Beauty, Skincare
Jessica Hurley inherited her love of beauty from her mum who was never seen without a full face of makeup and always taught her the importance of skincare. Her mother would spend hours in the bathroom each morning perfecting her look, and Jessica loved to watch the transformation. It was no surprise that she became a professional hair and makeup artist.
Over the past ten years, Jessica has been working in many different areas of the Beauty Industry, in television and film, fashion, and bridal. She learned from some of the leading artists and stylists, and has assisted on shoots for Tatler, Vogue and Glamour magazine
In 2015 her world turned upside down when she lost her beautiful mum to breast cancer at just 56 years old, and she, 26. She felt completely lost and lacking in purpose with her best friend and inspiration now gone at such a young age.
Jessica as a child with her mother
Jessica found herself desperately wanting to create more meaning in her life, keeping her mother’s memory alive and to raise funds for those living with cancer. She also wanted to bring beauty into her own life again, as well as others.
During her mum’s diagnosis and treatment, Jessica became very interested in natural and organic beauty and skincare, when the usual products her mum used, were suddenly causing irritation and simply were not nourishing enough. Jessica began researching the benefits of different plant oils and created a workshop in her kitchen, mixing and melting combinations to see what she could create and how they felt on the skin.
Jessica Hurley Founder of Pennies & Feathers
She was passionate that she wanted to create something with these ideas, so embarked on an intense self-healing journey to develop an all-natural luxury and organic skincare brand, Pennies & Feathers. All of the products are made in small batches, by hand (not in Jessica’s kitchen anymore), in the heart of the English countryside and use only the highest quality Soil Association certified organic ingredients.
The brand is named Pennies & Feathers as her mum told her before she passed that if there was any way that she could let her know that she was still around, then she would do so by leaving pennies and feathers in her path.
There are other special signs too which can be found within the beautiful illustrations on the packaging. A little touch to let anyone that needs it know that they aren’t alone. In fact, the packaging can also be sustainably reused on your dressing table to hold makeup brushes, pencils and jewellery too.
Even though the products are for all skin types and everyone, the initial idea was very important to Jessica and therefore during the testing and formulation phase she worked with some lovely ladies who were patients of The Olive Tree Cancer Support Centre. Their feedback was vital to making sure that the final products were also gentle, soothing and nourishing enough for use by ladies who are going through treatment for cancer and whose skin needs a little more TLC than normal.
Jessica also donates 10% of the profits to small cancer support centres, so that other women with a similar story to hers can still live life to the fullest.
We absolutely love this range – my personal favourites being the Rose and Lavender Facial Oil and the Orange and Rose Facial Mist.
Find out more by visiting Pennies & Feathers
