I am just mopping the sweat from my brow following the resolution of this Friday's drama. Mid-morning I found I was unable to access the website of the company which hosts Queen's online store and which provides the shopping cart system. This meant I couldn't update the site, process any online orders and, I subsequently discovered after a couple of irate emails, it also meant no-one else was able to access the site.
After a few moments of picturing the worst - the company (well-respected and with a fabulous service 99.9% of the time) had gone under, taking www.queen-cosmetics.com with it being one of my wilder imaginings - I managed to get my hyperventilation under control and phone them to discover it was a 'technical difficulty and engineers were working on it'. Fortunately, everything has just come back online so I am having a restorative cup of tea and writing this.
This aside, it has been a relatively quiet week which has not been unwelcome given I've just got back from a week's holiday which always disorientates me for a bit. I never knew you got mosquitos in Italy so we were all completely unprepared. I don't seem to be of interest to your average mosquito but everyone else was mauled, including or at least we thought, my two-year old son. Thinking he had been bitten, we were slathering him in citronella and spraying his room with foul-smelling insect repellent only to discover on our return that he's actually got chicken pox.
Fortunately, he doesn't seem to have been bothered by them at all and frequent applications of Queen Skin Cream have prevented or soothed itchiness which means he hopefully won't have any long-term scarring. We did feel a bit silly having assured everyone in the check-in queue that 'oh no, it's nothing nasty, just a few bites' when clearly they all knew it was a rampant case of the pox!
I have spent a bit of time this week perusing the results to date of our online sensitive skin survey, the aim of which is to tell us a bit more about who is visiting our site and what exactly they are looking for. The findings are not particularly radical, rather they confirm what we believe to be the characteristics of our customer base and what we know about our mail-order customers.
Some 61% of those who've taken the survey say they suffer from sensitivity to perfume or other common cosmetic ingredients while 17% have rosacea and 17% very dry skin. In terms of age, 60% are between 45-65, 24% between 30-45 and 16% between 20-30. As for which factors make them choose one brand over another, 76% say the products must be perfume-free or specifically for sensitive skin. Price is also important (48% ticked this box) as is the endorsement of friends and family (28%). Despite the millions that are spent by cosmetics companies on packaging, only 4% claimed this was important to them. That's a relief! Not that Queen doesn't care about packaging but we don't think it's right that a huge percentage of the retail price is due to unnecessarily fancy jars or bottles.
If you have 60 seconds (that's all it takes, I promise) to fill in our survey, please click here.
We haven't been up to John Bell & Croyden, Queen's main London stockist, for a week or so so I am unable to report on whether the great and good have been out shopping in the West End or whether stocks of Queen Theatrical Cleansing Cream, Medicated Cleansing Lotion and Moisturiser have continued to be snapped up. I do hope so!
I reported the week before last that Light Night Cream was becoming increasingly popular and this has continued. It is my favourite (along with Enriched Moisturising Lotion) and I slap it on day and night. My skin can be very dry and tight when I wake up but gets gradually greasier throughout the day. Before using Queen, I used to smother my face in a thick cream first thing in the morning in order to get some relief from the dry tight feeling. This would mean my skin was horribly shiny and my make-up had mostly disappeared by lunchtime. Light Night Cream is amazing - it is light, as the name suggests, and isn't at all greasy. Yet, somehow it manages to leave my skin feeling moisturised while regulating the oiliness. As a customer whose husband has just started using the cream said: 'It's the first time in 20 years that he hasn't left his face on the pillow when he's woken up!' Not the most attractive image, I appreciate, but I think it says it all.
Another convert has just emailed having used up her sample of Light Night Cream, saying: 'Please can I order some Light Night Cream. I just love it.' Actually, this has prompted me to make it our free sample 'Product of the Month'. I am going to do it NOW so get emailing and your free sample night cream will wing its way to you in no time.
Have a good weekend and keep away from spotty children at airline check-ins!
