Leaving London wasn’t something that Remy Green planned and strategised; her exit from the capital evolved slowly but surely and over the past four years her life and been utterly changed as a result.
Remy spent her childhood shuttling between London, where her mother lived, and around Haverfordwest, close to the Pembrokeshire coast, where her father was based.
At 18 she moved to London full time to study, and then spent her twenties modelling.
Although life was exciting — jetting off to Milan or New York for jobs — Remi found the endless travel and constant risk of rejection stressful. And, of course, she knew that modelling is very much a young person’s game.
At the start of the pandemic Remy was between flats and staying with a friend in Wimbledon.
“There was no work, and I already knew that I wanted to start a skincare business,” she said. “During Covid there was a lot of time to think about stuff, and I decided to get going.”
Remy, now 31, knew she was going to need great visuals for her brand, and called on an old family friend, Scott Chalmers, for help. He had also left Wales and built a career as a videographer, film maker, and director.
The pair didn’t know each other very well but their dads were great friends, and they had bumped into each other regularly through the years.
Scott, 37, had just bought a house back in Pembrokeshire and during the summer of 2020 Remy visited regularly to see family and friends —and talk business with Scott.
By the end of the year they were an item, and their daughter Deia was born in the summer of 2023. They were married in May.
And although Remy isn’t crazy about Scott’s choice of property — a pebble dashed ex council house in a coastal hamlet about 15 minutes’ drive from St Davids — she does adore the location.
The beach is a five minute walk, they can go for long walks along Pembrokeshire’s coastal park, swim, and surf.
And keeping things local Remy’s skincare brand, Modern Celtic Apothecary is based on seaweed from local beaches formulated into a range of balms.
The key thing she misses about London is its great restaurant scene, and of course Pembrokeshire is a very long way from city life. “It is such a pain to go anywhere because it is so far, but that is part of its charm because it scares off a certain sort of people,” she said.
“Moving to Pembrokeshire was not planned, for either of us, but it could not have worked out better. We didn’t quite realise how much we wanted to come home until we did.”
