Free From Skincare Awards 2013 - Judge Sugarpuffish

Free From Skincare Awards 2013 - Judge Sugarpuffish
You may have seen me blog about The Allergy & Free From Show as I find it a very useful and exciting event. Last year saw the introduction of The Free From Skincare Awards which I think is a brilliant idea. The aim of the awards is to encourage and reward manufacturers with free from awareness. I am sure you can imagine my happy smiley face when I was invited to take part in the judging process for the awards. This had been in the pipeline for a couple of months so I'm going to give myself a high five for not spilling the beans sooner.

Last week, I made my way to London and spent the entire day surrounded by skincare. That to me is pretty much my idea of heaven. These awards are taken very seriously and there are four stages before winners are announced. I took part in the second stage where the aim was to shortlist and commend products. The shortlisted products then go through testing for a month by a panel of experienced Beauty Bible testers. 

To enter the awards products must exclude three or more major food allergens (wheat, gluten, dairy, sesame, tree nuts, soya and egg). They must also not include any Aluminium, Artificial fragrance, Diethanolamine (DEA), Formaldehyde, Imazolidinyl Urea, Monoethanolamne (MEA), Parabens (butyl-, ethyl- or methylparaben), Petroleum (petrolatum) or mineral oil (paraffinum liquidum), Petroleum derived products (e.g. propylene glycol*), Silicones and derivatives (e.g. dimethicone*), Sodium Lauryl Sulphate (SLS), Talc unless pressed, Triethanolamine (TEA), Non-organic lanolin, Peanut based products e.g. peanut oil (arachis hypogaea oil) * May be plant-derived, and therefore admissible.

There are 10 award categories and judging took place over two days. The day I attended involved looking at the entrants for Oils/Serums, Make-up & Nail care, Face On and Problem Skin. I was judging products alongside Alex Gazzola (SkinsMatter), Michelle Berriedale-Johnson (Skinsmatter), Abi Weeds (Odylique) and Ruth Holroyd (whatallergy). We scrutinised ingredients, labelling and smothered ourselves in lotions. It was nice to see so many companies with an interest in producing free from skincare and the volume of entrants shows how much the market is expanding. The shortlisted and commended products have now been announced. Head over to skinsmatter.com to find out more, click here for shortlisted & commended products. 

On a personal note a huge thank you to Alex for asking me to take part in judging. 

Sarah x

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