24/07/2025
Weleda was founded in 1921 by the Austrian philosopher and natural scientist, Rudolf Steiner, Dutch doctor Ita Wegman and Oskar Schmiedel, a chemist and pharmacist from Munich in Germany. The company is still based on the philosophic ideology and high values of anthroposophy. They established a British Weleda Company as early as 1925, originally in Bloomsbury Square in London. Apart from the bespoke pharmaceuticals traditionally made up for customers in the pharmacy to prescription, Weleda’s original range of ready made bodycare products included a hair oil, hair tonic, toothpaste, mouthwash, cold cream moisturiser, cleansing milk and a cream for chilblains, all of which were initially marketed as Weleda’s ‘Everon’ range. Having as a company had its times of stuggle, war breaking out affecting imports of tinctures and medicines, moving locations and financial losses, it has managed to survive and thrive and is now over 100 years old. Weleda is in many respects a business of women, having been significantly influenced by one of its founders the pioneering and inspirational women’s doctor Dr Ita Wegman. The company takes its very name from the revered female healers and wise women known as Weledas who looked after the health and wellbeing of their Ancient Celtic tribes. Weleda UK grows many of its own plants organically, to ensure the very best quality and purity. The original half-acre gardens at Ilkeston have expanded to become 13 acres of Demeter-certified medicinal herb gardens up the road at Shipley, where Weleda grows over 50 species which make a very short journey to the manufacturing site to be used at their freshest for Weleda’s potent plant extracts
They are a part of NATRUE a Brussels-based international non-profit association committed to promoting and protecting Natural and Organic Cosmetics for the benefit of Consumers worldwide, Helping consumers identify truly natural and organic cosmetics is easy: including the NATRUE Label in your products guarantees that the consumer is buying an authentically natural or organic cosmetic product verified by an independent certification body. Skin food was one of Weleda's original products developed in 1926, and a true evergreen.
Skin Food is the beauty essential our grandmothers kept on their dressing-tables long before anti-peptides were even dreamt off, when soap-and-water was the only way to remove make-up and a nourishing skin repair was needed at the end of the day. The holistic combination of active botanical goodness with all-natural fragrance has made Skin Food a must-have for natural skin care and a cult beauty classic. and has now been sold and used for over 100 years along with many of the other Weleda products on offer.
