A LIFELONG dream became a reality last week for Claire Twigge-Molecey.

That’s when the button was pressed to launch her website Ermana selling a collection of botanical skincare.

From her kitchen in Battlefield, in Glasgow’s South Side, the 42-year-old makes a range of products for the face and body infused with natural ingredients.

Now, after years in planning and development, they are on sale to the public.

Claire first started making face oils and balms about 10 years ago for friends and family. After going back to college, studying anatomy, physiology and skincare in evening classes, she is ready to put her personal stamp on the skincare market.

“It started with concerns over what was in food and from there what was in skincare,” she explains. “In the past I’ve had a lot of allergies with certain products, especially if they are over-perfumed.

“I started looking into it and realised you can make products yourself, you can buy products that are just as effective and better for you without all the nasty stuff like parabens and sulphates.

“We don’t do any animal testing, all the Ermana products have been cosmetically tested but not on animals. They are safe to use and 100% natural.”

The Ermana collection, including cleansing balms, face oils, foot balms and body oils, is made with oil that work with the natural oils in our skin.

“Pick up a lot of skincare products and the first ingredient they will have is water. As soon as you put water into a product you then need to have a preservative to keep it from going off because the water can get bacteria in it,” says Claire.

“Ermana products are all made with natural oils and we use vitamin E to preserve them.

“When there is water in the product you need to use more of it, whereas when there is no water the product goes a lot further. You only need three or four drops of face oil and just a tiny amount of balm goes a long way because it is oil based.”

With a career as a fashion retail buyer, Claire hopes to use her insider knowledge to place the range in high street stores.

Her dream would be to see Ermana in a high-end store like Space NK.

The brand’s name is derived from hermana, the Spanish word for sister. A nod to the encouragement given to Claire by her sister Nicola when she first thought about setting up the business.

Keeping it in the family, Claire’s husband James keeps things running smoothly behind the scenes.

“It’s early days but we’ve had a good reaction to the face oils, in particular. Face oils are relatively new to the market so people are just discovering that they are an alternative to moisturisers,” says Claire.

“It would be great to get into a retailer and get some volume business , and then try and get a manufacturer, hopefully locally to help us with production.”

Visit www.ermana.co.uk