[unpaid/sample] Life is spooky sometimes. When I was leaving The Clean & Tidy show at Excel with Gen last week, we passed a restaurant and I commented, ‘that’s where I had a coffee with Sam Farmer, years ago’. A few days later, Sam got in touch on Instagram to say he is back working full throttle on his teen skin brand. I did not bother to mention it to him but I will tell you that I haven’t seen him or heard from him for several years. I know we’ve just passed Halloween but it feels like a weird – but delightful – coincidence.
Sam’s brand has always been about teen skin in a reaction to the gender stereotyping in marketing and cosmetic science misinformation for adolescents and teenagers. Sam has been president of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists in the past and is currently a board director for the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Perfumery Society which acts as the voice of the cosmetic industry in the UK. So, I think we can safely say that he knows his onions when it comes to formulating products. Teen skin and hair, with all the hormone changes raging, can be very tricky but luckily they are Sam’s focus and speciality.
Teens are the tricky years for our youngsters – a lot of them aren’t even thinking about any kind of grooming but that said, a lot of them are. So for those who don’t consider hair washing anything other than an annoying childhood chore, there is a shampoo and a conditioner in unisex packaging that looks definitely a level up from Johnson’s No More Tangles. It’s a whole different vibe and gentle enough to use every day using the minimum of ingredients for the maximum efficiency. There’s a basic, kind to skin cleanser with aloe vera and glycerine, that will keep young complexions clean and supple as well as an antiperspirant deodorant and a spot buster pen. Keeping it simple and functional is such a good way to segue personal care into a daily hygiene routine that’s both good for independent self care and keeping skin and hair clean and healthy.
The last item, because Sam Farmer is not an extensive range because it really doesn’t need to be (and take a note here that there are not constant new products or different marketing angles in the Sam Farmer line up), is a sebum control moisturiser containing squalane, avocado, shea and vitamin E – simple but absolutely effective in stopping oil taking over. The best thing about all of this is that Sam Farmer is affordable, next to the next best thing which is that the formulas are thoughtful, sincere and genuinely made to be helpful. The moisturiser is £11, the deodorant, £5.50 and the face wash is £9.50. I’d be shovelling the products into Christmas stockings by the handful for obvious candidates – you know who they are even if they don’t quite yet ;-). Find Sam’s site HERE.
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