We were thrilled when our Beauty Kubes shampoo Kubes for normal to dry hair were shortlisted this June in the Haircare category in this year’s Free From Skincare Awards 2018.

Our company Eve of St. Agnes has previously won gold and silver awards for our skincare, so we were very excited to see whether we would be successful with our new zero waste shampoo.

The Free From Skincare Awards were established in 2012 to offer the first Beauty Awards for products that are free from certain synthetic ingredients and potential allergens. The awards have gone from strength to strength, with large companies such as Neal’s Yard and Green People entering each year.

We love these awards as they are decided on merit, with all products undergoing strict testing by a panel of testers recruited from the Natural Beauty Bible. It offers smaller brands the chance to shine, as so often in the Beauty industry, awards are out of reach for small brands.

Each winning brand knows that if they win an award, that means that the products testers loved their product and can be proud that it has met with strict criteria.

Products entered must not contain the following ingredients:

Aluminium
Artificial fragrance
Ethanolamine compounds and salts (eg MEA, TEA, DEA and derivatives)
Formaldehyde and its releasers (eg imazolidinyl urea, diazolidinyl urea, quaternium-15)
Methylisothiazolinone (MI) and methylchloroisothiazolinone (MCI)
Microbeads / microspheres (plastic)
Palm oil from non-certified sources
Parabens (butyl-, ethyl- or methylparaben)
Para-phenylenediamine (PPD)
Peanut / peanut-derived ingredients
Petroleum (petrolatum) or mineral oil (paraffinum liquidum)
Petroleum-derived non-preservative ingredients
Phthalates (eg diethyl phthalate)
Sodium lauryl / laureth sulphate (SLS/SLES)
Synthetic silicones and derivatives
Talc, unless pressed
Toluene / toluene-2,5-diamine (TD)
Triclosan

Last Thursday 6^th July, we traveled to London for the awards ceremony held in the beautiful Pillar room at Olympia.

First of all there was a panel debate with Kush Khan, Beauty buyer from Wholefoods, Dr. Pauline Hilli of Nourish skincare and Dr, Mojgan Moddaressi of Personal Care regulatory. Some interesting topics were discussed, such as the labelling of ‘free-from’ products and the future of packaging. It was suggested that consumer buying habits could help to change legislation; making it easier for cosmetic companies to re-use containers.

Then came the nail biting judging, with the winners of each category being announced for the bronze medal, silver and finally gold, Eventually the results of the Hair Care category was read out and we were absolutely thrilled when the name Beauty Kubes came up on the big screen, we had won the gold award!!

It was a fabulous evening and we would like to thank the team at SkinsMatter for their continued hard work in ensuring natural and organic products that are free from harsh chemicals are recognised for their achievements. You can read their blog coverage of the event here

We look forward to entering more products into the awards next year!