We have just had a call from a lady who had samples of Queen products a few weeks ago at John Bell & Croyden:
"I just love them and can't believe I'd never heard of them before. I wanted to tell you because I am so pleased with them."
She went on to tell me about how she had tried all sorts of ranges, including one which cost six times as much as Queen (that's about £160 for a moisturiser then!) and that ours were as good, if not better.
It's so true that you don't need to spend a fortune to get decent products. I know some might consider Queen products are expensive but at less than £15 for a Queen Moisturiser, I do disagree. Yes, you can buy a £3 moisturiser from big high-street chains but quite apart from it not being as good, it will have been mass produced, most likely made and packaged abroad and has quite probably been sitting around for a long, long time before it hits the shelves.
Queen products are not mass produced (they are handmade and hand-filled), they are made in tiny batches so are always fresh, they use only the highest quality ingredients and they are made in the UK. So many companies have farmed out their production to Eastern Europe or Asia, buy their jars and labels from Asia and their labels from Eastern Europe. We buy everything from UK-based companies. It costs more but it's supporting British Industry - we know quality is good and a by-product is that surely it's better for the environment.
I am reminded as I write of a packaging company sales rep that came to see us last year. He looked stressed and angry as he'd just found out that a foreign supplier had let him down, thus putting him in a really difficult position with a client. He felt completely powerless as he was not able to see the supplier to talk to them face-to-face and he had been unable to physically check up on the manufacturing process (he'd been told weeks before that production had started but was then told it hadn't). Anyway, I am digressing. The point is we have control over our production and, if anything goes wrong, or a customer has a problem we can look into and solve it ourselves. Our customer service is fantastic.
In addition to the above, our products are tried and tested. There aren't many skincare ranges that have been around for 81 years and which have loyal and longstanding customers, some of whom are in their nineties! As for products that cost £160 a pop, do have a look on the back and see if the ingredients they use are any different from the mid-range products. You will probably be surprised to find they are not. The high prices are all a marketing ploy. If it's expensive, people assume it must be better.
So to my make-up lesson. I am quite excited by what I learnt even if I was told I have dark circles under my eyes (one thing I didn't think I suffered from). The therapist was lovely and it's not her fault that she has been misled to think/say that the products she use are entirely natural (it was a mineral make-up range). As it happens, the products were nice but I did feel really itchy and over made-up by the time I got home. In addition, I looked ridiculous because I had a day look on one side of my face and a night-time look on the other (even down to my lips).
I am sure most people would feel a lot of pressure to buy some of the products as the lesson (despite costing £40) was definitely geared towards demonstrating the benefits of this particular mineral range. I did try to make it clear from the beginning, however, that I was interested in general tips and tricks and that I did like my existing make-up mix (Queen with a few other brands thrown in!). I learnt how to shade my face, how and where to apply eyeshadow to minimise the black circles and to cover imperfections. I will be sharing these tips in my wordpress blog (http://skinsensitive.wordpress.com/)and on our site at www.queen-cosmetics.com in the coming weeks so stay in touch.
The other excitement down at Queen HQ this week is that The Tiny Box Company (I wrote about them in our 11 April blog), our neighbours down here at the farm, were on Dragon's Den on Monday night and secured £60,000 of investment from Peter Jones and Theo Paphitis in exchange for a 40% stake in the business! They hadn't said a word about it (although we did know they were going to be on TV in some form or another) as were under strict instruction not to. I am dying to find out what the next step is and whether Peter and Theo will be making a visit to East Grinstead. I am sure there will be a lot of rubber-neckers if so. We wish them all lots of luck.
Well, we are short-staffed here today due to various viruses striking down children and grand-children so I had better get stuck in with getting the orders out.
Have a good weekend.
x
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