FROM THE FRONT | Cosmetics at Kew

Image via Wealden Times

Being a garden and beauty nerd myself, this is a lecture I am dying to attend.

As per the Kew Gardens website:

"Professor Monique Simmonds, head of Kew's Sustainable Uses of Plants Group, talks about the use of plants and fungi in the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries.

After completing her PhD at Birkbeck College, University of London in 1985, Professor Monique Simmonds joined the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and currently holds the position of Deputy Keeper & Head of the Sustainable Uses of Plants Group. In addition, she heads the Kew Innovation Unit.

During her career at Kew, Monique has and continues to co-ordinate research into the economic uses of plants and fungi, their potential as cosmetics, pharmaceutical and agrochemical leads, and as sources of sustainably harvested medicines."

DETAILS

• Cosmetics at Kew, Tuesday 22 February 2011, 7pm.
• Kew, Jodrell Lecture Theatre via Jodrell Gate (Kew Road)
• £5  (£4 Premier Friends), click here for booking details

French organic skincare from Melvita | Sponsored post

I WANT young skin. Don't we all? But it's a fact that the one thing we're not getting as we age is younger (don't believe the commercials!). That said, you can give good skin even as it matures over the years, genes and nature be damned. Sometimes it seems we can't be bothered to put in the ground work to keep it in top form though.

Which brings me to the streak of all things French that I've been on lately. My eyes have been re-opened to the military precision with which French women are rumoured to attack their daily skincare regime. A recent Mintel study stating that French women spend more on their skincare than their European sisters – by a lot – isn't surprising. Sure, they discreetly dabble with the old jab of Juvederm later in life, but, true to the stereotype, their skin seems to age better (with and without cosmetic surgery) than that of their US and UK counterparts, if my eye-witness, anecdotal evidence – and spate of articles (New York Times et al) – has anything to say about it.

So when France's top-selling organic (ECOCERT) beauty brand Melvita (owned by L'Occitane) was rumoured to be coming to both the US and UK, I nearly melted into an agitated puddle of anticipation. Melvita (honey + life for the linguists out there) is now in standalone shops in the US (San Francisco, Seattle and Newport Beach, Manhattan (opening winter 2010)) and available most readily at Whole Foods and John Lewis in the UK.

Founder and Biologist Bernard Chevilliat started his career in beauty as a beekeeper, much like Burt Shavitz of Burt's Bees. Re-locating to south-central France in the late 1970s, he started an apiary that ended up several hundred hives large. They made honeycombed soap from the bee byproducts and, what do you know, it snowballed into a range of certified organic skin care products like skincare, bodycare, fragrance, plant oils, floral waters and haircare that use ethically sourced and harvest ingredients (full ingredient lists are featured online) to do everything from fight acne to clean baby and fight the ravages of time.

To paraphrase a well-known saying – an ounce of preventative (in this case organic) skincare is certainly worth a pound of facial fillers later.

Learn more about Melvita