The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has appointed family-run fragrance company Freckleface – winner of the Gift of the Year’s 2023 Best Home Fragrance Product or Range category – as the RHS licensee for products in the home fragrance category.
The launch of the first RHS/Freckleface range takes place at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival next week, (4-9 July), on the Freckleface stand (HC275), and includes candles, reed diffusers, fragrance oils, wax melts, room sprays and gift sets.
“We are thrilled to be working with one of the most respected names in gardening and horticulture, and we have thoroughly enjoyed creating these fragrance ranges that are all inspired by the natural world,” states Freckleface’s owner Tara Carlile-Swift. “ It’s a real honour to be launching the first RHS/Freckleface range at RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival, and we’re looking forward to it enormously.”
There are two launch ranges, one a classic range of fragranced products, based on the four seasons, which will feature packaging designs inspired by artwork from the RHS Lindley Collections, the world’s largest collection of botanical art – and, specifically, the engraver Christian Gottlieb Geissler, a renowned 18th century copperplate engraver, painter and printmaker, specialising in natural history.
Additionally, there will also be a botanical, apothecary range of fresher fragrance combinations, aimed at a younger market, in line with RHS’s successful ongoing strategy to broaden its appeal to a wider audience. This range will feature ten fragrances encased in amber glass vessels to give a more contemporary vibe.
All Freckleface products are vegan, and all ingredients are ethically and, where possible, locally sourced. The company does not use plastic in its packaging, and encourages consumers to reuse or recycle any packaging.
Following the product launch at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival, both ranges will be available at stockists all over the country from the beginning of August, including department stores, gift shops, garden centres, florists and home interior shops, as well as in the company’s own stores in Cambridge, Stamford, Lincoln and York, as well as online.
“The home fragrance category is a very important one for the RHS,” states Cathy Snow, licensing manager at RHS. “It references both our love of nature and our strong brand in a product area with high demand. But of course, it’s not just about targeting a large market. An RHS home fragrance licensee partner also needs to be ethical, inclusive and sustainable. Freckleface offers all of that, along with a strong emphasis on craft design and production and high-quality, British-made products. We’re delighted to welcome Freckleface to the RHS licensing programme.”
Freckleface started out in 2017 as a kitchen table business, co-founded by mum and son duo Tara and Noah Carlile-Swift, who was just 14 at the time. With Noah’s keen entrepreneurial spirit, Tara’s business acumen, and a range of handmade home fragrance products, Freckleface has seen rapid growth.
Six years on, with five high street stores, over 750 stockists across the UK and over 300 products all handcrafted in the company’s Lincolnshire workshop, Freckleface is thriving in the home fragrance and bath and body market.
In addition to winning a Gift of the Year Award in May for the company’s pick and mix soya wax melts, Freckleface was also crowned Lincolnshire Family Business of the Year.
Top: The RHS/Freckleface Classic range.
