H&M organic skincare to launch

The high street favourite is launching an organic skincare range. H&M organic skincare is will hit store shelves early March 2010. According to their site, the range includes shower gel, body scrub, body lotion, hand cream and lip balm in raspberry and melon or lavender and mint, "all of which are based on natural and organic ingredients and are certified by Ecocert". The wording around the ECOCERT certification is a bit fuzzy (is it simply some of the ingredients that have the certification or is the products as a whole?), but this foray into higher-quality products by such a large-scale high street store is good news, I think. Would love to hear from those who have their own organic skincare ranges on the subject. What do you think? Greenwashing or the real deal?

Head of design for H&M Ann-Sofie Johansson says "it felt like a natural step, since we’ve worked with organic cotton garments for a few seasons now. There’s also a strong demand from our customers for organics, and I hope they will be as excited as I am about the new products."

Products come in recycled polyethylene packaging and a range of make up (not explicitly stated that it's organic anywhere) and organic cotton make up bags are also being launched.

The brand as a whole is making the move into a more sustainable business model, with a commitment to 'increase the use of organic cotton by 50% each year until 2013'.

Prices for the new skincare range start at  €3.90 and go to €6.90. (You can do the conversion into £.)

Tried and tested: evolve beauty eco smart skincare

The panic I felt just days before my most recent trip to London made my ears ring and my skin burn... wait. My skin was burning for other reasons. In fact, it was the impetus for my panic. I was stumped. Why had made my face go red, tight, bumpy and scaly (from temple to nose) and hot (no, not as in Angelina hot... as in to the touch) right before I was meant to board a plane for a week of back-to-back meetings with beauty industry folk?

Two things caused it, I have no doubt. One, my skin went on a 4-month makeup and skincare detox this summer that even the most cosmetic ascetic among us wouldn't be able to maintain by choice. On my around the world honeymoon-in-a-tent, makeup didn't touch my face, nor did anything, really, but a bar of soap and whatever moisturiser I had at hand. This period of skin calm was destroyed by a tsunami of new skincare, makeup and urban living in late October, when, in one fell swoop, I returned to dozens of products. Within a month, my face was radiating heat, the texture and colour angrily undulating and it became painfully clear that spot cream wasn't going to clear it up.

The second thing that dovetailed so conveniently with my hot-and-cold treatment of the cutis, is the onset of a Chicago winter. What on god's green earth keeps people living on such an icy tundra with such poor public transit? It's so cold there's no moisture (it's been at least 15 degrees below freezing for days) in the air. It's also as flat as a dinner plate, so no skiing here and ice rinks are strangely far and few between. It's moisture-free, wind-swept outdoors or drying, heated indoor spaces for me.

But as panicky as I became, it was comforting that my industry of choice wasn't, say, fashion, the most unforgiving (and backwards, in my opinion) of them all. Beauty people are fascinated by conditions and questions and how to fix them. My problem was greeted with genuine interest (not of the schadenfreude variety) and desire to find a solution, on which we all agreed.

It was clear I had to go cold turkey on the beauty bumpf until the flare up subsided and then, gradually, work my way back into a very simplified routine with simple products. An exclusion skincare diet was not on the table as the problem needs to be nipped in the bud immediately. Easier said than done when beauty products are your professional fodder! Facialist Emma Hardie was ardent that I stop using everything and then re-introduce slowly, and she was absolutely right.

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You say you want a Revolution (Organics)...

When in Tanzania, Mr. BWM and I made friends with 4 Canadians on our mountain ascent. I hate to admit this, but I've never actually been to Canada. I've been around the world, spent time in remote locales like the backwaters of Bosnia, but I've never trekked just a few hours north of where I grew up. However, that's the beauty of such easy trade over international borders nowadays, isn't it?

I know, I know... a tube of lip balm can't exactly convey the serene grandeur of the great white north, but, well it's a start, right? Revolution Organics is giving me my little slice of Canadian heaven right now. The brand was launched by two beauty industry veterans who wanted multi-tasking products "to do more so we could use less". Genius little sticky soundbite, that. It's a brilliant idea and the brand is one of the first I've seen to actual be concerned with beauty consumption. The amount of packaging you have to discard to get to the actual product with some ranges is cringe-worthy. Not so here.

THE DESCRIPTION

The PR, to my glee, sent over the entire range, which gave me the opportunity to really get a feel for the 5 products (yep, that's right. 5 multi-tasking SKUs in this micro-range, not thousands, not even dozens). They all come in craft tube-style packaging, which is brilliant as I plan on painting each of them and reusing them as lipgloss storage (keeping with the do more-use less theme). No whacky inserts. The 5 products are: Freedom Glow Balm, Freedom Lip Gloss, All-Over Body Balm, All-Over Skin Creme and Lip Balm.

Basically, it's all meant to moisturise. And, yes, it makes sense to have such a focused range come out of Canada. You think it's easy keeping your skin from going all flaky up there!? It gets COLD, so cold there's no moisture in the air (same in Chicago, for that matter... the winter dry-out has already begun).

The All-Over Body Balm and Glow Balm come in those fat lippy tubes... great for applying to large areas of skin. The Lip Balm and Body Balm come in tubes and the gloss comes in a wand. Freedom Glow Balm has intense colour (mine is in Raspberry, a bright fuschia) but the Lip Gloss gives a sheer colour wash with that slick texture I am loving in recent lipgloss launches (so much better than tacky glue lips). The All-Over Skin Creme is a great for face and body. It smells, well, a bit natural (if you know what I mean), but as of yet, I've not found a natural/organic brand that's been able to rid its products of it, so that bit is par for the course. What's not, is just how friggin' moisturising it all is. Seriously. My skin feels downright dewy when I'm done with this stuff and a little goes an incredibly long way.

Revolution is a wonderful supplementary range. It'll replace the myriad tubes and pots of lotions and serums you have. What it can't replace is your cleanser, exfoliator and makeup collection.

THE GOOD

That all products (save the gloss) are multi-tasking, they deliver insane amounts of moisture in small doses, very cool packaging, good for you ingredients, USDA certified organic

THE BAD

The creme's 'natural product' smell, it's pricey

[Editor's Note: If you buy just one thing, the All-Over Body Balm (14g/0.5 oz) is the range's best buy at $27.95... You can use it everywhere. Even slice off a sliver and mix in a little eyeshadow or blush to make creme eyeshadow or your own lipgloss/creme blush.]

THE PRICE

Freedom Glow Balm (13g/0.46 oz) $33.95

Freedom Lip Gloss (6.5mL/0.21fl.oz) $25.95

All-Over Body Balm (14g/0.5 oz) $27.95

All-Over Skin Creme (60mL/2fl.oz) $32.95

Lip Balm (14g/0.5 oz) $23.95