Why I Went Back to the Lab

I quit. Properly quit.

Not in a dramatic way, more in a quiet, practical, one-thing at a time way. I let the domain names lapse. Cancelled the business email. Sold the equipment I'd bought to speed up production. Got rid of the industrial shelving units that had taken over my home lab and replaced them with a sliding wardrobe. Turned the whole space into a cosy home office instead. It took me years to get here, In fact everything only went last month. 

And it felt good really good to be free of it all. Clearing physical space has a way of clearing mental space too, and for the first time in a while I could breathe.

Here's the thing though. Once all that noise was gone, once the pressure of trying to grow and scale and be a proper business had been cleared away, I realised what was left was just me still making shampoo bars. Still using them every single day. Still getting messages from friends, family and old customers asking me to please, please never stop.

So I didn't.

I never actually stopped making them. I just stopped making them into a job.

In the background, quietly, I've been selling the occasional larger batch to people who reach out directly. Gifting them to people who had issues with scalp and didn't know where to turn (like my PE trainer). Using them myself because honestly nothing else comes close. Life looks different now and I have a full time job, different priorities, and zero interest in going back to the version of this that was consuming me, but the bars themselves? They're still here.

A few weeks ago I bought a smaller batch of fresh ingredients. Not to relaunch. Not to rebuild. Just because I had the space, the energy, and the people asking. I looked at my numbers and realised that small scale, at my own pace, on my own terms actually works for me. I just can't grow the way I once hoped  and I've made peace with that.

So I made a decision to do this my birthday weekend  7th to 10th May. I've made a limited batch of the bars people keep asking about. No grand plans attached. No newsletter strategy. No relaunch long term plan. Just really good shampoo bars, made by hand in small batches for the people who've been quietly asking me not to disappear entirely.

Once they're gone, they're gone. I don't know when the next batch will be, or if there will be one. But right now, this weekend, they exist and if you've been one of the people asking, this one's for you.

You might notice the prices are a little higher than you remember. Ingredients in 2026 aren't cheap and I've never been willing to compromise on what goes into these bars, so rather than quietly swap things out, I've adjusted the price to reflect what they actually cost to make properly.

Lots of love,

Lana

🌿