Best face forward

It’s been a busy few weeks here in my little bustling office … I’m so delighted to welcome new clients on board: incognito, Pure Nuff Stuff, Eco Hotels of the World and Devidoll, as well as having some great response from new press campaigns for buyOrganics and Natural Spa Supplies, who both this week offered journalists super challenges – to turn themselves and their men organic, and to swap a week of regular showering for a good old strip wash, in a bid to save hundreds of litres of water. Both slightly off-beat concepts but we had a fabulous response, and it’s so heartening to see the press taking up the challenge and supporting ways we can all try to make our lives that little bit more sustainable and less toxic for our fabulous planet.

In the same vein, I am also really pleased to be on board as a keen supporter for the Green Party, particularly in supporting Rupert Read, who is running for MEP for the East of England. I am even contemplating a foray into the world of green politics myself, so more on that when it’s all finalised!

But in amongst all the success, thrills and excitement, I’ve had a stonking cold, and having had to cancel meetings and glue myself to my desk for the past few days, I’d started to feel very skanky and slummy indeed. Managing to bung on some old trackies and pop on a pair of shades and hide behind the steering wheel for the school run, my haggard, red-nosed, bloodshot-eyed appearance is a far cry from the usual well-heeled, pouting PR goddess that I prefer to be known as…. particularly embarrassing in view of the fact that a good proportion of my clients and journalist contacts are key movers and shakers in the beauty and fashion world!! So this morning I finally decided as my tired, pale face looked out at me from the mirror, enough is enough!!!

But what to do? How do you go about perking yourself up when you feel like, well, to put it mildy, a bag of (insert your own derogatory expletive here!), without resorting to an entire pot of coffee, cans of Red Bull and the occasional dose of Rescue Remedy?

Of course, the answer is makeup. Yes, a rendezvous with your cosmetic bag really is the answer! When you look good, you feel good, and putting on a new, fresh face using cosmetic products can have a huge influence on the way you feel inside. But of course, there’s a flip side to this. What you put onto your skin can also affect your body in a different way – and now of course I’m talking about toxins in beauty products.

Regular, non-organic cosmetics, as with skincare products, usually contain a host of synthetic ingredients, mainly preservatives, which quite frankly aren’t all that wholesome when you consider how much of it gets slapped onto skin and sucked into all manner of pores and orifices. For example, the average woman will actually consume several kilos (yes, kilos!) of lipstick and lipgloss during her lifetime - yummy! - and considering the fact that most lip products contain parabens and phlalates as important preservatives, makes you wonder what the accumulative effect of all these chemical nasties could actually be?

Toxic overload has been implicated in several unwelcome health conditions – not only hormone-related cancers, but quite interestingly in ME sufferers, who sadly often find their only respite from their debilitating conditions is a complete swap to organic and natural foods, clothing, personal care products and household cleaning products. Already down in the dumps thanks to their illness, putting on makeup can be a welcome solution to cheer sufferers up, but with symptoms exacerbated by the hormones and manmade ingredients in skincare products and cosmetics, such a treat often falls by the wayside. Choosing organic, natural cosmetics can really be the answer; not only safer and gentler, but usually not tested on animals and often mainly vegan, ie. containing no animal products whatsoever (did you know that mascara and lipsticks for example, often contain ingredients derived from the byproducts of slaughtered animals), and with just as stunning results.

My favourite organic makeup brands – available from buyOrganics of course! (got to get a plug in – I’m shameless!)– are Nvey Eco and Inika. Inika in particular does a spectacular range of eyeshadows and gorgeous lip glosses, and having been a Clinique girl for many years until I finally saw the light, can honestly say the quality of the two are easily comparable. I love the Nvey foundation range, easily on a par with most mid-range department store brands and priced similarly. Perfect also for teenage girls and pregnant women, as well as chemotherapy and ME sufferers, due to the lack of toxins which may have more effect on these groups of people, organic makeup can not only make you look good on the outside but keep your entire body and immune system healthy as well.

Safe skincare and top quality cosmetics are available from buyOrganics, and Pure Nuff Stuff offers the most reasonably priced, safest and deliciously smelling and feeling range of organic skincare I’ve seen in a very long while.

So now although I’m still sneezing and coughing and wearing those old trackies, I feel so much better inside, with my lips gorgeously glossed and my skin flawless and glowing.... ready to face the world safely and beautifully!

The power of the blog

My latest bit of PR writing for one of my clients, http://www.buyorganics.co.uk/ has just come out... I thought I'd reproduce it here not only as an interesting blog on the subject of men's organic skincare and grooming, but also to highlight how PR isn't just about banging out press releases and doing the rounds of the magazines and newspapers.

Good meat and potatoes lead-generating publicity comes from writing, writing, writing - and getting those carefully crafted words out on the internet and into peoples' in-boxes and onto google searches! Blogging is not only interesting and fun but should play a very important part in your online PR schedule. Sonia at buyorganics is the Queen of Blogging - not only does she blog herself at least once if not twice a week, but I also contribute to her blog when I can. She'll be the first to tell you how her website traffic and sales is affected and driven by what we blog about and when.


This blog came as a result of Sonia's strategy for publicising her great ranges of men’s organic grooming products available on the website. As well as some more traditional PR in the form of press releases and targeted men's, grooming and fashion press, we also wanted to write a blog - and one with a difference! Here's the result! I'll update you on the sales in a week or two to show you the power of the blog....


When it comes to men's organic skincare and grooming, Sonia and I quickly realized that this was going to be one area where we couldn’t actually try and test the products ourselves! And we certainly didn’t want to simply quote the blurb off the back of the bottles and jars, as we always test and trial things ourselves to make sure they do exactly what they say on the tin! So… what to do!
Of course, this is where I had the absolutely brilliant brainwave of dragging my poor unwitting husband into the equation. Not only skeptical about organic skincare products themselves, his usual grooming routine consists of a quick shower in the morning using all manner of cheap and nasty shower gels (bottles collected from hotel business trips or bought three for a pound in the super savers discount basket), an electric shave using talcum powder of all things! and a spray of supermarket deodorant (if I’m lucky).
Love him to bits as I do, all my pleas about using organic skincare and natural grooming products are met with raised eyebrows and shakes of his head, so over time I’ve just got used to having to wait at least half an hour before going upstairs after he’s used the cheap deodorant filled with pungent, eye-watering chemicals, in order to avoid being suffocated with noxious fumes! And vacuuming up the mess from the talcum powder can get annoying – “it helps smooth the skin before I shave”, he reasons, despite me telling him about the gender-bending chemicals and pore-clogging filling and caking agents which make up the talc!
So, I threw down the gauntlet – swap all his regular high street cheap grooming products for a week with the same items but from the buyOrganics range of organic, natural products, to see if he preferred them or not!Well of course, he was very happy to help me with my work, and being a typical alpha male, always likes a challenge, mainly the opportunity to prove me wrong! So he accepted the challenge with gusto and two weeks on, the Lynx has been relegated to the back of the bathroom cabinet and the words “Esselle” and “Green People” are tripping off his tongue like a pro!
So what did he use? Well he's really not a lover of too many products and in order to not complicate things I picked the bare essentials for him to start with – he usually likes to use a face wash and shower gel in the mornings and evenings, so I picked the Green People’s Organic Homme pre shave face wash, which claims to prevent breakouts, lifts the beard (whatever that means!) and cleanses without drying, as well as preventing spots. Well hubby’s a little old for acne but he certainly loves the facewash as it is gentle, as well as not having a scent, which he normally dislikes in a facewash. He was also really amazed that a little goes a long way with this product – of course I had to explain that most organic grooming products are naturally more concentrated, unlike high street cheaper brands which create a lot of froth and foam and need palm sized amounts to get the same clean, fresh feeling as a small blob of organic product. This pleased him, as despite loving the products, he was rather gobsmacked at the price compared with his usual pound shop varieties… however with them lasting several weeks rather than one or two, not only are the organic products still great value for money but dramatically cut down on packaging and therefore, waste.
He tried out the Ecosoapia hand and shower gels in the shower – this caused quite a bit of drama initially as the first one he used was the Peppermint flavoured one – still not used to the potency and efficacy of organic products, he used far too much and ended up yelling in shock as the zinginess of too much peppermint came into contact with his precious crown jewels… top tip for men, don’t use the peppermint one as a body wash! He also tried the lavender but again found the strength of the fragrance quite overpowering, and settled for the unfragranced version. We are using the peppermint and lavender to great effect as handwashes, antibacterial and smelling divine, they’re lovely for any cloakroom, kitchen sink or hand basin.
His absolute favourite product and “I will use this until the day I die” item was the Eselle Organic Aftershave ‘Razzamatazz’ – a discreetly fragranced rich oil, suitable as a pre- and post-shave oil to soften the beard before a visit from the razor, and afterwards to smooth and seal the skin. The small 30ml bottle is a great size for travelling too (and small enough for aircraft hand luggage!), and in two weeks just over a quarter of this tiny bottle has been used, making it extremely good value as well.
And the best find for me, was the Green People Organic Homme ‘stay fresh’ deodorant – quickly learning the organic less is more mantra, just a couple of sprays under each arm not only keeps my man smelling fresh and the house free from clouds of toxic fumes, but the important omission of aluminium in natural and organic deodorants, including this one, mean that his risk of contracting breast cancer is greatly reduced – men can also suffer from this disease, and aluminium has been identified as a very likely link between breast cancer, particularly of the nodes in the armpit and the side of the chest.So ladies, if you want to convert your man and turn him organic, give it a try – if I can do it, anyone can! Not only will you be happier, but you will have a healthy, fragrant and eco-friendly fella to be proud of!