No7 marks 90 years of Nottingham-born skincare

One of the world's best-known skincare names has deep roots in Nottingham. No7 was launched by Boots in 1935, which means 2025 marked 90 years since it first appeared.

The Boots story began in 1849, when John Boot established the business in Nottingham. After his death in 1860 his son Jesse, then just ten years old, helped his mother run the family's herbal medicine shop. Jesse went on to turn the company into a national retailer that called itself "Chemists to the Nation", and he left a lasting mark on the city, giving land at Highfields for the University College that opened in 1928 and is now the University of Nottingham.

By the 1930s Boots was ready to create its own beauty brand. No7 began in 1935 as a selection of eleven skincare products, and colour cosmetics followed in 1937. The same decade saw the construction of the company's famous D10 factory building near Beeston, designed by Sir Owen Williams and built between 1935 and 1938. It is now Grade I listed.

The brand has evolved constantly since then, with eight redesigns over the decades. In 2007 the range expanded into body products, foundation, creams and men's skincare, and that year a No7 serum was the subject of a University of Manchester study and a BBC Horizon programme, bringing the brand to a new audience.

In 2021 No7 was launched as a separate company, and today its products are sold in more than 20,000 stores and online across 29 markets, a long way from a family herbal shop in Nottingham.

Boots is still headquartered in Beeston, in the Grade II* listed D90 office building designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill in the late 1960s. That makes No7 one of the few global beauty names that can genuinely call Nottinghamshire home.

For a city that loves its local heroes, the No7 story is a reminder that big ideas can start close to home, and that Nottingham has been shaping the way people care for their skin for nine decades.

No7 skincare can be found at Boots stores and online, with the brand's history closely tied to the company's Nottingham story.