TRUE skincare
Hope you saw our @beautybibleofficial Instagram story a few days ago about our visit to London's second Indie Beauty Show in too-cool-for-school Shoreditch.
There were lots of new brands (including many that alas don't have UK distribution yet). Lots of vegan products, many great natural brands – and an ocean of facial oils. However, one brand stood out for us on that front: TRUE skincare. Because unlike so many, these are truly accessibly-priced, putting this kind of 'skin food' within reach of almost anyone's beauty budget.
It seems wrong to call Emma Thornton a 'beauty veteran' – she's too young for that. But she has headed up marketing departments for various luxury and high-profile beauty and fragrance brands, before (as she puts it) taking her 'leap of faith' to launch her own range. And we quote:
'As a beauty consumer myself,' Emma tells us, 'I felt like there was always some kind of compromise; from price point, to aesthetics, to efficacy and ethics. From the knowledge gained during my career and knowing how little legislation there is within the natural and organic beauty, I wanted to create something that was genuinely organic, natural and ethical, but accessible in terms of both availability and price, without compromising on elegance and efficacy, so that everyone could benefit from organic and natural skincare.'
So TRUE is Soil Association-certified organic, Leaping Bunny-approved – and readily available at Holland & Barrett and Ocado, (as well as her own website), which is brilliantly convenient. We also like Emma's philosophy: 'From the moment the business started, it was really important for me to be able to be able to give back to the very thing that allowed me to create TRUE Skincare - nature. In November 2018, we established a corporate partnership with environmental charity, Fauna & Flora International, to which we pledge £5000 annually to this incredible charity.'
And did we mention that the products are just FAB...? Our top picks are the Nourishing Avocado & Evening Primrose Facial Oil, with its deeply grounding scent of patchouli, palmarosa and vetiver, and the Rehydrating Rosehip & Rosemary Facial Oil (both £13.50 for 30ml), which scooped a Beauty Shortlist Award 2019. (Of course we're nudging Emma to enter for next year's Beauty Bible Awards, too!). There's a fab face mask, an exfoliator, and some facial massage stones – jade and rose quartz – which feature in their fantastic Christmas sets (below), if you visit the site right now.
And we recommend you do just that. TRULY.