When I first arrived in London, the lack of natural beauty products on the high street was one of the things I was disappointed by. There’s not much I can say about London that is negative, but I was so surprised that natural beauty and skincare weren’t already a thing!
Considering there’s so much chatter around it online, from boutiques to bloggers and many retailers offering greener skincare, it’s still sad to wander into a Boots and realise there’s not much choice in “real life”.
Well, no more! I recently visited Fabled by Marie Claire on its launch day, and was spoilt for choice. The premise is that all products recommended by Marie Claire (who generally has its thumb on new beauty trends, inspiration, and advice) will be stocked in the shop. More than that, these products will come with their bespoke recommendations from the mag, and you’ll find them lined up in comparison with one another, something I really love.
Fabled launch
On launch day, there was a real ruckus around the event – there must have been hundreds of us crammed into the store, and upon arrival I was really quite overwhelmed. (Shoutout to Megan from Origins who kept me company!) It’s also odd to walk into the store and be confronted by all the usual beauty brands without any real indication of the alternative bits and bobs. Sadly, other than the pseudo-green-beauty from Bare Minerals, us natural beauty junkies have been relegated to the back of the shop on the first floor, for a dabble in skincare and wellness products alone.
However, once you’re there, you’ll find a lot to love. There’s a melting pot of natural, vegan, cruelty-free and natural brands (all distinctly different qualifiers!) Some of my favourite bottles sit side-by-side, including: Alchemy, Aromatherapy Associates, bkr, Dr. Hauschka, Elemental Herbology, Origins, Korres, and Neom.
New shopping technology
Near the natural skincare and wellness sections are what I’ve dubbed ‘advice counters’ such as the one pictured. These have a number of items lined up together to compare and contrast them depending on skin type and use, or show how they can all work well together. I love this personalised insight from the Fabled and Marie Claire teams, as it means you can walk in without having done a lot of background research and still walk away with the products that suit you best and leave you informed of their benefits for you.
In the future, it would be nice to see this spread to the clean, minimalist, Fabled website, as well as an option to sort products by what you think is important (be it natural skincare, organic certification, cruelty-free brands, etc.)
