My name's Sam W Martin. In 2013, I started Apothecary 87. The following is my story, about how Apothecary 87 came to be.

 

I spent most of my 20's working at the top of my industry as a mixologist & bar consultant. I had a CV far beyond my years. However when I started my own company in the bar industry, I found it very hard to be taken seriously, as I looked too young; at this point I decided to grow a beard. I soon found that not only did people take me more seriously, but they remembered me! This was excellent marketing and branding for me, so I decided to keep it.

 

After a while I realised my beard needed looking after and conditioning, so I spent many moons researching the best ingredients to make a beard oil that was all my own. Having tried many brands out there, I found a lot of them to be too feminine; being a man, I decided my beard oil should smell like a man’s beard oil!

It didn’t take long for my friends to start requesting that I make them some of my beard oil. On top of this I had seemed to grow a bearded following on several social networks, all asking what products I used and how I maintained my beard. Since everyone seemed to be asking how to get hold of my Original Recipe Beard Oil, I thought I would look seriously into going into production.

As I was starting out on this new venture (and still thinking of a name), my Grandad passed away from Prostate Cancer. It was at the end of September ’13, and I decided to honour this great man’s memory. I would use something of his in the name. He was 87 when he died and as I was born in ’87, I decided it was a sign that it should be a part of the name. With my love of all things vintage and because I was mixing my own beard tonic, I named it Apothecary 87.

 

I also wanted to do something to help fight the horrible illness which affects so many men and which my Grandad had so valiantly fought. So I created a moustache wax and supported Movember. We have continued to research other ways our company can support men's health.

 

I now had 2 products ready to go, and wanted to start advertising. One of my closest friends was a fantastic barber; I asked if he would help me by advertising at conventions and by throwing some amazing parties to raise awareness for men’s health. It was he who said that if I was going to create these products, I should make shave oils and creams for him to use. This is when I made my shave oil and started researching how to create my own shave cream (recently perfected).

 

And that brings you to the current day in my story. If you are reading this and are buying the products, you are enabling me to continue this story, and I thank you for that.