Love Lula

Having been foiled on my first foray in the world of ethical make up I picked myself up off the high street and decided to try again.

As with most things, I started with google. It seems that in the cyber world there are hundreds of places to buy ethical make up, depending on what ethics you have- organic, fair trade, cruelty free. I’ve decided to have as many ethics as possible, like The Body Shop  in order to cover all bases.

After a twitter shout out, I found myself exploring LoveLula.com having been directed by my long suffering bestie, Kathryn. Now, I’m not entirely convinced that buying make up online is the way forward; it seems so solitary, so risky. What I love about the cosmetic buying experience is the chance to have a gossip and catch up on the latest products with the glossy ladies in the department store: Lorraine at Clinique, Sian at Estee Lauder, Zoe at Mac, each offering me their own unique selling point, hypo allergenic, long lasting wear, crazy colour- how I love them!

The website is beautifully designed, well laid out and brilliantly accessible. Though it doesn’t quite beat my lunch time chats with the beauty counter ladies, you can ask Lula anything about any of the products that you see on the sight and get a fast, informative response. The people behind the website seem perpetually helpful and wonderfully knowledgeable so I dusted down my credit card and got shopping.

Like jeans, foundation is one of those things that you’ve got to try a million times before you find your best fit. I still haven’t found my perfect partner but I decided to take a risk on Love Lula. After consultation, I decided to go for Lavera foundation and mascara, the most crucial building blocks on which I build my face!

Well, merely two days later, the little package arrived at my door.  I carefully unwrapped the lovely little box and found my products nestled inside protected by sumptuous natural wrapping. Unfortunately my free gift had failed to make it, but the compostable wrapping made up for it a bit! (It is now keeping my baby mange tout warm on the allotment)

As I could have predicted, the foundation was wrong.  Despite being the lightest colour available it still looked like my face had been to Tenerife for a month leaving my neck and the rest of my body at home in rainy England. Very disappointing. And to make matters worse, Lovelula.com have a no returns policy on anything that has been opened. I wonder how much money I have wasted over the years on orange foundation...

My Lavera mascara on the other hand was a lovely surprise. First of all, it smelt lovely- I’ve never thought to sniff my mascara before but I couldn’t resist this fella! I wouldn’t say my eyelashes were experiencing new levels of “intense volume” but I was more than happy. Organic, ethical and makes my eyelashes lovely- I think my faith in this lark could have been restored. Just need to sort out this foundation crisis....

Conclusion: Although I was disappointed that I couldn’t return the foundation once it was open- (how else could you test it!?) the website was beautifully laid out and wonderfully helpful. The Ask Lula feature is really brilliant and offers a really quick response with informed information. Small details, like the packaging really made a difference and made up for what I felt I lost in experience by buying online. I will be returning!