The chocolate-fest that is Easter prompted us to muse upon the link between food and skin. Does eating chocolate lead to acne and does drinking gallons of water improve your skin?
Do a Google search and you will probably end up even more confused due to all the conflicting advice. Dermatologists and other skin experts seem convinced there is no link and that it is hormones, stress, genetics etc that are the main determining factors. Beauticians, nutritionists and other therapists will tell you eat healthily and drink lots of water and your skin will glow.
All of us know people who eat absolute rubbish and drink gallons of unhealthy, sugary drinks yet have lovely skin. Likewise, there are those of us who do all we can to avoid the 'bad' things but still have spots and blemishes. The truth is a healthy diet and keeping hydrated is certainly a good thing - it cannot but improve the way you feel and will give your skin, hair and nails the best chance. However, if you are prone to problem skin, food and water alone are not going to solve the issue. Happily, most skin problems do resolve themselves or, where they persist, skin specialists can advise on a suitable course of action.
What most skin experts - dermatologists or other therapists - will say is: be scrupulous in your skincare routine and your personal hygiene. Just as you should eat well to give your skin the best chance, so you should ensure your skin is kept clean and moisturised.
The good news is that you probably don't need to give yourself a hard time after all that weekend chocolate eating - in terms of your skin that is! The thing is not to make a habit of it. Everything, as they say, in moderation....
There was drama this week in East Grinstead, the West Sussex town where Queen Cosmetics is based. As I went to get on the train to London yesterday, I found the station booking office closed off by blue and white striped police tape and a crowd of fed-up commuters standing outside. Around 20 police officers were there so I thought it must be something serious. According to rumours in the crowd, a big, black man in a tracksuit had been arrested for menacing passengers with a gun and the police were searching the train and surrounding area for the weapon. Later, when we were finally allowed to get on the train, I heard a fellow passenger on her mobile telling someone about the incident. She had been sitting opposite the arrested man and the truth was a far cry from other reports I'd heard. According to her, he was a normal-sized, young, white man with no obvious weapon but who had been muttering about having ADHD. I look forward to reading the whole - and real - story when the local paper is published next week!
Continuing our infiltration of the theatre world, this week at my regular stint at John Bell & Croyden in London's Wigmore Street I met a very charming lady called Hils Jago. She is a comedy producer and owner of the Amused Moose comedy clubs in London. We had a very enjoyable chat about her business and, having listened very kindly to my spiel about Queen and our products (particularly our Theatrical Cleansing Cream which is fabulous for removing stage make-up), she said she would keep an eye out for someone famous who could promote our products! We keep our fingers crossed.
I also spent some time chatting to two beauty therapists, one of whom works in London and one in Nigeria. Both said they often had clients with very sensitive skin. They were very interested in trying the Queen range as they said they did struggle to find beauty and skin care products which were suitable for these women. As well as accepting our free samples, they also bought a few items which was very gratifying! All in all, it was a pretty busy day and sales of Queen products are continuing to grow following our sales efforts and sampling at the store.
Well, with Spring hopefully on the horizon (don't forget the clocks go forward this weekend), it's time to build up stocks of our fabulous Enriched Moisturising Lotion and of our trusty favourite Skin Cream. Both of these lovely, rich products will transform dry, sensitive skin to supple, healthy skin in time for the big summer reveal. Check our website http://www.queen-cosmetics.com/ for special discounts.
We hope you have a good weekend and come back soon.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Friday, March 14, 2008
Queen at the Old Vic?
Our website http://www.queen-cosmetics.com/ has been a key focus this week. We really want to develop it into a place where people with sensitive skin can find everything they want and need to know about their 'condition'. We have included on the site a link to our new Sensitive Skin Tips factsheet (it can be viewed direct at http://sensitiveskintips.blogspot.com/) and we have added some information about the most common skin issues i.e. rosacea, acne and dermatitis. We are emailing the factsheet to all our existing clients and to those who have requested a free sample of our Sensiderma Day Cream for dry sensitive skin via the website.
Often, customers are using so many products/ranges at once that they cannot begin to isolate what is causing their skin irritation. Or, they continue to use perfume on their skin or perfumed shampoo even if they have changed their facial products. Hopefully, our tips will go some way to helping people care for their sensitive skin and help them choose the right beauty products (even if those products are not from Queen!).
From some of the emails we get, we know there is a lot of frustration about what is right for sensitive skin with so many ranges claiming they are hypoallergenic or 'suitable for sensitive skin' while being packed full of all sorts of extracts and essential oils or hi-tech anti-ageing ingredients. One woman writes:
"Right now I am trying very hard to find a face lotion that respects the skin -without perfume, chemicals, or dyes. Since moving here I have struggled for years to find a face lotion, night cream - lotion etc. that is natural without any of the ingredients that aren't good for your skin, but just preserves the product. I am truly tired of products that have all the hype without the means to provide what they say.
"Are you different? I hope so. I have sensitive skin, and I am fed up with being lied to about products. So tell me the truth about your products! I want my skin moisturised, not clogged up, p.h. balanced not greasier. I want my skin to look good and healthy,and for it to actually be that way."
It's a difficult one. We aren't natural (although we are carrying out research into if and how we can safely formulate as natural a range as possible for those that are scared by the silly stories that appear from time to time about 'dangerous chemicals' in cosmetics) but we only use tried, tested and completely safe ingredients, many of which are far superior to their natural counterparts (where these exist).
In addition, we only use as many ingredients as are necessary to make each product effective. We don't fill our skin care and make-up full of unnecessary stuff just for the sake of it or because certain ingredients are fashionable. An organic product is rarely going to be suitable for very sensitive skin. Why? Because organic products can't use synthetic preservatives and the only alternative given cosmetics have to be preserved is to use essential oils or perfume blends, often in conjunction with other extracts, which themselves have a preservative effect. These ingredients add to the total number of ingredients contained in the product.
In fact, this is what irks us about products which claim to be 80% organic or suchlike. Cosmetics ingredients are listed on the product in descending order of the percentage they are present at. By increasing the total number of organic ingredients in a product you can up the percentage that you can claim to be organic. Yet, most of those ingredients will be useless and only in there to up the tally or make the product sound pretty.
Anyway, I have certainly told this lady the truth about Queen products. Whether she feels she likes our truth is a different matter. I hope so and wait to hear back from her.
We had quite a busy day at John Bell & Croyden this Thursday despite the bad weather. JBC is a great place to shelter from the rain though, it has to be said. It stocks such a huge range of interesting things not found elsewhere that many people lose track of time, the result being they emerge with all sorts of things they hadn't gone in for.
A lovely lady who showed great interest in the range, particularly our Theatrical Cleansing Cream, told me she was the owner of the Old Vic Theatre. Having asked if she rubbed shoulders with Kevin Spacey, she said 'Of course, he's our artistic director'. 'You'd better have some more samples,' I replied, dashing off to the store room to scoop up all the samples I could find. I subsequently learn that her name is Sally Greene and she is a well-known threatre impresario as well as the Old Vic's Chief Executive. I also discover that she owns the famous jazz club Ronnie Scott's which has recently re-opened after a makeover. I do hope she likes our products. You never know, the cast of her current productions, which include Mamet's Speed-the-Plow starring Jeff Goldblum and Kevin Spacey, could be Queen fans by the end of the week!
My only other spot was at Victoria Station where I spied Jeff Randall, business and financial journalist, sitting at a table poring over the racing form surrounded by betting slips, it being the Cheltenham festival this week . Being a racing fan myself, I was tempted to ask him if he had any good tips but thought better of it. He looked far too absorbed.
The weekend beckons and it's time to turn the stirrers off and let the latest batches of our Moisturiser and Medicated Cleansing Lotion rest.
Have a good one.
The Queen team
Often, customers are using so many products/ranges at once that they cannot begin to isolate what is causing their skin irritation. Or, they continue to use perfume on their skin or perfumed shampoo even if they have changed their facial products. Hopefully, our tips will go some way to helping people care for their sensitive skin and help them choose the right beauty products (even if those products are not from Queen!).
From some of the emails we get, we know there is a lot of frustration about what is right for sensitive skin with so many ranges claiming they are hypoallergenic or 'suitable for sensitive skin' while being packed full of all sorts of extracts and essential oils or hi-tech anti-ageing ingredients. One woman writes:
"Right now I am trying very hard to find a face lotion that respects the skin -without perfume, chemicals, or dyes. Since moving here I have struggled for years to find a face lotion, night cream - lotion etc. that is natural without any of the ingredients that aren't good for your skin, but just preserves the product. I am truly tired of products that have all the hype without the means to provide what they say.
"Are you different? I hope so. I have sensitive skin, and I am fed up with being lied to about products. So tell me the truth about your products! I want my skin moisturised, not clogged up, p.h. balanced not greasier. I want my skin to look good and healthy,and for it to actually be that way."
It's a difficult one. We aren't natural (although we are carrying out research into if and how we can safely formulate as natural a range as possible for those that are scared by the silly stories that appear from time to time about 'dangerous chemicals' in cosmetics) but we only use tried, tested and completely safe ingredients, many of which are far superior to their natural counterparts (where these exist).
In addition, we only use as many ingredients as are necessary to make each product effective. We don't fill our skin care and make-up full of unnecessary stuff just for the sake of it or because certain ingredients are fashionable. An organic product is rarely going to be suitable for very sensitive skin. Why? Because organic products can't use synthetic preservatives and the only alternative given cosmetics have to be preserved is to use essential oils or perfume blends, often in conjunction with other extracts, which themselves have a preservative effect. These ingredients add to the total number of ingredients contained in the product.
In fact, this is what irks us about products which claim to be 80% organic or suchlike. Cosmetics ingredients are listed on the product in descending order of the percentage they are present at. By increasing the total number of organic ingredients in a product you can up the percentage that you can claim to be organic. Yet, most of those ingredients will be useless and only in there to up the tally or make the product sound pretty.
Anyway, I have certainly told this lady the truth about Queen products. Whether she feels she likes our truth is a different matter. I hope so and wait to hear back from her.
We had quite a busy day at John Bell & Croyden this Thursday despite the bad weather. JBC is a great place to shelter from the rain though, it has to be said. It stocks such a huge range of interesting things not found elsewhere that many people lose track of time, the result being they emerge with all sorts of things they hadn't gone in for.
A lovely lady who showed great interest in the range, particularly our Theatrical Cleansing Cream, told me she was the owner of the Old Vic Theatre. Having asked if she rubbed shoulders with Kevin Spacey, she said 'Of course, he's our artistic director'. 'You'd better have some more samples,' I replied, dashing off to the store room to scoop up all the samples I could find. I subsequently learn that her name is Sally Greene and she is a well-known threatre impresario as well as the Old Vic's Chief Executive. I also discover that she owns the famous jazz club Ronnie Scott's which has recently re-opened after a makeover. I do hope she likes our products. You never know, the cast of her current productions, which include Mamet's Speed-the-Plow starring Jeff Goldblum and Kevin Spacey, could be Queen fans by the end of the week!
My only other spot was at Victoria Station where I spied Jeff Randall, business and financial journalist, sitting at a table poring over the racing form surrounded by betting slips, it being the Cheltenham festival this week . Being a racing fan myself, I was tempted to ask him if he had any good tips but thought better of it. He looked far too absorbed.
The weekend beckons and it's time to turn the stirrers off and let the latest batches of our Moisturiser and Medicated Cleansing Lotion rest.
Have a good one.
The Queen team
Friday, March 7, 2008
The Customer is Queen
We are quite excited (steady now) here at Queen as we may soon be dipping our toe into the anti-wrinkle market. We have to date been very wary of adding such a product to our range because so many of the anti-wrinkle or anti-ageing ingredients cause irritation to sensitive skin. In order to remain truly hypo-allergenic, our philosophy is to use only the fewest ingredients possible per product while most anti-ageing or anti-wrinkle creams contain a cocktail of so-called active ingredients.
Still, we recognise that many of our customers do want a product which can smooth the appearance of fine lines and which will give their skin 'a lift' so we have for some time been researching a means of creating such a cream which can do this while adhering to the Queen philosophy. We are currently trialling a new cream which includes a peptide which has a botox-like effect. The peptide itself has been shown to cause no adverse effects on sensitive skin but we are, of course, carrying out our own testing. We look forward to posting our results here soon. We will then need a name. It's difficult to come up with something new as there are endless combinations of the likes of boost, age, defy, smooth, time, delay, lift, tighten, perfect out there already. If anyone can think of anything snappy (someone has suggested Shrinkle Cream but we feel that's a bit too frivolous or Quinkle Cream which is just silly) do let us know.
We've had rather a traumatic week with two customer orders and accompanying cheques getting lost or delayed in the post which resulted in irate 'phone calls. One lady called back the next day to apologise, saying she felt awful for the way she had spoken to us and that she had heard some bad news about a friend and had taken it out on us. How many companies can say that their customers apologise to them? That is entirely representative of how lovely our customers are and of the good relationship we have with them. We do maintain that, however unreasonable their issue or complaint may seem to us, the customer is always right and we will do everything in our power to solve any problems, accepting that the issue is our fault (even when it's the postal services's which it usually is).
When it's your own business, you do take things very personally though and, on the rare occasions we do get complaints about the products or our service, I do slope home feeling rather disconsolate. Why is it that a negative comment always has more of a dampening effect than a positive one does a lifting effect? One negative comment can undo 10 positive ones. Obviously, we are far too fragile here at Queen. Or too sensitive, should I say.
So, who was out and about in the West End this week? Well, when I arrived at John Bell & Croyden, I heard a stage-whispered 'Penelope Keith's over there'. Thinking she might like a sample of Queen Moisturiser I approached stealthily only to find Susan Hampshire browsing the surgical goods section. She was rather diminutive and wearing a man's tweed cap and jacket and glasses.
A lady called Patricia Bailey also came in. She is an author who has recently appeared in the press because she had an unpleasant experience with an expensive non-surgical cosmetic procedure called Isolagen which purported to be a 'do it yourself' facelift. Needless to say, she is now a devoted Queen customer. She gave me her latest book called 'A Dream Premonition in a Life Less Ordinary'. In return, I promised she can be the first to try our anti-ageing cream when it's ready.
Work aside, I am recovering from a bit of a scare when a driver-less car rolled into mine whilst parked in a local car park earlier this week. I had been grovelling around on the back seat trying to find my mobile phone when i was thrown forward. Given it was dark and I hadn't heard anything, I was completely stumped as to what had happened. When I emerged, a bit trembly, I found an estate car had smacked into mine. The driver, who had been doing Tai Chi in a building nearby, appeared (after a fellow motorist shouted through a few windows) saying 'well, it's been fine for an hour' as if I had somehow dislodged his vehicle on purpose. I think he needs a lesson from Queen in accepting responsibility.
Writing this reminds me when, many many years ago, I was awoken in the middle of the night by two police men who thought they had found a bomb under my car which was parked outside in the street. They had taken the registration, made enquiries and found it was registered to Queen Cosmetics which had led them to the conclusion that I was being targeted by anti-animal testing campaigners. I reassured them that Queen is one of the only 'old' (nowadays, of course, it is the norm) cosmetics companies which has never tested on animals, that being one of our differentiators until most firms thankfully ceased this horrible practice. The suitcase was dragged out and found to be...... just an old, empty suitcase.
On that random note, it's time to sign off.
Have a good weekend.
Still, we recognise that many of our customers do want a product which can smooth the appearance of fine lines and which will give their skin 'a lift' so we have for some time been researching a means of creating such a cream which can do this while adhering to the Queen philosophy. We are currently trialling a new cream which includes a peptide which has a botox-like effect. The peptide itself has been shown to cause no adverse effects on sensitive skin but we are, of course, carrying out our own testing. We look forward to posting our results here soon. We will then need a name. It's difficult to come up with something new as there are endless combinations of the likes of boost, age, defy, smooth, time, delay, lift, tighten, perfect out there already. If anyone can think of anything snappy (someone has suggested Shrinkle Cream but we feel that's a bit too frivolous or Quinkle Cream which is just silly) do let us know.
We've had rather a traumatic week with two customer orders and accompanying cheques getting lost or delayed in the post which resulted in irate 'phone calls. One lady called back the next day to apologise, saying she felt awful for the way she had spoken to us and that she had heard some bad news about a friend and had taken it out on us. How many companies can say that their customers apologise to them? That is entirely representative of how lovely our customers are and of the good relationship we have with them. We do maintain that, however unreasonable their issue or complaint may seem to us, the customer is always right and we will do everything in our power to solve any problems, accepting that the issue is our fault (even when it's the postal services's which it usually is).
When it's your own business, you do take things very personally though and, on the rare occasions we do get complaints about the products or our service, I do slope home feeling rather disconsolate. Why is it that a negative comment always has more of a dampening effect than a positive one does a lifting effect? One negative comment can undo 10 positive ones. Obviously, we are far too fragile here at Queen. Or too sensitive, should I say.
So, who was out and about in the West End this week? Well, when I arrived at John Bell & Croyden, I heard a stage-whispered 'Penelope Keith's over there'. Thinking she might like a sample of Queen Moisturiser I approached stealthily only to find Susan Hampshire browsing the surgical goods section. She was rather diminutive and wearing a man's tweed cap and jacket and glasses.
A lady called Patricia Bailey also came in. She is an author who has recently appeared in the press because she had an unpleasant experience with an expensive non-surgical cosmetic procedure called Isolagen which purported to be a 'do it yourself' facelift. Needless to say, she is now a devoted Queen customer. She gave me her latest book called 'A Dream Premonition in a Life Less Ordinary'. In return, I promised she can be the first to try our anti-ageing cream when it's ready.
Work aside, I am recovering from a bit of a scare when a driver-less car rolled into mine whilst parked in a local car park earlier this week. I had been grovelling around on the back seat trying to find my mobile phone when i was thrown forward. Given it was dark and I hadn't heard anything, I was completely stumped as to what had happened. When I emerged, a bit trembly, I found an estate car had smacked into mine. The driver, who had been doing Tai Chi in a building nearby, appeared (after a fellow motorist shouted through a few windows) saying 'well, it's been fine for an hour' as if I had somehow dislodged his vehicle on purpose. I think he needs a lesson from Queen in accepting responsibility.
Writing this reminds me when, many many years ago, I was awoken in the middle of the night by two police men who thought they had found a bomb under my car which was parked outside in the street. They had taken the registration, made enquiries and found it was registered to Queen Cosmetics which had led them to the conclusion that I was being targeted by anti-animal testing campaigners. I reassured them that Queen is one of the only 'old' (nowadays, of course, it is the norm) cosmetics companies which has never tested on animals, that being one of our differentiators until most firms thankfully ceased this horrible practice. The suitcase was dragged out and found to be...... just an old, empty suitcase.
On that random note, it's time to sign off.
Have a good weekend.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
