World Sleep Day with Neom Founder - Nicola Elliot
As we celebrate World Sleep Day today, I couldn't think of anyone more inspiring to chat to than the wonderful Nicola Elliot who is the founder of the natural beauty brand Neom which focuses on Wellbeing at its core. Nicola has kindly shared some wonderfully helpful advice on helping us get a better night's sleep. She gently talks about small, realistic ways that can support us create a better, everyday routine.
Tell me a bit about Neom and what inspires you
We are a wellbeing brand. We exist to to help with sleep, destress, boosting your energy, lifting your mood. There are the four pillars by which we define good well being. It's not an exhaustive list, but I find that well being is quite a big subject and it's easy and helpful for us to help people define it and therefore start their journey. So we have evolved from four candles when we started 17 years ago, to being the biggest privately owned beauty business in the UK. We are very much about inspiring people to start their wellbeing journey and we believe that small steps can lather up to make a big difference.
I am personally very inspired by that small steps mantra and I think allowing people who are living busy forensic lifestyles like myself; working mums for example to be able to sort of carve out those moments in a very realistic way always inspires me. I'd love to be the kind of women who had time to do yoga on a beach at seven in the morning with a green smoothie, but I don't. And so I am always inspired by the everyday woman and the pain points that we all sort of suffer from; from not being able to get out of bed, to the stress of getting the kids off to school, to not being able to sleep because of perimenopause, etc, etc. And how we can help and make those big moments, the little moments that we can sort of supercharge.
I love using your products in the bath and before bed, please would you explain a little about your Neom Sleep Programme.
Matthew Walker in “Why We Sleep” says that 2/3 of adults throughout developed nations fail to obtain 8 hours of recommended sleep. How do you prioritise sleep?
What other tips do you have for a good night’s sleep and in particular, during seasons of change or loss - what has helped you sleep?
The Neom Sleep routine is very much about creating an absorb inhale and boost routine. So you we recommend burning perfect night sleep candle before you go to bed, or you can use the same fragrance in your pod, then getting into a bath for about 15 minutes and soaking with again some perfect night's sleep bath foam so that gets into your bloodstream then via absorption and inhalation of the fragrance. And then our best selling product is our pillow mist and that works amazingly well. A couple of spritzes on the pillow on a night. We sell more of them in packs of four than in one because we find people like to use them across the whole family.
Do you have any tips for fellow founders on how to switch off from their business and get some rest?
So the last thing I would say is to make sure that you prioritise sleep as a necessity, not a luxury. And if you recognise that you need to build a toolkit that works for you and you can't just put no effort in and get everything out. It's all about building that routine and sticking to it. But don't freak out if you don't have a good night's sleep. Think of your sleep across the week.
Do you nap?
Yes, I love napping but I don't have time to do it during normal life. But if I go on holiday I always have a glass of Rose and a nap after lunch. Sunday afternoon I will quite often nap but not during the week. It's like a luxury.
What would be your perfect Sunday?
My perfect Sunday would be riding my horse with my daughter because we both love riding and so some outside time and then maybe a really nice roast chicken and a really good ITV drama. Reading and an early night with a really long bath routine.
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