About Us

WHO ARE BUNDLE AND RUST

A North Lincolnshire based family business making 100% natural, and handmade, Skin and Hair Care for Humans, Horses and Dogs.

We are husband-and-wife team Living in Barton Upon Humber, North Lincolnshire

Sally is a proper Geordie, born in Wallsend, moved to Derbyshire at a very young age, then to New Zealand, returning to Derbyshire at the age of nine.
Sally studied Archaeology at Birmingham University, gaining a BA with Hons, and has spent time on digs, including in the Orkney Islands and Peru, to name a couple of places. Although she stopped doing archaeology as a career in the 1980s she was recently Monitoring Consultant Archaeologist at a decommissioned church conversion in Nottinghamshire.
She joined the civil service in 1987 and worked for several departments but mostly in the Crown Prosecution Service until 2010 when she took early retirement to train and qualify as a foot health professional which she still manages to do alongside her many tasks for Bundle and Rust.
She is also a qualified Aromatherapist and Reflexologist and is studying Organic Skin Care.

Tony is a true and very proud Yorkshireman, born in the West Riding capital of Wakefield, brought up in Goole and schooled in Selby.
After leaving school Tony had a few different jobs working for shipping agents in Goole and fork lift and crane hire firm in Hull.
In 1982 he took a complete side swipe and trained and qualified as a Chef at North Lindsey college.
in 1990 he left the catering industry and returned to his main passion of a driver (most of the the time long distance working away) for 27 years.
Since 2017 he has worked for a firm of Funeral Directors in Barton Upon Humber which, like Sally he still manages to do (albeit part time) alongside his many tasks for Bundle and Rust.
He has also been a qualified light aircraft pilot and Gliding Instructor, and his other passions are Rugby and Music, he was involved in music on and off for many years particularly in the Folk clubs in the 1970sand more recently in several Ceilidh bands, mainly as caller but occasionally stand in guitar player.

Sally and Tony met in 1993 when Tony joined an Appellation Dance team where Sally was also a member, the rest is history, so to speak.

OUR STORY

Sally and Tony started Bundle and Rust in 2009 with Sally making candles in teacups and saucers. Tony decided to fulfill an ambition of making soap! Don’t bother asking him when and why he first got the idea because he doesn’t know!
So, with some very early failure and hiccups the Soap business started. We both attended a two-day course, in London, with Melissa Coss, who Tony describes as the ‘Mary Berry’ of soap making. It was whilst on this course that Tony was nearly put off the idea upon discovering the legal requirements and high costs involved in having all products tested and licensed before they can be sold, fortunately, he decided to go ahead.

We decided very early on that we were going to aim to produce 100% natural products across the whole of the range.

The first craft fair was in 2012 at Waters Edge Visitor Centre in Barton Upon Humber, selling lots of candles and a few soaps; how things have changed.

Sally asked Tony to make a Goats Milk soap knowing of its’ qualities for skin care. It turned out to be the most popular and so the decision was made to make all the soaps Goats Milk based. We stated with six fragrances and a Shaving soap, over time this increased to 24 and four shaving soaps. In addition to the soaps we introduced an un-fragranced Shampoo bar and then seven more with fragrances. Following several requests we introduced eight conditioner bars.
In 2022 they decided, after much deliberation, that customers were faced with ‘too much choice’ so the range was reduced to 12 soap varieties, and four shampoo bars (although this has since increased to six), and the conditioner bars were discontinued in favour of Hair Oils, more about them later.

In 2018 we decided to expand the range of products for Men with the introduction of eight different Beard Oils, eight beard balms followed in 2020, in the same fragrances as the oils, these could also be Skin Balms but were never marketed as such.
We decided the Mens products needed a ‘Brand’ and so “The Ethical Gentleman” range was born and the Trademark secured.
Again, as with the soaps, the choices of each were reduced to five (same fragrances in both).

In 2020, after noticing the popularity of Lip Balms, we decided to introduce a range of eight.

B & R CANINE

In 2017, after being told by a regular customer, that she used on of our soaps for her Dogs because of the ingredients, we looked into producing a ‘Doggy Shampoo Bar’, this proved to be very successful.
In 2021 we expanded to ‘Doggy’ range and we introduced a Paw Balm, a Coat Conditioner spray, and a Healthy Skin Oil. We also discovered ingredients that would help get rid of the smell of Fox Poo, so our Fox Poo shampoo bar was introduced, and finally a Natural Tooth Powder.
We have to thank Tia Simpson of Buddy’s Bites for suggesting the last two.

In 2021 Yorkshire Media of Beverley, later to become Holler Marketing, produced our website and were heavily involved in our social media marketing, two of the girls there, Jemima and Sophie suggested we make Hair Oils; research started and in 2022 we introduced three different varieties, and these were named after the girls and the third one after Sally.

B & R EQUINE

We have both been attending Horse events for over thirty years, Sally even longer, but it was only in 2020 we started trading at them.
In 2022 whilst at a Girls ‘Hen Weekend’ with lots of ‘Horsey’ friends Sally was asked “Why don’t you sell Horse products?” … Well, the gauntlet was thrown down and we gladly picked it up!
We introduced a Horse Shampoo bar, A Mane and Tail Detangle and Conditioner spray, a Soap bar we called “Horsey Hands” (a bit of pampering for those hard worked hands at the end of the day), a Hoof Balm, a Healthy Skin oil particularly aimed at Sweet Itch, and a couple of years later a Fly Repellent spray and a Hoof Oil.
We have to thank Jodi Wilkinson (who’s Hen Weekend it happened to be, and is a highly qualified Riding Instructor, and happens to be our next door neighbour) for her help and advice.

Back to the beginning when we started with the candles, Sally decided to use Soya Wax instead of Paraffin Wax, and also introduced was melts.
As the Skin and Hair care products increased over the years the Home Fragrance range decreased and we now only make and sell them at certain times such as Christmas and Mothers Day

In 2025 our Grandson Chase wanted to get involved in the business and whilst still at college at the moment he has started helping making our products and helps out on the stall at events.

What of the future?

We recently introduced a small range of Skin Balms, which are also suitable for Vegans, we hope to expand this as we already have the recipes tested and licensed.
We are looking to introduce another range of Lip Balms which are also suitable for Vegans.
And possibly another conditioner but not soap based this time.