Although we ask entrants to submit their products into one of fourteen categories in the Free From Skincare Awards, all are automatically considered for another special category — the Free From Achievement Award, which this year has been generously sponsored by Organyc.
We launched the Free From Achievement Award in 2015, following a suggestion from George Jones of Bathing Beauty, who have won three medals in previous years of the Awards. The idea was to give a special nod of recognition to a product which may not (or may) have won its category, but which certainly did exclude most, if not all, of the preservatives, food allergens and fragrances which so many with multiple sensitivities have to avoid, and which performed well too.
Six of the twelve shortlisted products in Free From Achievement 2018
The inaugural winners were All Natural Soap Co for their Castile Olive Oil Soap, and the category was subsequently won by Sukin‘s Supergreens Nourishing Chia Seed Oil+ (2016) and Honesty‘s Protect Nourishing Cleanse Balm (2017).
Who is going to win the Free From Achievement Award in 2018? Well, here’s it’s going to be one from the following Shortlist ….
Filabé of Switzerland Ltd, Skin Clear Young
Good Bubble, Little Softy Fragrance Free Moisturiser
Harborist, Balm-gel cleanser
Kokoso Baby, Hair & Body Wash – Fragrance-Free
Little Soap Company, Olive Oil Bar Soap
Living Naturally, Calendula & Chamomile Soapnut Soap
Living Naturally, Fragrance Free Deodorant
Lyonsleaf, Calendula and Marshmallow Balm
Lyonsleaf, Zinc and Calendula Cream
ON! Juniper, Super Colour Bath Bomb
Ruth Romano, Pure Soap
The Great British Bee Co, Honeywash (Fragrance Free)
Twelve products with barely a common allergen among them! It’s a nice mix of soaps, cleansers and moisturisers, with a deodorant and a fun product thrown in for good measure, and we’re especially delighted that there are some products for young children in among the mix this year.
In previous years, we didn’t publish a Shortlist for the Award, partly because there weren’t that met the exceptional ‘free from’ requirements of this special category, but this year, we actually struggled to whittle it down to a manageable dozen.
We’re glad it’s such an impressive Shortlist, as we know this list will be especially useful to those with multiple sensitivities which they’ve not yet managed to get to the bottom of. With a selection of these products, you can pretty much conduct all your daily ablutions and pampering!
As for the Gold winners (and we may have a Silver and a Bronze to dish out too …) you’ll have to wait until July 5th, when we’ll be announcing the results at a special invite-only presentation and networking event at Olympia’s Pillar Room. We’ll be live tweeting the results — follow hashtag #FFSA18 from around 5pm on the day itself, from both our Twitter accounts @skinsmatter and @FFSkincareAward — for those of you who are unable to attend. Remember too that we have active Instagram page and Facebook page where we’re always sharing lots of news.