O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay

I just proved the theory of relativity right – a week of annual leave feels like two days, one day at work feels like two weeks 🙂 Not that I got much rest at home – I was in full Alara mode. Firstly, we got a write-up about the Wellness Sets in the Beauty Bible which has been amazing. I can’t thank them enough, they’ve been so good to me through absolutely no merit of my own which is the best type of kindness. The whole thing was arranged mell-pell. I had 3 days to get professional photos done; my photographer is 200 miles away. Eek. Have you tried sending any parcels lately? Believe me, any company that can get anything to you in less than 5 days is incredible. Thanks to the wonderful Helen Leonard of hel-of-a-beauty and Royal Mail 24-hour delivery, it got done. Proofs approved, composite gussied up by me, final photos to The Beauty Bible in less than 72 hours.

BTW, we really don’t make anything in the UK anymore. Trying to get supplies so we can keep going has been intense – we can’t get pumps, essential oils (thank God for inventory upkeep!) and forget glass bottles. It’s all imported. Globalisation is awesome, until you get a pandemic. It’s back to the plastic containers; they’re 100% recyclable but we’d only just changed to glass for crying out loud. Kudos to all SMEs that have managed to carry on if it’s been feasible to do so during the wretched lockdown.

Enough of this frippery – the full write-up is below. A big thank you to Sarah and the folks at The BB. I was going to run the promotion until end of June but I’m keeping it on for at least another month, such has been the response. Big thank you to all our customers. Now that we can all get wasted in public again as from Wednesday (who’s counting? 🙂 ), the drinks definitely ought to be on me. Have a wonderful week.

AlaraApothecary Wellness Set

https://www.beautybible.com/beauty-bible-posts/alaraapothecary-wellness-set

One of the loveliest things during these strange, scary times is to give your friends a gorgeous treat – not forgetting yourself, of course. These charming linen bags, each with three products wrapped in pretty tissue paper, fit the bill perfectly. (And speaking of ‘bill’, the Wellness Sets are an incredibly good price – £20 for three products that would normally notch up £41.)

We discovered AlaraApothecary a couple of years ago at one of those big shows. In fact, we sniffed it out like truffle-hounds, following a trail of honeysuckle fragrance until, round a corner, we happened on Alara founder Funmi Lampejo. 

A practising pharmacist in the West country, Funmi’s longtime special interest is everything to do with skin and she drew on plant-based recipes and remedies still used in Africa and mainland Europe.

Funmi’s formulas are mostly natural ingredients with the minimum of synthetic chemicals – and no parabens, sulphates or MI (methylisothiazolinone), which is a common skin irritant. The products are blissful to use and highly effective – in fact, Sarah is just stroking fragrant Honeysuckle Body Oil on her always-tending-to-dry legs this very moment.

So – the Wellness Sets come in three fragrances: Honeysuckle (Sarah’s all-time favourite for wafting away), Rosa (scented with delicate tea rose and warm creamy vanilla) and Citrus Burst (fresh and tangy, sweet and soft). Each contains a luxurious 50ml pot of body cream, body oil in 100ml pump, and 100ml body cleanser.

A very dear friend is just going into hospital, so we’re ordering for them now!

£20 each – buy here