While we always try very hard to ensure that we only send our marketing material about our Queen range of skincare and make-up for sensitive skin to people who have contacted us directly to request details, it seems that we (and the recipient of our lovely brochure) have been the victims of foul play!
Today, a very distressed woman called to ask if we could remove her from our mailing list, saying that, while she was sure our products were lovely, she didn't have a need for them. She told us that she had been inundated with unwanted mail since splitting with her partner and had subsequently discovered he had been deliberately providing her contact details to hundreds of third parties. She had had to spend days on the telephone and internet cancelling subscriptions and having her name removed from mailing lists. I am not sure a Queen brochure is a particularly effective form of revenge.....
Thursday is always John Bell & Croyden day. This fabulous pharmacy in the West End of London (http://www.johnbellcroyden.co.uk/) has been a stockist of the Queen range for 60 years and I go there to promote sales of the Queen range.
JBC is not only a pharmacy but a specialist health product and services provider and it serves many of the Harley Street specialists, hospitals and clinics. It's a great place with products you won't find elsewhere and, because it is away from the hustle and bustle of Oxford Street and the staff are very discreet, it is regularly patronised by famous people and by politicians, foreign diplomats and their families and business personalities who can browse in relative peace.
Yesterday, I spotted the TV actress Hermione Norris (Spooks, Kingdom etc) and I am sure the US film-maker Michael Moore was in there although none of the staff were able to give a positive ID! If it wasn't him, it was a dead ringer. Hermione Norris looked great in the flesh - tiny and very fit and tanned.
In addition to star spotting, I talk to customers about the Queen range, explaining our philosophy and history of caring for sensitive skin and giving out free samples which encourages many of them to become customers. Invariably, I also end up helping the staff in a variety of tasks from loading shelves, directing customers and giving advice to customers who come in waving sheets of results of cosmetics patch tests. Some of their questions are quite technical and the staff are often relieved to be able to enlist my help. Yesterday, a delightful couple from the USA spent two hours in the store and I was able to steer her in the direction of suitable products, including of course, some of my own Queen range. She went away looking very happy and I hope she will become a long-term Queen customer.
Have a great weekend.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
That skincare mantra again
Happy new year from Queen!
It’s good to be back after the excesses of the festive season even if we have had to wade through the flooded Sussex countryside to get to our farm HQ lately.
Fortunately, the wet weather doesn’t stop the stirrers from whirring and new batches of Theatrical Cleansing Cream, Enriched Moisturising Lotion and Sensiderma Day and Night creams are being created as I write, the perfect antidotes to the ravages of winter weather.
It seems that January represents a new start for skin as well as mind and body if our mail bag is anything to go by. Medicated Cleansing Lotion, Skin Freshener and our Sensiderma creams are flying off the shelves – the mantra of cleanse, tone and moisturise being followed to the letter it seems. One new customer reported this morning that after just a week of using our Sensiderma Day Cream, her previously sore and dry skin is feeling much better. So much so, in fact, that she has had to order another tube because her daughter has been pinching it!
We have had quite a few enquiries recently about treating acne rosacea. This is such a difficult area. The condition – and other types of rosacea – cause misery for sufferers but there is very little that cosmetic products can offer by way of a cure. Many companies or ranges may claim to cure the condition but they are in fact misleading people into spending a lot of money on products that are unlikely to work and which may end up making the problem worse, particularly where they contain perfume, many essential oils and plant and flower extracts.
Queen products, and our customers do back this up, can certainly help control acne rosacea and related conditions and improve the feel and quality of skin. The simple formulations mean it is possible to cleanse and moisturise skin without exacerbating the condition and make-up products such as our very gentle Mascara will not irritate sore eyes (another common symptom of the condition). The products do not offer a cure, however, and we would never claim this. See our site www.queen-cosmetics.com to see our range and full product ingredient lists.
My own research shows that there are therapies available, from anti-biotic type treatments to more hi-tech solutions. A very helpful independent, impartial site discussing the various treatments available and providing first-hand comments from those that have tried them is http://www.rosacea.co.uk/. Obviously, any treatment should not be undertaken lightly and it is imperative for each individual to do their own, thorough research.
That's it from us today. We hope you will join us and our customers in taking the vow to cleanse, tone and moisturise twice a day, every day this year. Dull, it may be, but the results speak for themselves!
The Queen Team
It’s good to be back after the excesses of the festive season even if we have had to wade through the flooded Sussex countryside to get to our farm HQ lately.
Fortunately, the wet weather doesn’t stop the stirrers from whirring and new batches of Theatrical Cleansing Cream, Enriched Moisturising Lotion and Sensiderma Day and Night creams are being created as I write, the perfect antidotes to the ravages of winter weather.
It seems that January represents a new start for skin as well as mind and body if our mail bag is anything to go by. Medicated Cleansing Lotion, Skin Freshener and our Sensiderma creams are flying off the shelves – the mantra of cleanse, tone and moisturise being followed to the letter it seems. One new customer reported this morning that after just a week of using our Sensiderma Day Cream, her previously sore and dry skin is feeling much better. So much so, in fact, that she has had to order another tube because her daughter has been pinching it!
We have had quite a few enquiries recently about treating acne rosacea. This is such a difficult area. The condition – and other types of rosacea – cause misery for sufferers but there is very little that cosmetic products can offer by way of a cure. Many companies or ranges may claim to cure the condition but they are in fact misleading people into spending a lot of money on products that are unlikely to work and which may end up making the problem worse, particularly where they contain perfume, many essential oils and plant and flower extracts.
Queen products, and our customers do back this up, can certainly help control acne rosacea and related conditions and improve the feel and quality of skin. The simple formulations mean it is possible to cleanse and moisturise skin without exacerbating the condition and make-up products such as our very gentle Mascara will not irritate sore eyes (another common symptom of the condition). The products do not offer a cure, however, and we would never claim this. See our site www.queen-cosmetics.com to see our range and full product ingredient lists.
My own research shows that there are therapies available, from anti-biotic type treatments to more hi-tech solutions. A very helpful independent, impartial site discussing the various treatments available and providing first-hand comments from those that have tried them is http://www.rosacea.co.uk/. Obviously, any treatment should not be undertaken lightly and it is imperative for each individual to do their own, thorough research.
That's it from us today. We hope you will join us and our customers in taking the vow to cleanse, tone and moisturise twice a day, every day this year. Dull, it may be, but the results speak for themselves!
The Queen Team
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Online at last!
Hooray! www.queen-cosmetics.com up and running
Well, Queen has finally launched itself and its range of skincare and make-up exclusively for sensitive skin into the 21st Century by opening our online shop at www.queen-cosmetics.com! A little tardy, perhaps, but not bad for an eighty year old. The quill pens and gas lamps will surely have to go now.
We are thrilled with the response to the site so far and the kind comments of new customers. Erica from Berkshire says:
"I can honestly say it is the easiest site to negotiate that I have used in all my 2007 Christmas shopping days!"
We hope other experiences are as favourable! If anyone has any comments to the contrary (did I just ask for criticism?), do let us know. You can email us at info@queen-cosmetics.com.
The process has been a little fraught not least because we accidently deleted a host of products a few hours after launching the site when we were still titivating things a little (take note, titivating can be dangerous). And then the electricity went which meant we had no heat or light, or, more importantly, broadband access so our best-sellers Moisturiser, Light Night Cream and Skin Cream were consigned to the ether. They are back now thankfully.
Launch aside, down here on our converted pig farm (the pigs are long gone you may be pleased to hear) in deepest West Sussex, we are concocting a new batch of our best-selling cleanser, Medicated Cleansing Lotion, so it will be all ready for the new year when everyone will be keen to undo all the damage they have done to their skin during the Christmas festivities. This is one of the most wonderful cleansers and we hope that new customers won't be put off by the name (a throwback to the 20s when 'medicated' was used to imply purity and simplicity). We have changed the names of a few of our products over the years and it tends to cause a furore among our longstanding and most loyal clients so we are sticking with this one!
Well, we must get back to sending out all the Christmas orders. We are keeping everything crossed that they arrive in time and are doing our best to get orders out the same day we receive them.
We will be back soon so hope you will join us.
x
Well, Queen has finally launched itself and its range of skincare and make-up exclusively for sensitive skin into the 21st Century by opening our online shop at www.queen-cosmetics.com! A little tardy, perhaps, but not bad for an eighty year old. The quill pens and gas lamps will surely have to go now.
We are thrilled with the response to the site so far and the kind comments of new customers. Erica from Berkshire says:
"I can honestly say it is the easiest site to negotiate that I have used in all my 2007 Christmas shopping days!"
We hope other experiences are as favourable! If anyone has any comments to the contrary (did I just ask for criticism?), do let us know. You can email us at info@queen-cosmetics.com.
The process has been a little fraught not least because we accidently deleted a host of products a few hours after launching the site when we were still titivating things a little (take note, titivating can be dangerous). And then the electricity went which meant we had no heat or light, or, more importantly, broadband access so our best-sellers Moisturiser, Light Night Cream and Skin Cream were consigned to the ether. They are back now thankfully.
Launch aside, down here on our converted pig farm (the pigs are long gone you may be pleased to hear) in deepest West Sussex, we are concocting a new batch of our best-selling cleanser, Medicated Cleansing Lotion, so it will be all ready for the new year when everyone will be keen to undo all the damage they have done to their skin during the Christmas festivities. This is one of the most wonderful cleansers and we hope that new customers won't be put off by the name (a throwback to the 20s when 'medicated' was used to imply purity and simplicity). We have changed the names of a few of our products over the years and it tends to cause a furore among our longstanding and most loyal clients so we are sticking with this one!
Well, we must get back to sending out all the Christmas orders. We are keeping everything crossed that they arrive in time and are doing our best to get orders out the same day we receive them.
We will be back soon so hope you will join us.
x
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