Dr Hauschka Shower Cream

[productsample/affiliate] I’m starting Tuesday with a treat-to-self – I somehow got very sucked in to Black Friday and Cyber Monday as a consumer and while I’m pleased with my bargains which split neatly into things I needed to stock up (bareMinerals Complexion Rescue for one) and gifts (some Dune boots for Lucy and books for Mr BBB) it’s all a bit frenetic and energy sapping. We had tickets for the opera on Saturday without realising when I booked it was the biggest shopping day of the year and London streets were rammed as were the trains home.

There are several points about this new shower cream from Dr Hauschka. Firstly, the packaging is made from post-consumer recycled material (plastic milk bottles mainly) and thanks to the revised processing, saved over 65% of raw oil in production (compared to conventional packaging). I don’t know the finer details of packaging production (i.e. where the oil fits in) but I do know that steps like these matter. In fact, this brand is reducing their entire body wash range to just this particular product. That’s the thing I’m interested in because most brands have far too many options that really aren’t needed and in many cases, don’t even sell particularly well. I can look at several brands and wonder why they don’t reduce their offerings and focus instead on the items that people like best. It’s all very well being the kid in the sweet shop until you realise that you’ve had too many sweets, and that’s not a good feeling!

And that’s the story of beauty at the moment (and fashion, actually). There’s too much, it’s too noisy and chaotic and when it comes to certain items (palettes, for example) we’ve probably all got as much as we want. Paring back is a key issue for next year where I think the consumer will lead the way by just not buying as much beauty or as much fashion and making far more considered choices in both. I’m digressing enormously, but the anti-influencer movement has had another boost with the advent of MyBeautyBrand.com – conceived by Robin Derrick (I’m sure he won’t mind me explaining him as Mr Lisa Eldridge) – bringing a more level playing field to beauty fans. Anyone can upload pictures of what they’re using and earn a commission if anyone else buys it. There aren’t any contracts or targets – you just do what suits you – so it brings us back to the origins of blogging which was to inform and show what ‘real’ women use and why. It’s in its infancy right now (and has its own range but will expand to more brands) but worth keeping an eye on I think as a future winner. I think there’s still a lot to smooth out (ironically, it may well need the heft of influencing to get it talked about and become viable) because incentives always being questions. But, the point is that it’s a beginning of something that seems, at least on the surface, to be fairer and more achievable to those without a huge Instagram account or existing audience.

Anyway, I really have gone off point so let’s get back to the Dr Hauschka Shower Cream – all the lovely scent of their existing Lemongrass Revitalising Body Wash (maybe a bit milder) and using sugar surfactants to cleanse gently, it’s a kind of gentle wake-me-up product that, at £12 HERE at John Lewis, feels like a proper treat. Non affiliate HERE.