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!

The Body Shop: The Return

Walking past The Body Shop, the smell conjures images from my childhood: heavily scented bath pearls, tootsie toe separators, magic flannels and cartoon animals. It does not make me thing excitement, glamour, luxury or relaxation- all the things I feel when I enter a department store cosmetics area. However, in the spirit of my Ethical Lent and missing my daily shopping trip on the high street I returned to my childhood stomping ground.

I knew that The Body Shop were anti animal cruelty (hence the little elephants that adorned all my flannels when I was little) but I had no idea just how driven the company is to be ethical. Animal protection aside they also have a vested interest in where the ingredients in their products come from, who grows them, how they’re processed and what impact they have on your skin and the planet.  Sounds like the perfect place for an ethically minded cosmetics junkie to stock up!

Now, as you may have gathered, I am beyond demanding when it comes to my cosmetic sales people, I want them to pamper me, lavish me with complicated information, interrogate my skin and leave me feeling hopeful that my face will never again be marred by a pimple or a wrinkle. I don’t mind paying £30 for a pot of moisturiser for this pleasure. On my first visit to the Body Shop in Kingston a lovely young man talked me through the moisturisers and managed to sell me a particularly gorgeous smelling Vitamin C one on the basis that “it’s good for young people like us if you’ve had a heavy night out.  Feeling very pleased with his enthusiasm, flattered by his well, flattery and buoyant from the cheap price (a mere £11!) I left the shop vowing to return to face my foundation demons.

Here’s where it began to fall apart. To say I’m pale is an understatement, I am practically translucent and The Body Shop does not cater for my end of the colour spectrum. After unenthusiastically showing me the colours of the foundations on her hand, the sales assistant told me to try Nicola “Girls Aloud” Robert’s brand of make up for especially pale people. Not impressed.

Conclusion: This is a place where people could make a small change to the way they live every day. Amazing to have ethics like these available on our very high street. I fully intend to go back and replace all my shampoos, shower gels, bath soaks, cleansers and moisturisers with their fabulously ethical and wonderfully priced versions. However, I remain unconvinced on the make up front and heading towards and as I hurtle towards an empty bottle of foundation, I am running out of options!