From Award winning Best Beard Shampoo to a letter from Sir David Attenborough himself, here's what An'du achieved in 2023.
A lot happened in 2023, politically, economically and globally, but more importantly ( I hear you all ask) what did An'du get up to this year?
Well quite honestly, most of my year was spent raising an incredibly strong willed toddler. Having no screamed at me multiple times a minute, biting my tongue as nutritious food I slaved away on for hours was left untouched and being woken (still) at all hours of the night occupied the vast majority of my time. Mum's time too to be honest. Mum has stepped in countless times to take over this year, but has still managed to pull off some incredible things with An'du. So here they are (in order of what I find most exciting):
1) We received a thank you letter from Sir David Attenborough. No, I can't quite
believe it either, but we sent him a Christmas gift of our shampoo and conditioner bars and astoundingly, he found the time to write back to us to say thank you. To say he is a hero of ours is the understatement of the year, so you can imagine how we felt upon receiving this through the post! We are, in all likelihood, never going to top this achievement, and part of me thinks I should just stop here, but for the sake of writing a full blog, I should probably carry on with the list.
2) Our Beard Botanics Bar won the 2023 Independent Beauty Innovation Awards. Click here and scroll down to Men's Grooming to find us listed as winners!! This was a totally independent contest with thousands of entries (some from very big and recognisable names) so to be featured alongside Olaplex and Haus Labs by Lady Gaga kind of feels like a big deal.
3) We have saved over two thousand plastic bottles from entering landfill this year (because let's face it, only 6% of plastic ever made has been recycled, so we all know where those shampoo and conditioner bottles would have ended up). This is actually another massive one for us. It may not seem like that much, but this is why we started An'du, to see if we could make a dent, however small, in the huge tidal wave of plastic forever swelling in our planet. And we have! It's a small dent sure, but for us, it's kind of amazing knowing that we did that. We stopped over two thousand plastic bottles from entering landfill. That's very cool.
4) Our bars have cycled (well, hitched a lift) with Kate Strong over 3,000 miles over the UK on her climate cycle. Read more about Kate's incredibly inspiring ride here.
5) We've sold at over 10 different fairs this year in all types of weather and met so many wonderful wonderful people while doing so. If you were one of those people, all we can say is thank you. Both of us are slightly introverted by nature, so the idea of selling at so many fairs this year was a little daunting, but it honestly makes the world of difference to be able to meet and chat to all the amazing people that we did.
6) We launched our shampoo and conditioner travel tins this year which have proved very popular! If you haven't already bought one, make sure you snap them up here.
There are lots more things that I haven't put down here, but my toddler has just woken from her nap, so my 1 and a half hours of focused work time has come to an abrupt end.