In 2006, after 10 years in the beauty industry, Sarah Silvester made the brave jump from going from employee to employer starting her own company and going on to launch her own brand of natural bath and body products.
Sarah worked her way up over the years from a sales girl on the shop floor of high street retailers such as Topshop and Hobbs to a knowledgeable product developer - her ambition and motivation alone was enough for her to throw in the towel and go it alone.
TouchmyFace began with Sarah and her mother in law Trisha trawling the internet for natural, niche brands with huge potential for the explosive natural market here in the UK. On a trip to America they found suki, a fabulous range of 100% natural skin and hair care products. Before long contracts were signed and Sarah was meeting buyers from all kinds of retailers; from high street to spas to salons and without hesitation orders were placed.
While the UK launch of suki was taking place, with Sarah working closely with a top London PR agency to ensure the products were put under the nose of the right journalists, she began talks with a manufacturer in the hope to launch her very own range of natural bath and body products. The market was crying out for a range of natural products packaged in a way that could be given as a gift without the harsh chemicals so frequently found in the ingredients of other ‘smellies’ that make such perfect presents. With the market growing faster than ever Sarah needed to launch at a time where there weren’t too many other brands doing the same thing.
September 2006 saw the launch of Laidbare, natural bath, body and lifestyle products with chic, contemporary packaging designed by Sarah to sit on the shelves and bridge the gap between natural and gift. Once again Sarah packed the products into a bag and off she went into the big smoke to meet with top buyers. The Conran Shop were the first to launch, followed by Wholefoods and other independent boutiques and online retailers.
Following the success of Laidbare, March 2007 saw the launch of Laidback for men. A sexy range of five multi functional grooming products with cool packaging and a gentle fragrance of citrus and spice. Each product tailored to a guy’s requirement being Laidback by name and Laidback by nature, ensuring that no man would leave a store empty handed due to the confusion of different moisturisers for different skin types or varying fragrances!
Today Laidbare can be found in Pharmacies, Gift Shops, Boutiques and Department Stores across the UK as well as online on sites such as www.asos.com and www.lookfantastic.com.
Suki is also still extremely strong, in the last few months Wholefoods have just launched the entire suki pure skincare AND suki color, the 100% natural mineral cream make up that launched to the UK market in October 2007.
The latest brand to the TouchMyFace portfolio is MD Skincare, a New York Dermatologist range with an exciting product line up of peels, serums, masks and lip plumpers. The products can be found on shelf in Harvey Nichols, Nickel Spa and on premium beauty sites such as www.mankind.co.uk and www.beautyexpert.co.uk. The products can also be found on shelf in House of Fraser as well as on www.boots.com soon to be launching in store!
The business is growing with Sarah’s ‘right hand man’ Megan Williams, started in July 2007 to assist Sarah with the brand development, day to day communication with stockists and selling into new accounts.
2009 looks to be an exciting year for TouchmyFace with Sarah in talks with other companies to bring in new brands to add to the portfolio. The launch of Face Laidbare Naturaceuticals is launching in March; TouchmyFace’s very own skincare range with a beautiful line up of six new products to complete the Laidbare brand.

Watch this space!