Q&A: Nicola Elliott from Neom on Sleeptember

The stats for your sleep range are really impressive – why are your products so effective?

We use only 100% pure essential oils, and nothing else. They are first pressed and steam distilled of the highest quality. So many time you might see ‘made with real lavender’ but you’ve got to ask yourself ‘yes, but what else?’ – we make a big promise, that you will only ever have 100% essential oils, they aren’t mixed with anything else to ‘bulk them out’ which is so common. We also blend so many oils together to make them work most effectively.

Our Scent to De Stress range for example has 24 essential oils in! It smells amazing, yes, very sophisticated, which is unusual and a real breakthrough for natural fragrances, but it has also been tested on hundreds of consumers to see that the scent really works. We don’t see ourselves as perfumers as much as wellbeing fragrance creators. We start with a real problem – stress for example – and we blend a scent that works to help people; we keep refining it and refining it until we get the best consumer results. Finally, the amount of fragrance we put in all our products is unrivalled. Take a standard Neom 3 wick candle, it has as much fragrance oil in it as 4 of those little brown bottles of essential oils you could buy! That’s a huge amount.

Can you share your nightly sleep ritual with us?

Yes, I have a routine and that’s the first step… try and stick to something that your mind and body gets used to. I go up to the bath an hour before bed and light the Tranquillity candle in my room, then I take a warm bath with Neom Scent to Sleep Bath and Shower Drops (sometimes combining with bath foam). I make sure I lock the door and stay in there for 15 mins doing some basic breathing exercises.

I’m naturally an anxious person and I’m always blown away by how much my body needs to wind down at the end of a long day. I then read for at least 20 minutes – it just takes my brain from one place to another really effectively. Paper book ideally, my kindles just for travelling. I spritz the pillow with Perfect Nights Sleep Pillow Mist, take two magnesium capsules and I must say, I do sleep very well!

If you’re travelling, how do you maintain your sleep routine (unfamiliar beds are a nightmare for most people! Hello sleepless night!)?

It’s easy to pack the above (Our Wellbeing On the Go Collection is all travel size). Make sure you don’t drink too much (over two glasses of wine and I don’t sleep well at all, so it’s a trade off!). I’ll read, even if it’s 10 mins, every night.

Scent is great for travelling because you can create a little piece of home wherever you are.

What are your top 3 tips for maintaining good sleep hygiene at home?

Keep a routine – yours may be different from mine, that’s fine, craft what works for you. Stick to it and see it as a lovely treat at the end of a hard day. No tech after 9pm – ever. Invest in the best cotton pyjamas and bed sheets you can afford!

If your children are going through a bumpy period with their sleep, what have you found to help most?

My 9-year-old son struggles, we find the ‘wind down’ period is very important, just telling him to go to bed after TV time or playing is too hard for him to relax. So we really cultivate the wind down zone – I sometimes download a sleep meditation app for him, which really helps and he uses it with his Pillow Mist.

If you know you’re not going to get as much sleep as you’d like (e.g. up at 4am for an early flight) – how do you maximise on what you will get?

Go to bed earlier and don’t stress about it too much! I think of good sleep over a few nights, like a food diary really, if you don’t have a good night one night, you’ll be fine. Just catch up as the week goes on. Sometimes it happens, it’s fine, don’t stress about it. You can always nap on the plane!

#NeomBigSleep Follow @eminerushton and @neomorganics across social media, to find out how to win one of five 3 Step Sleep Programmes, worth £50 each.