Most people associate Instagram with food and the Hemsley sisters’ feed is a prime example. Hemsley and Hemsley’s health-focused stream is second to none. The two sisters, Jasmine and Melissa Hemsley, aim to get people eating healthy, nutrient rich and delicious food. They create recipes and write books, blogs and magazine articles to get their message out. The business started as a small nutritional consultancy but has, thanks to Instagram, grown considerably.
Beautiful pictures of healthy food aside, the Hemsleys’ Instagram is all about the women. Their colourful, lifestyle-based Instagram stream features as many images of the two sisters as it does the food they create. Through social media, they have created a vibrant brand that young, style-conscious people can identify with. They have managed to make health food cool. There is also a friendliness to the feed. You can imagine these bright young women coming round for dinner, as long as you were serving courgetti and not pasta.
Brick Lane Bikes (BLB) is one of London’s most famous bike shops and its Instagram feed is perfect lunchtime fodder for anyone interested in cycling. Founded by a former courier, the main focus of the company is selling stylish and functional bikes, many of which are custom or vintage. It also hosts workshops with mechanics and caters for on-the-spot repairs and custom building work.
The BLB Instagram stream features a huge number of bikes and frames – from incredibly hi-spec racers and road bikes through to edgy vintage models. In order to stop the possible frame-fatigue, these images are interlaced with video content, art design ideas, complementary products and a few snaps of the staff at the shop.
If you ever wanted a hairstyle that was in no way off the peg, then Bleach London is the destination of choice. This East London and Soho based brand has built itself up, in part, with its fantastic Instagram gallery.
Their feed features hair in high-fashion shades and hues – pastels, lime greens, hot pinks, greys and the brand’s first big trendsetting look – a block bleach dye job with roots. The compilation is impressive and beautiful. After a few minutes you start to think that you’re missing out on something and should be making an appointment. The stream is rebellious, but the brand doesn’t take itself too seriously, as the pics of Mariah Carey with a dolphin prove.
4. Lovecrumbs
This Instagram account is run by Edinburgh-based bakery, Lovecrumbs, which was founded by two friends in 2011. The cafe only serves cakes, tarts and other sweet treats, there are no sensible sandwiches or soups to you distract from temptation. Favourite confections are pumpkin and chocolate chip bundt cake, peanut butter chocolate tart and coconut and beetroot cake.
The Lovecrumbs Instagram feed is an alluring mixture of masterful cake baking, Scottish landscapes and welcoming pictures of the cosy-looking cafe and its bakers. It has to be said that these are some of the most photogenic cakes around. If you were in the cold, wet city, it would be very tempting to head to the cafe for shelter, and cake.
5. Wah Nails
Wah Nails has made nail art cool again, since Central Saint Martins graduate Sharmadean Reid opened the first shop in 2009. Its new venture, Wah World studio in Dalston, is something of a nail art hub and is only open to clients at the weekends. It runs masterclasses of no more than six people at other times, designed to help customers create nail art at home.
But more than teaching or salon services, Wah Nails Instagram is about design inspiration. Wah’s feed displays everything from leopard print to floral designs as well as more abstract or specific work. It also features extracts from the new Wah book, video tutorials and the brand’s own product range.
One of the best florists on Instagram is small business Grace and Thorn. The company began in Nik Southern’s Dalston studio back in 2011 and has since opened a shop on Hackney Road, as well as a pop up in Soho earlier this year. Southern’s natural bouquets have a following with Londoners and big brands – they do flowers for Toast and Whistles, for example.
The blooms vary massively, but the bunches are generally asymmetric and foliage heavy, with strong, bright accents.
Southern’s Instagram feed is a savvy mixture of on-the-go work shots, photos of the studio, the flowers and shots of the woman herself, out with friends or on location. Floristry clearly lends itself to Instagram and Grace and Thorn demonstrate how to do it right.
7. Nyetimber
According to the history books, vines were planted on the site of the Nyetimber estate on the South Downs (West Sussex and Hampshire) as far back as the 11th century. But it was a while before the Nyetimber Sparkling Wine business was founded in 2006. The estate specialises in English sparkling wine and aims to make the best version of the product in the UK. Many would argue it has succeeded.
Its Instagram feed is certainly the most developed in this relatively young industry. Dame Vivienne Westwood is featured among the first few posts, sipping her wine. This shot is positioned alongside an array of champagne-lifestyle snaps, featuring yachts, Rolls Royce cars, canapés, golf courses and the company’s novel travelling bar/double decker bus. However, the majority of the space focuses on the estate itself, the wine-making process and the quality of the product.
8. Rokit
Rokit is a mini fashion empire – with four stores across London, it is the go-to for anything retro or Vintage. The company started in 1986, as a Camden Market stall and flourished as vintage became more and more fashionable. Rokit’s range is enormous, with garments and trinkets in stock dating from the 30s to the 90s.
The brand’s Instagram features customers trying on the eclectic clothes, TV inspiration and examples of art and vintage design. It makes you want to dress up. The posts also include outfit snapshots, where store staff have put together a look to inspire potential customers. It’s a helpful tool for those that might find vintage a little daunting and reassures you that the staff know their 90s camis from their 60s smock dresses.
This entreprise was launched in 2009 by Charlotte O’Shea – a newlywed at the time. O’Shea realised that British brides needed a regularly updated online resource to help them plan their big day. Now, Rockmywedding.co.uk is one of the UK’s most popular planning resources with 330,000 visitors viewing over 800,000 pages every month.
The Rock My Wedding Instagram feed is as picture perfect as you might imagine, strewn with wedding fare, such as floral arrangements, dresses, venues, make-up, hair ideas, decoration, tents, rings, cakes and honeymoon destinations. But O’Shea gets the tone just right, with playful posts. Her visual inspiration is designed to appeal to every type of bride and it is nothing less than comprehensive, with nearly 2,000 posts to date.
10. Primrose Bakery
While baking cupcakes for children’s parties, Lisa Thomas and Martha Smith noticed how well the pretty confections went down with adults. Eleven years after that discovery, Primrose Bakery, now solely owned by Smith, has two London shops, in Primrose Hill and Covent Garden. Such is the demand for their boxes of treats that people queue outside the shop at weekends. Business is flourishing. Smith tries her best to use well-sourced ingredients and to keep the recipes as traditional and seasonal as possible.
The cakes are the perfect Instagram package – with colourful, frosting and amusing novelty themes. One scroll through the feed and a potential client knows where to go to get beautiful, witty and delicious cupcakes or grander, large-scale celebration cakes.
Content on this page is paid for and produced to a brief agreed with Facebook sponsor of the Guardian Small Business Network Connected for Success hub.
