Whats Happening

Annabel Jones, beauty writer and blogger, shares her thoughts and learnings on the Good Skin Sense Panel event.

Until I joined Imperial Leather’s SkinKind panel, I never fully understood the struggles women with sensitive skin really had. Sure, I knew there were plenty of un-fragranced, hypoallergenic ranges that catered for women with sensitive skin. But what I’d forgotten was that whilst these products were effective, they didn’t exactly tick the glamorous box. Something we all crave. What these women were missing out on was the luxurious fragranced products that Beauty Editors like myself take for granted. This was a light bulb moment for me.

On my first outing to PZ Cussons (Imperial Leather’s head quarters) in Manchester, we got to see first-hand the innovation, technology and creativity that went into creating the SkinKind Body Washes, one of the first fragranced ranges that’s hypoallergenic and allergen free.

With sensitive skin on the increase, studies now show there’s a huge gap in the market for a product that caters for ‘Pamper queens’ like myself, who just happen to have sensitive skin. After all who wants medicinal looking bottles on her bathroom shelf?

So how do you make a fragrance suitable for sensitive skin? Make it all natural and jam-packed with sweet smelling essential oils, right? Wrong. What I was surprised to discover during my visit is that many essential oils are in fact the worst culprits when it comes to sensitised skin.

My second surprise of the day was the innovation that goes into creating a must-have fragrance for an everyday product like SkinKind Body Wash. One of the experts who joined our panel was Kate Williams, head perfumer at Seven, PZ Cusson’s incredible on-site fine fragrance house. In my experience, although many of the world’s greatest perfumers are men, women often give a chic twist to fragrance, so I was intrigued to hear her talk so passionately about the challenge of creating a luxurious fragrance from the limited list of ingredients suitable for sensitive skin.

This part of the day was full of fun childlike pursuits. We stuck our heads in scent filled rooms and gave feedback on new fragrances in progress. We also filled out tests to discover our perfume personality. Since scent is such an emotive subject, I was fascinated to find out what makes me tick perfume-wise. I’m a risk taker who loves new fragrance experiences, apparently.

I now have an insight into what it takes to not only create a fragranced body wash that’s suitable for sensitive skin, but also the technique and skill involved in making the scent stand out as a fine fragrance in it’s own right.

Read all about our inaugural Good Skin Sense Panel event from our panellist Cathy James of NurtureStore:

http://nurturestore.co.uk/sensory-smell-games

The SkinSense panel set off on its mission to solve the world’s skincare issues in a recent head-to-head with various beauty journalists. And it looks like the panel session with our head perfumer Kate Willams and Nuturestore has set senses tingling even further. Their recent get-together at the Imperial Leather Innovation Centre didn’t just open their eyes (and noses) to the fascinating world of perfumery and the skillful science of olfactory stimulation. It also provoked a few thoughts on how smells can be incorporated into sensory play with your children. After all, textures and sounds are useful elements of learning games…so why not smells? A few pieces of card, some scents and bit of imagination are all you need for a fun game that requires players to sniff out the matching fragrances. Read the full blog here.

SkinKind recently sponsored Pineapple Dance Studio’s Andrew Stone’s red carpet gig in Manchester.

Andrew’s pop band, Starman, performed to a celebrity crowd, including Corrie’s Brooke Vincent, at the Moho Live venue in the city centre.

Andrew, who is prone to sensitive skin, was also thrilled to be presented with a special hamper of SkinKind and Imperial Leather goodies. 
 

Last weekend, two hundred women and one brave man made their way across the country to Earl’s Court in London to attend Cybermummy, the very first British mummy bloggers conference and Imperial Leather were there as part of the action!

Thanks to Imperial Leather, mummy blogger Cathy James spread the word about SkinKind at the event and it really got mums talking! Imperial Leather’s SkinKind ambassador introduced this fantastic, family-friendly product to all the mummy bloggers out there and helped to build awareness of the brilliance of SkinKind even before the event through e-newsletters, blog entries and links to the Imperial Leather website via Twitter and Facebook. Cyberspace has been full of SkinKind and it doesn’t stop there…

At Cybermummy, our ambassador spent her time meeting lots of mummy bloggers and talking to them about the hydrating and hypoallergenic properties of SkinKind as well as giving out samples for them to try. It’s official. Mums love SkinKind!

So what is a mummy blogger conference? Well, at Cybermummy it was lots of things. An opportunity for mummy bloggers to meet friends previously only known in cyberspace and learn about Imperial Leather’s SkinKind too! There were workshops full of ideas for mummy bloggers as well as inspiration from speakers including journalist India Knight and Mumsnet co-founder Justine Roberts. And there was laughter and some tears as mummy bloggers took to the stage to read some of the most moving and memorable blog posts from the last year.

It was a great opportunity for Imperial Leather to spread the word of SkinKind to all the mummy bloggers at Cybermummy and share some SkinKind goodies with them too.

Imperial Leather’s SkinKind; everyone’s talking about it!

Finally, the news you’ve been waiting for. Imperial Leather’s new SkinKind range is here to give sensitive skin a pampering that is long overdue.

Our sensational new range is kindness personified, and for the first time you can enjoy a shower and bath range that lets you come out of the bathroom feeling clean, pampered and smelling fantastic.

Using our expertise in fragrance and bathing, we’ve rewritten the rules to create 3 SkinKind products for you to choose from – Hydrate, Restore and Refresh that gently cleanse, moisturise and care for your skin.

Look out for SkinKind on shelves near you! But we want to hear from you too! So visit our Facebook page to get involved and tell us about the skincare pleasures you feel you’re missing out on, we want to know what you want more of! Sign up now and you’ll be in with a chance of winning a year’s supply of SkinKind all for yourself.

Starman’s Andrew Stone is SkinKind’s number 1 fan!

Andrew Stone, lead singer of Starman and one of the stars of Pineapple Dance Studios is SkinKind’s number 1 fan. Andrew, who is prone to sensitive skin, was thrilled to receive his special hamper of SkinKind and Imperial Leather goodies when he was in Manchester recently.

SkinKind is specifically designed to provide a fragranced yet allergen free option for the most sensitive of skins so now Andrew can enjoy a fragrant shower without the fear of irritation!

Have you ever suffered from dry or sensitive skin? If so, email us or post on to our Facebook page to become part of SkinKind’s online focus group.  We’ll be in touch for testimonials soon.

Any star event needs plenty of pampering. And at Manchester’s annual High Street Stars, Imperial Leather is there to provide lots of it.

Come along for the chance to sample the new SkinKind range, the shower gel that’s gentle on sensitive skin yet generous with fragrance, and test your senses with our unique Fragrance pod.

Lucy Horobin from Key 103 In:Demand is there to indulge you with competitions throughout the day. You could win £500 worth of holiday vouchers, Alton Towers tickets for a family of four plus a sumptuous range of Imperial Leather prizes and voucher booklets with a host of freebies in association with Manchester Arndale.

What’s more, Humphrey the Hippo is handing out hugs and may even strut his stuff on the catwalk!

So don’t miss out. Visit Manchester Arndale between now and 6th June. It’s sure to be awash with happiness.

We want to keep you up to date on the very best SkinKind deals available, and right now there are discounts in Tesco that are too good to miss. From now until 8th June SkinKind Shower is just half price at 80p!

Stock up now to enjoy the gentle, hypoallergenic care of SkinKind even longer, for even less.

Think you can dream up a more dastardly villain than Tony Gordon or a more lovable rogue than Steve  McDonald, or even a more dramatic storyline than Gail McIntyre’s wrongful imprisonment? Well then here’s your chance to shine.

We’ve teamed up with Coronation Street for its 50^th anniversary campaign and have joined forces with Michelle Keegan, who plays Tina in the soap, and Jonathan Harvey and Jan McVerry from Corrie’s scriptwriting team, to offer school children across the UK the chance to win an exclusive scriptwriting workshop at their school, plus their teacher could win a Corrie VIP day, to include a set tour and taking part in the filming of a scene.

The Corrie Class of 2010 is a unique competition inviting Year 9 and Year 10 classes to create a new character and storyline with their teachers.

Entries will be judged by the Corrie scriptwriting team as well as a member of the cast with the winning school receiving this once in a lifetime prize.

Runners up will receive a tour of the Corrie set with their class and the five class finalists will receive an original signed Corrie script for their school.

Full details can be found at  http://www.imperialleather.co.uk/corrie and an entry pack is available online which will provide all of the materials for teachers to guide their lessons including some top tips from the Corrie scriptwriting team themselves, biogs, exclusive insights into characters and instructions on how to layout and write the episode.

The competition closes on 9^th July 2010 and winners will be announced in September.