Award Season
When I heard five of our products had won a series of accolades at the Free From Skincare and Natural Beauty Awards I was delighted for many reasons but most especially for the Pure Lakes founders, Sandra & Iain Blackburn.
As I continue to work, guided by Sandra, on formulating our new children and baby range I know only too well how much hard work goes into developing our products and it was wonderful to see their formulations and hard work recognised.
I took the train down to London to attend the Natural Beauty Awards ceremony – my enthusiasm being only slightly stymied by the prospect of slipping my swollen pregnant feet into heels in the stifling London heat.
We were being recognised in the value range category, something we were especially pleased about as one of the main principles of our company is to produce skin care that is natural and effective whilst also being affordable.
The ceremony itself produced conflicting emotions. I was extremely proud to see our name up on the big screen and it was wonderful to collect our awards. However, I was struck by the sheer volume of impressive, big brands competing across all the various categories.
I know that competition is healthy but it was difficult not to be daunted when surrounded by so many impressive and confident industry leaders.
Inside I was shouting to myself that Pure Lakes products are every bit as good as anyone else's and what helped me was thinking about you, our customers.
Awards are great and a wonderful mark of respect from industry peers. However, you are the reason the company works, and although we may be small we have our integrity and strong principles that you have recognised and we just need to keep doing what we do, making high quality and effective natural skincare.
As I sat on the train home I looked forward to seeing the children and Gareth. However, I also had a renewed vigour about the next steps for Pure Lakes. The energy and buzz of being surrounded by so many extraordinary people, all passionate about natural skincare, was intoxicating and as we pulled out of Euston I felt an excitement about the future and about the awards yet to come.
In the ‘Natural Health Beauty Awards’ Pure Lakes received a ‘Highly Commended’ in the value range category. The products that won were:
Neroli, Rosehip & Frankincense Facial Oil
Grapefruit & Lemongrass Hand & Body Lotion
Rose, Jojoba & Frankincense Facial Hydration Cream.
In the ‘Free From Skincare Awards’ the Aloe Vera, Avocado Oil & Hyaluronic Scalp Hydrator was short-listed and the Rose & Geranium Skin Repair Bar won a Silver Medal.
