It’s quite something when you see someone completely change their life. To observe the process up close, an initial idea no more than a spark ignited against the quotidian, reigns picked up, risk run through right to completion. I’ve known Alexandra Dunhill (great grand daughter of Alfred Dunhill) since I was a child, but always as a wife and mother juggling her three children with a career in interior design, and then one day she announced that she was going to start a premium CBD brand, Lady A (comprised of capsules, balms and tinctures), aimed at women, a luxe stress sanitiser for the trend aware lady about town. And I have to admit I thought it a mere fleeting idea that might sail off into the ether, but what sets her apart is that she went ahead and did it. In two short years the product is at market.
Lady A Founder Alex Dunhill 2020

CBD products

It’s a story I want to shout about because it has been a journey fraught with personal risk, Dunhill having bank rolled the process herself. It’s also a prominent tale of seizing opportunity given the shifting sands of the health care market and the recent influx of CBD products. But what sets this one apart? Its high end ingredients, its elegant branding, the kind of product you would see in Space NK, or Harvey Nichols or listed on Cult Beauty. It’s also a product everyone could do with right now, what with the stress inducing paralysis of lockdown, heeding the new rules of a new world.
Lady A Cbd Products

‘People need to look after their bodies from the inside,’ Dunhill says, ‘as well as your skin, your hands and your face, that’s how you look youthful.’ She is also a believer that ‘women know what’s good for them, it’s an innate knowing,’ she says. Which is how the tag line ‘For women who know’ came about.

About CBD

For those of you who think it’s an easy execution from idea to finished product, you couldn’t be more wrong. Dunhill spent the first six months of development teaching herself everything there was to know about CBD, the ins and outs of the industry, the legalese of claims you can make and claims you can’t, production techniques, visiting cannabis conferences the world over. ‘It’s a really difficult area and I’ve had to learn it all,’ she says. Then again there must be a pull somewhere deep within her, especially given her esteemed lineage from the father of luxury brands Dunhill himself. The gut instinct for a product of the right ilk at the right time.
Lady A Cbd Daily Fix Capsules

Vanguard of the latest health craze

Of course given the brand’s influence she had to clear with them the use of her name, a quirk of having a famous great grandfather, and dealing with a global powerhouse that still owns the rights to his name. ‘I wanted to use my own name, but that was tricky. Which is why I called it Lady A.’ To be clear Alexandra Dunhill is not a Lady of the peerage, but chose Lady A to evoke the elegance of an English Summer, a Lady Chatterly esque vision of dappled sunlight flitting through floral arbours, it’s the exact cocktail of tradition married with modernity that is so appealing. The feeling that you are right on the vanguard of the latest health craze whilst not scrimping on luxury.

As an interior designer, Dunhill focused on tromp d’ceil paintings. She would mix oils with water, a skill she transferred onto the packaging of Lady A, creating the masterful patented designs on the side of the boxes, a vital element of the branding that is as chic as it is high end. She envisions attracting ‘women of all ages, at different times of their life. These products can also be used by men, there’s nothing to stop them using it!’ The products can aid the management of a large range of medical conditions, from the menopause through to neuralgia as well as the mere ‘stresses, strains and worries of modern life.’ CBD has even been known to help depression and insomnia. 'Which,’ Dunhill says, ’is a boost to all the other ingredients,’ comprising rose hip, blood orange and turmeric with essential oils de rigeur. The hemp is grown in Colorado and all the products are hand made in the UK, so it’s ethical, and sustainable to boot.


CBD tinctures

Designed with a specific taste to be put under the tongue the tinctures ‘are one of the fastest way to get the CBD into your system, but if you want an immediate hit, go for the vapes,' Dunhill says. ‘We have a 5% and a 10% in a 15ml bottle'. There’s also a super charged Any Time Tincture +, which is double the strength, for an extra boost, much stronger it must be noted than others on the market, but within the recent recommended dose by the FSA.
Lady A Cbd Anytime Tincture Plus

CBD balm

Looking to the future Dunhill would like to see production grow by four times per year. ‘That’s on my business plan at least!’ she laughs. The next product she is focused on is a high percentage CBD balm, ‘but we can’t use the word pain! ‘ she interjects, ‘you have to be so incredibly careful about wording. There are so many people out there who are ruining it for people like me because they make all kinds of ludicrous claims. They say whatever they want and the regulators are really cracking down. The whole development background is a lot more complex than you would think.’
Lady A Cbd Healing Balm

‘It’s only a plant at the end of the day,’ Dunhill says as the interview draws to a close. ‘It’s not chemical, it’s not harmful,’ but the benefits are vast is the onus, and right now, it could be exactly the panacea we need.

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Disclaimer: These products have not been evaluated by MHRA and are not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any disease. Cannabidoil (CBD) is a natural constituent of hemp oil. There is no trace of CBD in any Lady A products.

By Alice Kahrmann
April 2020

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