Fab Find of the Week: Forest Essentials boutique, Covent Garden
Have you ever been to India? Because it just got a lot closer (and without the current visa hassles), thanks to the opening of a beautiful and incredibly fragrant flagship store for Forest Essentials, in Covent Garden.
Forest Essentials, FYI, is a well-known and much-loved brand, in India. A wee while back, none other than Estée Lauder took an interest in the brand, and so we can confidently predict that Forest Essentials is going to feature heavily on the beauty radar, in coming months and years.
As they put it, ‘Drawing inspiration from ageless beauty secrets and the ancient wisdom of healing, prevention and longevity that have been known to Indian physicians for over 6,000 years, we aim to revive the original era of Ayurvedic skincare.’
So, Forest Essentials takes ingredients from authentic Ayurvedic practice, and adheres to the principles of doshas, which divide us into three types: vata, kapha and pitta. Interestingly, you’ll often find yourself drawn to the products in this range which suit your dosha. There are experts on hand to help with this ‘diagnosis’, in the store – or you can simply follow your nose.
And oh, what a sense-drenching journey that takes you on. For that is the real essence of Forest Essentials: the amazing, transporting smells. The products really do plan an olfactory trick which makes you feel almost eerily like you’re in India, from the rose to the turmeric to the jasmine… Absolute heaven, and a little tug on the heartstrings for anyone who’s fallen in love with incredible India. (And if you’re lucky, they’ll offer you a delicious cup of jaggary tea, while you dip, dab and sniff.)
Forest Essentials is an absolutely HUGE range, spanning face-care, bodycare, haircare, fragrance (and including a capsule collection for men). There are also truly beautiful gifts – the boxes are absolute keepsakes, and we can almost guarantee they will be incredibly well-received. Here, though, are some choices to help you navigate what is really a very extensive line-up…
Lip Balm Sugared Rose Petal/£10 (sadly out of stock at time of going to press – though we’re not surprised!) This was our first-ever intro to Forest Essentials, something Jo bought online a year ago – and the name really sums it up. Like putting a delicious, fragrant balm created from Turkish delight onto your lips.
Reviving Sanjeevani Beauty Elixir/£60 for 30g. Packed with Ayurvedic herbs including antioxidant sanjeevani extracts, turmeric, aloe vera, brightening cardamom and softening jojoba and sweet almond, a truly velvety cream that also works as a great make-up primer.
To be honest, bodycare is where Forest Essentials has really captured our hearts. We are mad for the Cleansing Shower Butter Nargis/£20 for 200g – mega-moisturising and quite unlike anything we’ve ever tried before: transportingly fragrant, very nourishing, yet morphs into a body cleanser when you add water. The Silk Velvet Body Creams/£34 for 200g are exquisite, meanwhile are exquisite: we are torn between Madurai Jasmine & Mogra, and the utterly divine Indian Rose Absolute.
We could go on. And on. But – although Forest Essentials can be found online at their own website, here, and at lookfantastic.com – we exhort you to step over the threshold of the flagship boutique on James Street, and allow yourself to be Tardis-ed several thousand miles, via your nose…
£10-84 – buy here
28 James Street, London WC2E 8PA/020-7836 4016
