There is no keeping Alex down these days…. No sooner had he finished his very successful on line presentation of this years’ FreeFrom Skincare Awards than he was off on another tack – FreeFrom Gifts Awards….
To be fair, this had not come entirely out of the blue. We have been scratching our heads for some years over potential skincare awards’ entrants who wanted to enter gift sets. But the nature of the Freefrom Skincare Awards is such that we are really only set up to evaluate individual products, so we always had to turn these keen possible entrants down. But now he has found a way…..
Building on the success of the on-line skincare awards, he has devised a quick fire gifts awards which opened on September 1st and closes on the 27th, aimed specifically at the gift set market – for Christmas and then for Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day and even Easter. So entries must include at least two, but a maximum of six, items, half of which must be cosmetics or skincare products. (The rest could be aromatherapy products or candles or whatever else seems gifty and appropriate.) While the skincare items do still have to meet the FFSkincare Awards criteria, the main focus is on the gift aspect. So lots of ribbons, and bows and flowers and general gifty-ness….
There are five categories:
1/ Men’s Grooming
2/ Hair Care
3/ Bath & Body Care
4/ Soap Bars
5/ Face Care
6/ Mixed Skincare
But…… If someone comes up with an exciting gift category that they think we have missed, and we think there are enough people who would agree, we are happy to go with that too. And, for a small extra payment, you can also enter your product into one of five ‘themed’ categories:
A/ Vegan — for gifts free of any animal-sourced ingredients
B/ Eco & Green — for gifts showing an awareness of the environment, both in contents and packaging
C/ Sensitive Skin — for gifts suitable for those with delicate skin or allergies
D/ Sleep & Serenity — for gifts to help you relax, unwind, or drift off ….
E/ Luxury & Pampering — for gifts which are indulgent or a little bit special …
Entries will each be evaluated over one month by one of our experienced testers, and then by our panel of skincare professionals – all of whom will be looking for good free from products but whose minds will be largely focused on the ‘gifty-ness’ of the entry.
The results will be announced on line in mid November (Alex’s Twitter-thon announcements have now become legendary!) – in plenty of time for keen gift buyers to check through our winners and get shopping. And of course, all of our winners will get winning logos to put on their products, their websites and their social media posts, will get promoted on all of our very active social media channels (Instagram, Facebook , Twitter #FFGA) and will be able to access detailed feedback on their products from our judges.
So – get entering…..
Costs are modest – £95 + VAT for an entry with 10% discount if you have fewer than three working members of staff (including brand owners) – and an extra £25 to enter one of the themed categories. You have just over three weeks to get your entries in…..
All details including how to enter, here on the Gift Awards site.
Now feeling under pressure to produce further ‘Alex specials’ !!!!
Dare I say … watch this space?
We are watching…….