We’re passionate about ensuring
our business is sustainable for the planet

Free delivery when you spend £50

About Gower Lavender

Gower Lavender is proudly a small, independent Gower business. Our range of handmade soaps, hand creams, pillow sprays, lavender hearts and lavender syrup is natural and eco-conscious without compromising on luxury.

The company is run by local couple Rae Howells and Phil Poucher. We’re passionate about natural ingredients and making sure our business is sustainable for the planet. We love bees. We love using local ingredients. And we love lavender.

What started as a few lavender plants in our garden has now expanded from a field overlooking the sea near Three Cliffs, to a corner of a meadow in Murton, a consultancy partnership with the National Trust at their lavender fields on The Vile at Rhossili, plus 1,000 plants in a large plot in West Cross. We also have exciting plans afoot to acquire nine acres of our own land.

We grow eight varieties of culinary lavender, from traditional purples like Munstead, Folgate, Maillette and Hidcote, to more delicate pink Rosea and white Edelweiss varieties. We also grow lavendula intermedia Grosso for its large, plentiful and late blooming spears. That means we have lavender growing from early May right through to October.

We are committed to a ‘bee kind’ method of growing and making – so our lavender is hand-weeded and watered with our (rather plentiful) Welsh rain. We don’t use pesticides or herbicides. And we harvest late in the growing cycle to give pollinators time to feed first.

Our soap-making takes a similar approach. We use quality, ethical ingredients like olive oil, shea butter and coconut oil, which we source from local suppliers. We support local businesses and producers by choosing great quality local ingredients such as Mumbles Brewery beer and Selwyn’s laverbread. We avoid palm oil and single-use plastic. Our packaging is unbleached kraft from sustainable forests, is printed using vegetable inks, and is fully compostable and recyclable.

Through 2022 and 2023 we expanded the business to develop new products including hand creams and pillow sprays. We also developed a line of soaps exclusively for the Oyster Gallery in Mumbles, and a range of honey soaps for Little Walterstone Farm in Penmaen.

Our latest product is a mini soap designed for holiday lets, and we now stock dozens of holiday cottages, AirBnBs and hotels around Wales. We have also developed a lavender syrup, made using our lavender by the team at Gower Preserves, and this is stocked by several local cafes and restaurants who use it in coffees and cocktails, notably Hoogah and On The Rocks.

In 2024 two of our soaps won Silver Medals at the Free From Skincare Awards, a prestigious Europe-wide awards for ethical and eco-conscious brands, as well as a Bronze medal for our labelling and a Gold for our digital presence.

We are stocked by almost thirty independent retailers across Wales, and are regulars at local farmers’ markets. You can usually find us at Uplands Market and Mumbles Market – check out our social media for the latest market dates. You can also order from us online and collect from our workshop in West Cross.

We hope you like our lavender products as much as we do. Please drop us a line or contact us and let us know what you think.

Rae and Phil

Why Choose Gower Lavender

  • Beautiful, natural, ethical skincare
  • Eco-friendly products with luxury at heart
  • We’re bee kind, putting pollinators first
  • Proud to be a Gower business
  • We say NO to single use plastic
  • Our soap packaging is fully compostable

Get To Know The Gower Lavender Team

Rachel Howells

Owner/ Chief Soap Maker

Bio write up: Rachel, known as Rae to her friends, is Swansea born and bred, and has lived in West…

Phil Poucher

Director of weeding

Yorkshireman Phil has lived in Swansea for twenty years, having moved here to work for the National Trust as their…

Gwennan, Mabli and Hazel

Packaging and bevelling operations

As a family business, there are often times when all members of the family get roped in, no matter their…

Frequently Asked Questions

Unfortunately our field isn’t open to the public, although the dream is to own our own place one day and open it to visitors. Meanwhile there are some other places growing lavender locally. Gower Fresh Christmas Trees has a field in Three Crosses which they open on certain days. Welsh Lavender is in Builth Wells and is well worth a visit if you’re happy to travel further afield.

We’re stocked by over twenty independent retailers across Wales (list here). We’re also regulars at local markets, including Mumbles Market (2nd Saturday of the month) and Uplands Market (last Saturday of the month). And of course you can buy from our website and pick up from us for free from our workshop in West Cross.

All but one of our products are vegan: our Welsh blanket lavender hearts, which are made with lambs’ wool. All other products in the range, including our soaps, hand creams and accessories are made without animal products. We also choose organic ingredients wherever possible, and use a ‘bee-kind’ method of growing our lavender, which means we grow without pesticides and herbicides and we leave the harvest late to allow pollinators such as bees and butterflies as much time as possible to feed. We also leave a good stock of weeds and wildflowers to grow nearby so invertebrates have plenty of habitat and forage when the lavender is not in flower.

We try very hard not to. In fact we’ve made it our mission to avoid single use plastic at all costs. Our soap boxes are entirely compostable and printed with vegetable inks. Our hand cream pots are aluminium and easily reused or recycled. Our lavender hearts are stuffed with lambs’ wool to avoid the use of plastic fillers, and the tags are cotton rather than acetate ribbon. We gift wrap with card boxes and jute twine. For deliveries, we reuse boxes and void filler if we can, or use eco boxes and eco jiffy bags which we encourage you to reuse or recycle. Our packages are taped up with paper tape. The only thing we really can’t avoid is the adhesives on some of our labels. Most adhesives contain plastic of some kind and it is virtually impossible to avoid. If you have a suggestion for plastic-free adhesives or can help us in our mission to stop single-use plastic, please get in touch!

We aim to despatch all mainland UK standard orders within between 1-3 working days, using Royal Mail’s 2nd Class Post (with proof of postage). Other options are available at the checkout, and we will endeavour to post out the same day for 24 Hour Tracked and First Class orders, if ordered by 12 noon. If you miss this deadline and need the item sooner rather than later, send us an email at [email protected] and we’ll be as helpful as we can. If we miss these stated deadlines, we will refund your postage in full.

In the unlikely event that your order does not arrive within 10-14 days please contact [email protected] and we will endeavour to rectify the situation.

Tracking information is not sent as standard as our system does not allow for it, but we can send it by request.

Here’s a list of our cut off times and dates for posting and self pickup for Christmas 2024:

BY POST:
Ordinary 2nd class – order by noon 17th December
Ordinary 1st class – order by noon 19th December
Tracked 48 – order by noon 20th December
Tracked 24 – order by 8pm 20th December
Special delivery – order by 9am 21st December

SELF PICKUP:
Final orders by midnight on 22nd December, with pickup by noon on 23rd December

See our FAQ on Self-pickup for more info on how the process of collection from us works.

Thanks for ordering! You should already have an automated email from us, confirming that we have received your order.

We’ll now work on packing up your lavender goodies! As soon as your order is ready you’ll get another email to let you know, and that will include all the instructions you need, including the West Cross address to pick up from, and how to let us know your preferred time and date.

We don’t have opening hours as such, because we have a handy parcel box outside our front door. You’ll just need to drop us a line to let us know a timeslot that you’re planning to call, so we can make sure your parcel is in the box ready for you.

We don’t have opening times as we’re not yet open to the public. If you’d like to call in for any reason please email us to arrange an appointment.

If you’re planning to call in to collect something you’ve ordered, please see the FAQ on ‘Self-pickup’ which explains more about the process.

What Our Clients Think

In a bid to use less plastic I bought some lavender and lavender beer soaps - they smelled amazing when they arrived in eco-friendly packaging, but the lavender scent when you use them is not in any way overpowering. The lavender beer especially is so creamy and lovely! Thoroughly recommend buying, and any of the products would make great gifts as the packaging is beautiful.

Charlie Eastabrook

Facebook Review | London

Order lavender soaps, hand creams and sets! Super happy with my orders. The smell is amazing I could smell it before I opened the box. The two gifts are xmas pressies but the hand cream is great. I will be ordering more! Great service and loved the personal touch. ????

Samantha Reynish

Hand Care Gift Set | Cardiff

Thank you so much [for my lavender soap], my parcel arrived and I knew what was in it before I opened it. The fragrance is amazing. So beautifully packaged too, I want to keep everything not give as gifts. Good job I treated myself to a little something ???? Thank you for you...

Alison Hopkins

Gift Set | Bridgend

Digital Presence Gold Medal Winners 2024

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Gower Lavender