SUMMER LOVE: THE UNIVERSAL SOUL COMPANY

There’s a sublime kind of beauty in simplicity. Not having to fight your way through piles of pillows in a 5-star hotel suite in Paris (two pillows and a clean comfy bed in the Sardinian countryside, yes!)

I once stayed at a fantastic hotel in Seville. After a delayed flight and queuing for 20 minutes to check in, the receptionist asked if I’d like a free upgrade to a penthouse suite on the top floor?

The room and bed were super-comfortable, but I spent about fifteen minutes fiddling with various light switches and intelligent home style gadgets and by the time I hit the pillow I still hadn’t worked how to turn the lights behind the curtains OFF, so I slept in a luminous purple glow – coming from behind the curtains – with detailed low light “accents”.

This theatrical lighting backdrop was annoying. All I wanted was a dark room with a chink of light.

It was a bit like those high-tech showers…step in and “surprise!” You’re blasted by jets from all angles in the eye of an Amazonian rain storm while you’re figuring out how to set the water temperature at a happy medium somewhere between scorching and ice cold.

Much of the appeal of the beauty industry – aside from beauty’s tribal roots – is that it’s always evolving. Exotic ingredients, new trends, new technology, new devices…products that do six different things and beauty routines with more steps than a gym workout.

But there’s big love for simplicity right now. Single facial oils and general “breathing space”. Uncomplicated cleansing and simple two-blend candles, for example, and natural fragrance (and home fragrance) is gaining momentum.

If you’re launching a new brand you don’t have to debut with a full range (cases in point – those successful one concept, one balm, one bath oil brands like Pommade Divine or Olverum Bath Oil, for example).

You just need a stellar product people will fall in love with because it’s so useful/effective/beautiful/feelgood/smellgood that they’ll really miss it when it’s finished (and buy it again and tell their friends).

The Universal Soul Company is such a brand. True to its name, and with just two products (each one in both travel and full sizes), founder, actress, lecturer, presenter and spiritual mentor Sara Griffiths’ perfectly balanced lavender-based STILL 3-in-1 Soulmist (a room spray, meditation spray and pillow spray all in one) and her STILL Positive Energy Candle with lavender a touch of grounding patchouli both hit the spot beautifully (both are on my bedside table).

Aromatherapy, like fragrance, is a delicate balancing act. I remember meeting Jo Malone years ago at her boutique warehouse/studio just off Sloane Square when she’d just launched her JO LOVES range, and she was explaining to me how complex and exacting it was to properly perfect her layered candles. I still love her inaugural scent Pomelo, there’s nothing like it in the perfume world.

Anyway….if you’re not sleeping that well or you’re feeling a little unsettled, perhaps you’ve suffered a loss or maybe you’re just craving some extra comforts and joys (who isn’t?!) in a world that has been feeling less certain lately, Universal Soul’s STILL 3-in-1 Soulmist and STILL Positive Energy Candle are a tonic for the soul. Calming, grounding, uplifting and soothing and there’s a travel size and full size of each.

When I walked back into my bedroom after making a tea the first time I lit the candle, the scent filled the room and lingered but it’s never overpowering. (And it’s so disappointing when you get a candle that smells like heaven in the box but then fades to nothing when it’s lit).

I’ve been using Universal Soul’s Soulmist as a pillow spray and room spray every night and lighting the candle if I’m reading in bed. I don’t know what Sara’s plans are for the brand, but this is one to watch.