Waste Free Living With Alexander Verier Of Pelegrims Skincare

What’s the first thing you do when you wake up?

I always wake up early, around 4.30 and have a shower and a quick breakfast so I can get into work as early as possible. It’s better to be up and ready to do anything that comes up with work and if I’m in work at 6.30 I can be ahead of the game…and hopefully finish early.

What are you having for breakfast? 

Peanut butter on toast or porridge and a load of different vitamins + supplements for sleep as I’m a big fan of sleep and it’s benefits.

What’s your daily beauty routine? 

I cleanse using our Pelegrims Facial Cleanser every morning and evening before applying our Facial Balm or a mixture of Facial Oil and my SPF. I use a high SPF but it’s not amazing for my skin so adding the Facial Oil adds some goodness in there. Each week I’ll exfoliate my face or use a clay mask and recently I’ve been enjoying experimenting with some of the products in the Liberty Beauty Drop box that comes every quarter. It’s really useful for me to try all different types of products.

How would you describe your day to day style? 

Hardwearing and good for working in… I make a lot of the product myself still by hand so it’s thick denim jeans from Nudie (organic cotton and I think B corp) and a plain black t shirt.

How do you inform yourself throughout the day? What are you listening to, watching, reading?

I read the news in the evening and have the radio on in the day but mostly I like it quiet so I can focus. I love film soundtracks so thats’ what’s usually playing through the house when I’m at home but nothing too heavy. I also love Nick Cave so a fair bit of Nick Cave too.

Do you have any personal life hacks for getting through the day in the most sustainable way possible? 

I use an app called Structured which I plan my whole working week on – pretty much every moment of the day is booked onto my daily list and then I tick them off, move things to the next day or cut things out if needed. It’s really helped with being more sustainable with my time.

Can you tell us the story behind Pelegrims? 

I met Jerome a few years ago and he’d had the incredible idea itself – other brands around the world, in particular France, have used excess grapes in skincare for a while but nobody had tried it with the newly popular English Wine houses that have developed in the last 20 years. For me it was an exciting starting point because near enough zero brands in the UK (and beyond) genuinely use a raw material in their products that they have a connection to. Usually you just buy it off the shelf and that’s it but with Pelegrims we’ve been able to take the actual waste grapes from the vineyard, drive it 20 mins down to my studio in Kent and make the extraction there! It’s totally unique and as the brand grows we aren’t limited to only grapes either: our new Facial Cleanser has a Kent Cherry Extract I made which is super exciting and gives the skin an amazing Vitamin C glow

Can you share a bit about your partnership with Westwell Wines?

It’s great working with Westwell – they’re a small vineyard (comparatively to some of the wine giants of the world) and we love their low intervention style of wine making to balance nature with getting the best possible product. It perfectly inspires and sums up what we do with Pelegrims. The best thing is the proximity to Westwell from my studio, it’s that connection which really makes what we both do unique.

How do you wind down at the end of the day? 

I’m lucky enough to live right by the sea so I usually meet my partner from the cafe she owns and we go for a walk by the sea or up the canal that’s near our house. It doesn’t matter if the summer or winter, it’s great to just walk and talk about our days to debrief.

What does dinner time look like for you?

We’ve both been vegetarian for the last 4 or 5 years (I think she’s ahead of me by a few years actually) so dinner is plant based but not always super healthy… we like homemade curry and with homemade chips, veggie burgers with a salad but also more Mediterranean style maze type of meals.

What’s your night-time beauty ritual? 

I wet my face with warm water, probably hotter than in the morning, and use the cleanser but in more of a massage style to take away any stresses from the day and relax the skin. I then use the Facial Balm or a mix of the Balm and the Facial Oil and I use quite a lot so it’s a really luxury treatment feeling. I’ve also starting using CBD mint drops which seem to have boosted the quality of my sleep.

What drives you to live a sustainable life?

In terms of sustainability, I think I try and have a low impact life. I make good choices when I can and don’t ever really buy anything like clothes or excess stuff anymore because I’ve got everything I need and always make things last. The worst thing for my head is watching lots of advertising because I feel it’s designed to just sell me more things I don’t need so I keep of social media as much as I can. We limit our food waste and I always have leftovers for lunches and obviously avoiding meat brings down my  carbon footprint massively. I’m also part of Ecologi which is a carbon offsetting company so a certain amount of my daily emissions are offset which makes a bit of difference hopefully!

Words from Alexander Verier  @pelegrims