Ok, so this is quite interesting to me. I had a comment today on a post that I wrote in 2008 as you’ll see below about Rodial. The commentor suggests that while I enthused about the brand back in 2008, my subsequent posts haven’t been so effusive. And, for very good reason I feel – this is the brand that has brought us most recently Crash Diet Sticks – meal supplements, £48, Crash Diet Smoothies, £48 and Crash Diet Gel, £75, promising to get you to drop a dress size in 10 days. My view on this, and I won’t be alone with it, is that promoting anything with the title ‘Crash Diet’, is not a good way to ‘sell’ weight loss. I’ve really no idea whether it works, but I do know that if you ask any doctor whether a great way to lose weight is to go on a crash diet, he or she will say absolutely not. Crash diets are notorious for their shock to the system and also for almost immediate weight gain once you start eating normally again. Back in the day, Rodial was an innovative brand. Glamotox really does work and make your skin glowy and dewy, but there isn’t much that I’ve seen subsequently that makes me feel comfortable about Rodial’s claims, particularly their foray into weight reduction (Skinny Sticks, anyone?) and the way these are promoted. And, what worries me even more is that their newest, more purse friendly brand, Nip + Fab, promises more in some cases than it’s three times the price sister, Rodial, which makes me wonder at the pricing system of Rodial.
And, for the record, I’ve never ever (in over ten years of working in beauty) had lunch with anyone from Chanel, Dior or YSL, but I had a very nice dinner recently with Lauder, thank you. If you’re worried that bloggers are being demanding, it isn’t compulsory to work with bloggers – it’s a choice. And, if you’re working with bloggers who are threatening bad reviews if you won’t send them product, name them. Because most bloggers wouldn’t even dream of such a thing. It would be fair to say, however, given that blogs are self-edited with no official channel of recourse it can be a leap of faith and if you have had the misfortune to come across a weight-thrower, you can trust me on this that within the blog community it will have been duly noted.
Anyway, here’s the post and comment:
Friday, 17 October 2008
Was delighted to see that Maria Hatzistefanis, founder of Rodial, picked up an Achiever’s award at the recent CEW do. Rodial is just a very, very cleverly formulated brand that delivers on it’s promises – a rare find in beauty. I don’t make any bones about the fact that Glam Balm is easily a favourite find and I use it almost every day.
‘hilarious…! what a difference in two years. How can anyone trust blogs these days. 2 years ago your applauding this brand and the owner and now, in 2010, tearing it apart. i have been following this whole rodial, dr nield story with interest and noticed that no-one (except the evening standard) has garnered rodial opinion. turns out its a nutty professor BOOB JOB doctor that is chasing publicity for her clinic. nicely researched. What happened, did the British Beauty Blogger not get enough attention from this brands PR so took a turn? I am in the industry and am sickened by bloggers demands for exclusives and tonnes of free products or they are going to “write a bad review”. High time this was exposed (bet you have had some “wonderful” lunches with Chanel, Dior, YSL and Estee Lauder PR execs…. This is the reality. Better beleiveing what is written in the Daily Mail….you all did.’
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