The Point at Which You Need to Stop
If you've ever felt as if you desperately needed a break but were too busy to justify taking one, Gail Bryden can relate.
"I remember someone once told me that if you feel that way, that's precisely the point at which you need to stop. But of course, when you're in the middle of it, you don't think you have the time to do that."
That was the predicament Gail found herself in fourteen years ago, immersed in the corporate world. A successful career in marketing had seen her working for big-name brands including Kleenex, Heinz, Kronenburg Lager and Guinness living all over the country: Newcastle, Maidstone, London, Dublin and Edinburgh, where she's now based.
It was all go, until she reached a state of burnout and discovered the hard way that if you don't make the decision to stop, your body will simply do it for you.
From Burnout to Beginning Again
"We all need a certain amount of stress to function, but when stress tips into overwhelm it becomes a problem," she says. "For me, everything had become quite difficult to navigate. The smallest thing could stress me out. I was physically exhausted."
It's a far cry from the life Gail has built for herself now. As the founder of self-care lifestyle range JustBe Botanicals, the entrepreneur has created a business centred around aromatherapy and wellbeing that not only affords her some much-treasured "me time", but gives her customers: hand-poured candles, rich body butters, fragrant herbal teas, with which to enjoy some too.
"I knew that my recovery wasn't going to rely on the traditional route of medicine and so I turned to acupuncture, which I hadn't had before," she recalls. "The therapist said to me, 'You're at a crossroads in your life and you have the opportunity to choose again. Is there anything you've always wanted to do?'"
"I had always been the person who enjoy giving friends shoulder rubs and loved the idea of training in holistic massage, so that's what I did."
Building JustBe Botanicals
As Gail explored the realm of alternative therapies, she began to blend her own massage oils, using coconut oil as a base for use in Hawaiian style Lomi Lomi massage. A qualification as a clinical aromatherapist soon followed and in 2009, JustBe Botanicals was formed.
"I started with aromatherapy massage oils, which led to the rollerball, bath salts and body butters, followed by the facial range, candles and herbal teas," says Gail.
When browsing the JustBe Botanicals range, you're encouraged to think about how you would like to feel. There are seven aromatherapy blends: Happy, Energised, Tranquil, Active, Detox, Pure and Kind, each incorporated into a spectrum of beauty and lifestyle products designed to stimulate different senses, with scent featuring throughout.
Even the chocolate has an aromatic quality. The JustBe Kind chocolate bar for example is infused with bergamot and mandarin and sprinkled with Himalayan salt. A donation is given to the Scottish Action for Mental Health for every JustBe Kind product sold.
The Ancient Practice of Aromatherapy & The Science of Scent
"Our sense of smell is linked to the limbic system, the part of our brain where memories and emotions are stored, which is why certain scents can transport people to a place where they feel cared for, loved and happy,".
Gail is proud that her brand is cruelty-free and that the products are formulated with natural, high-grade ingredients.
"The skin is our largest organ and can absorb up to 60 per cent of what we put on it," she says. "I was shocked to learn the average woman applies more than 500 chemicals to her skin every day. What must that do to our bodies?"
Judging by the number of awards JustBe Botanicals has received, 35 at the time of this interview, and counting, the natural approach certainly seems to be working.
JustBe Botanical Highlights & Unexpected Moments
As well as celebrity endorsements from Caroline Hirons, who said the cleansing balm is among the best she's used, to Joe Wicks, who described JustBe Loved chocolate as "the nicest chocolate I've ever tasted", Gail's other career highlights have included some wonderfully unexpected moments.
Exhibiting at a business event within No.10 Downing Street and supplying goodies for Michelle Obama's dressing room when she came to the Edinburgh International Conference Centre three years ago.
Around the same time as this interview, Gail had recently launched 11 new self-care gift sets for Christmas with Not On The High Street and an upcoming collaboration with home fragrance company Wax Lyrical on a range of reed diffusers, candles and body products was due to be released in early 2022.
The Joy of Being Self-Employed
As a one-woman business, Gail doesn't currently have time to step into the massage role that kickstarted her journey to JustBe but she trains the massage therapists in the spas that use her products, including The Gin Spa in Glasgow and De Veres Spa 6 & Leaf Spa in the Cotswolds.
And she still has something that was scarce in her former career: time to herself.
"I love the flexibility that being self-employed brings. If it's a nice day I can go out for a cycle, I like going to Cramond or to South Queensferry for banana ice cream at The Little Parlour," says Gail, who adds that she's also partial to the katsu curry popcorn at The Little White Pig as well as an espresso martini at Insomnia.
These are just some of the small joys that enhance Gail's life and she hopes her customers are similarly lifted when a JustBe delivery arrives at their door.
"Our ethos is about 'just' being you, tuning in to what you want and changing how you feel."
With warmth and a very good espresso martini, Gail
Originally published in Luxury Living Magazine, Winter 2021, pages 17–18. Interview by Natasha Radmehr. Published here for the first time.