eastern European gypsies who probably traded the bark with locals.  Caratracca is a Roman Spa town and was once a mecca for treatments and therapies associated with the sulphurous spa)

Obviously we cannot divulge exactly how she treated the ingredients (that is our secret recipe now safely locked away!) but between us we created a cream that had a red blush* to it (birch bark is still used today as a natural red dye)…….this is the translation that we had originally missed thinking it was the red of poppy petals!

And so we started to make pots of the new cream that included the extract of birch bark.  However, we hadn’t realised the significance of birch bark until we returned to England.

We were amazed to find that birch bark contains powerful natural ingredients that offer pain relief and anti-inflammatory properties.  Birch bark had been used for centuries by native red Indians of America and also used in Eastern Europe (the link to the gypsies!).  However, we also found hundreds of articles online relating to the powerful compounds within birch bark and many of them referred to its positive effects on combating Actinic keratosis (the result of prolonged exposure to the sun), skin cancer and other cancers (particularly prostrate).

And this took us back to our original conversation with Maria when she had spoken of the cream being ‘used to protect the skin against the sunshine’.  It is possible that she was referring to the creams’ properties as a remedy to the harmful effects of over-exposure to the sun. 

……And that brings us up to the current day……and our wonderful range of creams and treatments that are organic, as true to their Andalucian origins as possible and most importantly make your skin feel fantastic and protected!

The story would end there….but for the welcome addition to our family in 2005 of Poppy Coleman!