Voya

VOYA has grown from of a very successful family-run seaweed baths business in Strandhill, Co. Sligo, on nature’s Atlantic coast of Ireland, set up by Neil Walton. The popularity of Walton’s Seaweed Baths grew and spread and more and more clients wondered if there was some way they could create the experience in their own homes.

The challenge was major, and was to be the start for VOYA products. Voya knew that conventional cosmetics use chemicals that could destroy the beneficial properties of their seaweed and also damage the environment. As a family they agreed that this was an unacceptable compromise and would go against all their instincts. Neil’s brother, Mark, tried to source genuinely organic seaweed products but found none. It soon became apparent that if they weren’t willing to compromise, they would have to go through with the long and demanding voyage towards developing a new type of cosmetic: the very first genuinely organic seaweed-based cosmetic products in the world.

Over six years of research and development and countless tests, Voya developed and perfected their complex method of preserving seaweed naturally: a method that replicates how seaweed is actually exposed and dries out during the ebbing of spring tides. By reducing the water content slowly, Voya found the seaweed merely entered a kind of stasis and its cell structures could be kept intact. Reintroducing water, by adding the dried seaweed to a bath, “reawakened” the cells and replicated the effects of our fresh seaweed baths. Eureka, you could say … and they did! This was Voya’s first product, and it remains the one they are most proud of to this day - for its purity and simplicity.

This was just the beginning. Mark Walton then set about creating a full range of seaweed-based organic products. By combining Voya’s knowledge of the therapeutic properties of wild seaweed with the expertise of highly skilled natural cosmetic scientists, marine biologists and dermatologists from around the world, they have been able to carry some of the unique qualities and effects of seaweed into Voya’s new beauty and skincare products.

Millies are leading stockists of Voya Products in Ireland and offer next delivery all over the country.