Tucked away in Mevagissey, near St Austell, is Fresk Living, a local Cornish business proudly promoting sustainable lifestyle choices.
Fresk Living’s ethos is very much about everyday sustainability. They offer affordable lifestyle products that are eco-friendly, sustainable and fair-trade. With bare wooden walls and plenty of light and space, this airy Cornish business has a touch of scandi-style, and indeed class, about it. Fresk Living sits perfectly with its Cornish coastal setting too.
Run by Caroline, Fresk Living opened 3 years ago as a coffee shop with a small range of environmentally friendly homeware and lifestyle products. When the pandemic hit, Caroline took the initiative and decided to pivot Fresk into what it is today – a local independent business offering customers affordable, ethical and tasteful products for their life and home.
What is Sustainable Living?
Sustainable living is about making a positive influence on the growing impact of climate change. It’s about reducing our carbon footprint and minimising the effect of our lifestyle choices on the environment. Sustainability includes buying locally, fairly, and seasonally where possible as well as considering how products will impact our oceans and environment. Surely it’s better to reuse something, or have toxic-free products to hand, than use something that’s full of synthetic and harmful ingredients, and comes in a plastic bottle?
Just think, if we all made some small changes, they’d certainly add up.
Finding sustainable products isn’t hard; many businesses and brands highlight sustainability as part of their identity. In recent years, I’ve gradually made some cost effective, sustainable swaps, and I’m sticking with them. Fresk Living’s all about simple, everyday sustainability, and they aim to make it as achievable and affordable as possible.
Sustainable Swaps
I can only describe Fresk Living in Mevagissey as an Aladdin’s cave of tasteful, affordable sustainable goods. Caroline’s clearly passionate about simplifying the transition to a more environmentally friendly way of living.
She talked me through many of the products and brands at Fresk Living. Here are some of her top sustainability ideas and products for your lifestyle and home.
Sustainable Swaps For the Kitchen
Liga Beach Clean Table Mats & Coasters
I’ll come clean – I’ve got these at home so know how good they are. These mats and coasters bring to mind beach colours and textures, so it’s no surprise to find they’re made of sustainable cork and recycled ocean plastic. Liga Beach Clean mats and coasters come in sets of 4, each with their own unique colour way.
Liga are a Cornwall based family business who only use sustainable materials. While materials are sourced from all around the world, everything is made in Cornwall.
If you’re in any doubt of why we need to keep plastic from our oceans, here’s a post about what being near the sea does for us and the benefits of coastal living.
Bee Bee and Leaf Beeswax Wraps
Bee Bee wraps are infused with beeswax, resin, and organic jojoba oil. Based in Cambridge, Bee Bee and Leaf promote sustainability, and through their hard work, inspire others to take action. Their beeswax wraps are easy to use and long lasting. Simply mould them around bowls and food with your warm hands and wash in cold soapy water after use.
Falcon Enamelware
While Caroline champions small, independent sustainable businesses, it was also great to see plenty of Falcon Enamelware in stock (I’ve been a fan for a long time!). This iconic British brand has been making eco-friendly enamelware for over 100 years. The enamel coating’s eco-friendly and the kitchenware just keeps on going.
Given it’s durability, it’s unlikely you’ll ever need to replace enamelware. It won’t break if dropped, and won’t burn if you forget to take it out of the oven. It’s cook and kitchenware that lasts forever – what other brand can boast that feature?
Sass and Belle Hedgehog Washing Up Brush
Awww, what a cutie! This sweet hedgehog washing up brush is part of the conscious living collection from Sass and Belle. It’s long lasting and made from sustainable materials, such as coconut and beachwood.
Bambu Kitchen Utensils
Caroline has lots of kitchen utensils in store from brand, Bambu Home. Known for their kitchen products, Bambu Home place emphasis on making and selling beautiful non-toxic products, sourced from nature. It’s always good to know that no nasties are transferred in the cooking process from their utensils.
As if that isn’t enough, Bambu Home is a carbon neutral, organic, B Corps company (among other things). Basically, it’s a sustainable brand, showing off!
Finnish Style Kuska Camping Cups
I love these unique cups and I’ve not seen them anywhere before. The Nordic style Kuska drinking cup is not only eye catching, but in my view, ergonomically designed. They’re renowned for being perfect for camping but their use doesn’t have to stop there. I think these would make excellent presents (like many items in Fresk) and would capture others curiosity and interest.
EcoVibe Amber Bottle
Say goodbye to plastic bottles that end up in the recycling bag or even worse, the bin, and grab some of these reusable glass bottles with a spray nozzle. Perfect to use with the OceanSaver cleaning products Caroline has in stock.
The Organic Company Wash Cloth
These Danish designed washcloths caught my eye as I looked around Fresk. Not only are they in soft muted tones, but they are high quality and durable. The Organic Company is also GOTS approved, meaning all components that go into making their products are verified for safe working conditions. No child labour and no discrimination, that gets my vote!
If you’re interested in the impact of nature on our wellbeing, I’ve a well researched blog post on that too!
Sustainable Product Swaps For the Bathroom
Yellow Gorse Herbal Bath Soak
Yellow Gorse is a Dorset based company promoting botanical wellbeing. As such, their bottles of Himalayan or Bergamot Bath Soak look like they belong in an apothecary. With products from bath soaks to aromatherapy oils, you really are at one with Mother Earth when you take care of yourself.
Soakk Soaps
Soakk HQ is on Bodmin Moor, in Cornwall. Soakk’s chunky soap on a rope isn’t just pretty, functional, and beautifully scented. Made using only vegan and natural ingredients, such as plant oils, herbs and clay, they’re kind to everyone’s skin. In fact, Soakk go the extra mile soothing, hydrating and calming skin conditions, like eczema. They won’t dry your skin out or harm the Earth either.
Sass and Belle Seagrass Baskets
Fresk has plenty of baskets in different sizes, including a set of 2 from Sass and Belle. These smaller ones with lids are ideal for bathroom storage and organisation, all with a Scandi touch.
The Organic Company Big Waffle Hand Towel
Another item from The Organic Company that screams sophisticated Nordic design. These big waffle hand towels come in a range of earthy colours, making them tasteful and stylish. Given the company’s ethical standpoint, I’d be happy to have plenty of these as a sustainable choice in my bathroom.
EcoLiving Olive Soap Dish
Fancy saying goodbye to sludgy bathroom soap? Fresk offer a good sustainable choice when it comes to an environmentally friendly soap dish. Hand carved from olive wood and made in Germany, each soap dish is individual in its grain and marks.
Sustainable Product Swaps For Your Life
Kind Bags
I was quite taken with Kind Bags, which are well stocked at Fresk. Made solely from plastic bottles, Kind Bags hold up to 20kg of goods and are quirky and fun. With wide handles for comfort and silky material, I could happily have lots of these to hand, ready to use. Kind bags easily fold into a pouch so don’t take up space. I liked them so much, I couldn’t leave Fresk Living without one.
Lets face it, can we ever have too many reusable bags?
Run With Wolves Candles
It’s always a joy to come across an unfamiliar brand, like Run with the Wolves candles. Made in Wales, these natural soy candles are inspired by nature. Kind, natural ingredients go into every candle, bringing us closer to nature from the comfort of our own homes.
Nona Recycled Pegs
Also known as a clothes pin, these Nona pegs have been flying off the shelves at Fresk. It’s not surprising as they’re such a good sustainable swap, and much better than plastic or wooden pegs.
Made from recycled ocean plastic and discarded fishing nets (I mean, it’s so clever), these pegs are not only aesthetically well designed, they’re durable and unbreakable. Nona pegs withstand exposure to different weather conditions too, which is ideal if you’re like me and never bring your pegs in off the line!
Eco Egg Laundry Egg
Laundry eggs are amazing. Caroline told me how good they are (she doesn’t use anything else), and they’re about the same price as standard laundry detergent. Each laundry egg lasts about 70 washes and there’s no need for separate softener. These are definitely a unique and innovative sustainable product swap, one which is kind to our skin and the environment.
The Organic Company All Purpose Bags
If you want to minimise your use of disposable bags, then the Organic Company have the answer. Coming in 3 sizes with a drawstring, these all purpose bags are something you can use over and over again. Let’s face it, that’s what sustainability is all about, and these would be an simple swap to integrate into our everyday lives.
Eco Crab Line
I love this item. Actually, I hate to think how many cheap plastic crab lines I’ve bought over the years, I feel quite guilty about it. Made completely from natural ingredients, including a hessian bait bag, this is the perfect addition to any coastal family day out (top tip: crabs seem to like bacon).
While I’ve covered a lot of sustainable product swaps here, you can find even more at Fresk Living. Caroline definitely has a good eye for what people want, especially when it comes to ethical and environmentally friendly items we can all blend into our everyday lives. It’s all about re-thinking and revising what we do, and forming better habits that are good for us and the environment.
If you visit Fresk, why not grab a delicious coffee and salad while there? Salads are available from April to October.
If you can’t get to Cornwall, or even Mevagissey, Fresk Living have a lovely online store showcasing all their products.
