• Who are you?

Tara Nerheim Leck – Creative Director at Scrub Therapy Beauty Apothecary

• What does your business do?

We make natural bath and beauty products with a vintage inspired twist, and a hint of magic. Our products make people and their skin happy, looking and feeling good, and help give people the incentive to get in the bath and soak the tension of the day away. Most of the ingredients we use are organic and unrefined, and most of our products are suitable for Vegans.

• Where are you based?

We work out of our office and kitchen at home to keep overhead costs down.

• How did you get started?

We are still getting started. I’m positive this project will always feel like it’s in the getting started mode.

• What is your background?

I attended cosmetology school at Palomar Institute of Cosmetology in San Diego, California. After graduating with my esthetician license (skincare) I tried my hand in the spa industry before returning for a stint in bartending, then taking a leap into customer service at Mercedes-Benz. Since I was young I have been trying out various scrubs, masks, and treatments at home. Heard an “old wives” beauty remedy?I’ve tried it. This is an important part of my background because the old wives remedies and tips make up a big part of what I’m doing with Scrub Therapy.

• How long has your business been running?

After making my scrubs for over a decade and always getting a positive response, then getting a great response on the website I began building two years ago, my husband and I decided that we’d better get serious, and formed a limited company.

• Has anyone helped you get started and how?

My husband is now a Director and partner in the business after being one of the most inspiring people I know. Scrub Therapy needs both of us with our different qualities.

• What was your first deal?

My first sales were to two friends back in San Diego. Both pregnant, extremely frugal, and named-brand conscious mothers. When they both made purchases with me I knew I had to start considering this hobby as a potential career.

• What was your biggest mistake/or what would you do differently?

When I first came to Scotland about four years ago, I decided not to attempt carrying on with my business. Things can get intense when you move to the other side of the planet. I know now that my reasons were good enough to quit. After about two years here I decided to throw myself back into it.

• Who was/is your mentor/or inspiration?

My Nana was also a major inspiration for me. She was an artist, an interior designer; she did some modelling in New York in the 40’s and 50’s. She made it through being a chain smoker, a crazy marriage, being a single mum, and came out the other side to become this positively radiant, health food eating, meditating, active, often opinionated and cranky yet inspiring force in my life. She passed away in 2007 and I still think of her nearly every day.

• Where do you plan your business to be in five years time?

Doing the same thing on a larger scale. I would ultimately like to operate from a big farmhouse nearby, with a designated workspace. Perhaps we will have a little shop, a flagship store or two.

• Useful contacts –I love social platforms and find many contacts through Twitter particularly, but I also use Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn. For online businesses, not to have these accounts can keep your business hiding in the shadows - like having a store on a high street, and never unlocking the front door.

• Contact Details : Website: www.scrubtherapy.co.uk/ Email: contact@scrubtherapy.co.uk / Twitter: @scrubtherapy

• Pinterest: ScrubTherapyUK

• Instagram: wizard.at.scrubtherapy

• Facebook: www.facebook.com/scrubtherapy