Our Story
Balance
As many stories do, ours begins with a search for balance. After years of working for brands as a graphic designer, Stephanie, our co-founder, was craving something that combined her love of design, community and the healing power of nature. And while the words home and work had always resonated in two different worlds, their joining together felt like the yin and yang she needed. This idea of opposite but interconnected elements that find harmony as a pair gave us our name: homework.
Heritage
homework pays homage to Stephanie’s Chinese heritage, having grown up with Traditional Chinese Medicine – from her Popo picking herbs in the mountains in Tai Po to create her own remedies, to her parents who immigrated to Manchester in 1984 to set up their own clinic. So it felt both natural and vital for homework’s sensory philosophy to be rooted in TCM.
Outside of the scents we create, we also use our platform to amplify voices from the East and South East Asian community, by sharing their work, stories, recipes and rituals.
Nature
A big part of our practice as a sensory studio is aligning with nature. This looks like living harmoniously with the seasons, drawing upon the grounded and tangible elements of nature, from the calm trickle of water to the warmth of the sun. Because of this, we run our business on similar principles. We create in small batches, use responsibly-sourced ingredients, encourage people to reuse our jars and offer to recycle them ourselves.
In an effort to create more equilibrium – a push and pull of give and take – we are also members of 1% For The Planet, an organisation that requires businesses to donate 1% of their annual sales to environmental causes.