About Jarvis
The cosmetic laboratories and production facilities of Jarvis Cosmetic Developments have been creating premium skin and hair care cosmetics for boutique, spa and independent brands since 1974. Four generations of the Jarvis family have worked in the industry, giving us the stability and providence that has made us a market leader.
Our success comes from ensuring every formula we create fully delivers the promise of the concept.
Why work
with Jarvis Cosmetic Developments?
We provide a highly skilled and personal service to every client through all aspects of the development process. We are constantly pushing the boundaries, using the latest ingredients without causing harm or damage to animals or the environment.
This is a reflection of our broader ethical policy to care for our planet. Everyone within Jarvis is acutely aware of the delicate balance of the natural world and their responsibility in maintaining it. For this reason, we only work with customers and suppliers who maintain a similar ethical stance.
Brains behind the beauty!
The Jarvis Team guarantees a collaborative, personal and professional service throughout your cosmetic product development
Timeless Beauty: Celebrating Our Heritage.
From Apothecary to centre of excellence.
Jarvis Cosmetics can trace its roots back to a Fakenham apothecary owned and run by Arthur Jarvis. To this day, we still possess the original scales and weights used to measure everything from Laudanum to gunpowder!
Arthur’s son, Oscar, was a natural chemist and after leaving university took his skills to London where he became a director at Charles Zimmerman in Upper Thames Street, London in the 1920s. As an aside to his main work with natural perfumery he also developed cosmetics in particularly for some of the Court hairdressers in St James. We still possess some of his microscope slides from the 1920s showing his work on chamomile.
Like his father and grandfather before him, Peter had a love of botany and chemistry, and after a stint as an RAF pilot, followed them into the cosmetic industry. He worked all over Europe for Winthrop Laboratories before moving to Suffolk in 1967 to work for Dragoco (latterly Symrise). Thereafter he moved to Granada in Andalucia working for Destilaciones Garcia de la Fuente (DGF).
After returning to the UK, Peter worked as a freelance consultant, most notably developing the original ranges for a couple of hugely influential natural cosmetic brands. It was during this period he identified the need for quality extracts.
Peter decided to start his own business and set up a production facility and development laboratory in the market town of Hadleigh in Suffolk specialising in the development and production of high-end niche cosmetic products of exceptional quality in addition to range of excellent herbal extracts. On 13 April 1978 he registered a company at Companies House and Jarvis Cosmetic Developments Ltd was born.
His son Quentin joined him ten years later to expand the laboratories and production capabilities and was instrumental in bringing together the highly skilled and diverse team that make the company what it is today.
In August 2024, three generations of the Jarvis family celebrated 50 years of successful business. They celebrated with the current team and shared their stories of the past and spoke of their vision for the future.
The company will remain true to its roots, offering unique and highly innovative, bespoke cosmetic developments backed by exceptional personal customer service.
Jarvis is regarded worldwide as a centre of excellence for the development and production of high-quality skin and haircare cosmetics and the preparation of scientifically advanced botanical extracts.
“Today I recognise the necessity to adapt to new ways of working and thinking, achievable only by listening and adopting the ideas of our younger generation.”
Quentin Jarvis
This amalgamation of inherited wisdom and leading-edge thinking, has brought Jarvis worldwide recognition as a centre of excellence for the development and production of high quality skin care and hair care products and the preparation of scientifically advanced botanical extracts.
Everyone at Jarvis is aware of this unique heritage and is proud to be a part of a 100-year-old tradition of providing a personal, highly efficient, flexible service to the cosmetic industry as well as scientific and technical advice to new and established clients alike.