Organic Beauty Week Event

In celebration of Organic Beauty Week, the Soil Association recently organised an exclusive Beauty event at Wholefoods in Kensington. The event was held in order to promote organic beauty and highlight the Soil Associations Campaign For Clarity; in which the Soil Association are calling for the beauty industry to be clearer in their claims and to stop misleading consumers.

Being treated to a glass of something sparkling is always an enjoyable way to kick off an evening and the enjoyment levels only continued to rise as the evening went on - and not just because of the prosecco!*

I arrived at Wholefoods shortly after the event started and so the room was still fairly empty and so, having received a warm welcome from the organisers, glass in hand I set off around the room to meet the brands.

A number of organic skincare brands were showcasing a selection of their products. The big kids in the room Pai Skincare and Neal's Yard Remedies were joined by luxury spa range Bamford, hipster  (I am sure they won't object to me calling them that?) line Skin&TonicLondon, bee-centric Therapi, personal care range Natracare and Cornish line Spiezia.

I whiled away a good two and a half hours chatting with the representatives of the companies and playing with various products. Everyone was informative, knowledgable and passionate about organic beauty and the Soil Associations Campaign for Clarity. It is always great to chat face to face with brands; social media is a wonderful thing but there is nothing like putting a face to a name. By the end of the evening I was brimming with information and can't even begin to separate, extract and relay the serious stuff from the green chatter.

* * *

The evening was dovetailed with another, more public beauty event in which clean eating sisters Jasmine and Melissa Hemsley took to the stage in a Q&A; championing the Soil Association and discussing the way we eat.

Although their name was familiar to me and friends instagram streams are regularly updated with their latest Hemsley+Hemsley culinary recreations, I had very little real knowledge of their ethos or approach to food, so was looking forward to hearing what they had to say.

In the most part, what they did have to say didn't disappoint (being a Pescetarian and not a great lover of soups, I don't get the bone broth obsession but hey, each to their own). The sisters want to encourage us to think about how we cook and how we eat; Understanding food and our diet; listening to our bodies and changing the way we eat; Mindful eating.

H+H were evidently passionate about the use of organic ingredients and products and work closely with the Soil Association. They are also massive advocates of organic beauty (they are by all accounts regular visitors to the Mecca of clean, green beauty; Content).

Throughout the talk we were supplied with a selection of bite sizes portions of their dishes including; Shiitake wraps, broccoli fritters and for the carnivores bone broth shots and beef wraps. These were followed by a delicious cheesecake in a jar (obviously the jar part was purely decorative) and their famed Paradise bar; a healthy take on one of the most iconic chocolate bars of the 1980's - the Bounty.

I thoroughly enjoyed the evening and admit that I hadn't anticipated staying as long as I did. On leaving, we were given a very generous goody bag containing products from each of the exhibiting brands, plus I left with super soft (and very fragrant) hands and arms - always a bonus! :)

Thank you to the Soil Association and Nicola at Black Book Communications for arranging such a fabulous evening! X

* I apologise in advance for the quality of the images, I took my camera with me and totally forgot it was in my bag and used my phone... I hope that was nothing to do with the Prosecco... ;)

Images: Laura Jane Sessions