I spent today at Natural and Organic Products Europe, which bills itself as ‘Europe’s biggest trade show for natural and organic products’. It runs over two days at London’s Excel Centre, and this year I decided well in advance that I was going to attend on both days, rather than exhaust myself trying to take in the whole thing in one day.
The clever reader will deduce from this that I consider attendance at Natural and Organic Products Europe to be a very good use of my time, and they are quite right. It’s a great opportunity to:
- check what’s new with some of my favourite brands, such as Weleda, Antipodes and Lavera.
- connect with brands that I’ve been keeping an eye on but haven’t had enough time to either contact or explore properly. Splat, Sukin and Nourish are three brands I visited today that have been on my ‘find out more’ list for months.
- discover brands I’d never heard of but like the look of, simply by sauntering around the floor-space. Today’s discoveries included Bio-D household products, Woo Bam Boo! oral care, and Northern Bloc vegan ice cream (their hazelnut and rose ice cream is amazing and I’m going to add Northern Bloc to my Ocado regulars the second I’ve finished writing this post).
- meet with some of my favourite brands and the people behind them in person. There’s nothing nicer then being able to catch up with people you admire and celebrate their work. Scanning the exhibitors’ list some weeks ago, I was super excited at the thought of catching up with Danish organic haircare brand Zens, and being able to meet French pro-biotic skincare brand Gallinée, whose founder, Marie Drago, was scheduled to speak.
Zenz Copenhagen
I am a huge fan of Zenz AllergyCertified range: my troublesome, fine hair absolutely LOVES Shampoo Pure No. 01 and Conditioner Pure No. 03. The people behind the brand are lovely to speak to, and truly passionate about their line and their vision, so do make haste to Stand A22 to meet them if you’re attending Natural and Organic Products Europe at Excel today! Zenz have their whole range on show, and it’s wonderful to see their commitment to providing skin-friendly organic products and also wonderful (if you don’t have fragrance allergy) to smell their perfumed products! I have a Deep Wood No. 08 Conditioner to try. I adore the rich and subtle scent, and can’t stop myself uncapping the tube and sniffing appreciatively. Roll on shampoo day …
Gallinée
I first became interested in Gallinée through seeing it on the shelves at BeautyMART. I should have that phrase stored in TextExpander, because BeautyMART* excel in breaking new brands in the UK and as a consequence I seem to type it almost all the time. Initially, I assumed that Gallinée were a long-established French pharmacy favourite, but in fact they’re a young brand working in a very ‘new’ area of beauty: probiotic skincare.
I treated myself to the Gallinée Happy Bacteria set for Mothers’ Day this year** and am not going to talk about this in detail here because I’m planning a full review soon. What I will say here, is that I was so impressed by the Happy Bacteria set that I’ve now ordered the Galinée Body Milk, and that if you are visiting Natural and Organic Products Europe today, then do, do, do make time to visit Gallinée and find out more about them.
* BeautyMART are speaking at the Natural and Organic Products Europe 2018 today. Catch them at the Natural Beauty Talks Theatre at 12pm
** I do like to choose my own gifts from time to time 🙂
