Collection: MONTAMONTA

BEHIND THE BRAND // MONTAMONTA

East London-based brand MONTAMONTA is an exciting up and coming skincare brand from our UK capital; concentrating on all the right aspects within today’s beauty industry of high quality plant based ingredients mixed with a little science and of course a key focus of sustainability.

It has been dubbed London’s answer to cult Australian brand Aesop and we couldn’t agree more!

So just who is the brains & beauty behind this evolutionary brand?

Montague Ashley-Craig or Monty as she is known - a Glaswegian cosmetic scientist.

Monty studied Chemistry at Edinburgh and UC Berkeley and Cosmetic Science at London College of Fashion and then worked across the cosmetics industry for big brands such as Aesop and Cowshed, from retail to product development, to running R&D labs and as a Technical Manager overseeing production of tonne batches of product.

Fast forward to 2015 and MONTAMONTA was born. Founded as a side-project after a friend asked her to help create a handwash for his cocktail bar - White Lyan. Word soon spread amongst the owners of bars, restaurants and cafes in East London that there was a girl making custom hand wash for hospitality businesses, supplying in glass bottles and collecting empty refill bottles to wash out and in turn refill again and again and again…

Since then the brand can be found in some amazing bars, restaurants & studios across the UK, including Liberty, Whistles, The Hoxton, Shoreditch Nails and of course First. to name a few! And a much loved brand amongst the likes of Vogue and Elle.

From the very conception of the brand, Monty’s love of collaboration and experimentation has remained the same. When the daily use of hand sanitisers was introduced to all in 2020, the brand pivoted to produce a good quality hand sanitiser during the pandemic. Monty created a spray made of the natural ingredients of basil, parsley and black pepper. “A nice-smelling sanitiser that makes the whole process feel a bit less sterile,” she says. Its been a firm favourite in our bags over the last couple of years and a product you will forever keep by your side once you’ve smelt it on your skin vs. the super alcoholic smelling / skin stripping other varieties out there.

 Here are some more reasons we love MONTAMONTA so much:

• Is a small-batch sustainable skin-care brand.
• Their ethos is to produce superlative skincare from plants and science.
• Many of the formulations make use of hyper-locally sourced and/or waste raw materials.
• Formulated and manufactured in East London from their shipping container laboratory in Hackney.
• Supplied in recyclable and refillable packaging as standard.