I see that L’Oreal has
purchased The Body Shop, the well-known beauty chain
much vaunted for its "no animal testing," environmentally friendly and wholesome
image. I’m afraid The Body Shop’s sort of never had that luster for me, however.
It involves my face moisturizing lotion. What kind of a man uses face lotion?
One smart enough to listen to women.
Back when I was in college, I started
getting really dry skin on my face. I couldn’t understand why. I tried various
after shave lotions, and they were no help. Finally, a friend of mine said I
needed a moisturizing lotion. The shaving was leaving my skin dry, and alcohol
based after shave lotions were making things worse. I tried something she
recommended, and it worked great. Dry skin no more.
About a year after that, an old girlfriend gave me a different brand of
lotion she got from a place called The Body Shop. This was in 1988, years before
The Body Shop was everywhere. And more important, it was back when The Body Shop
was the name of two entirely different companies, one in Northern California,
the other based in the UK.
I discovered the companies were different when I tried to purchase more
lotion later that year when in England. I went into The Body Shop, but they
didn’t carry the product I wanted. In fact, they had no idea what I was talking
about, much less the custom "Rain" scent I wanted.
Both Body Shops shared the same idea of being an ethical business. Both sold
beauty products. From what I can tell, the Californian-based company seems to
have been the originator of the idea (history
here; opened in 1970) and the UK Body Shop founder Anita Roddick
seems to have been inspired by that (history
here; opened in 1976). It’s not something I’ve seen mentioned when
reading the official (UK) Body Shop literature, and certainly I never see it
mentioned in popular accounts of Roddick’s success. The idea just seems to have
sprung directly from her own mind.
Body Flop is a very
good article that looks at just who inspired whom.
Roddick, of course, rode her company into a mega success. What about the
California company? It’s still going. It changed its name to
Body Time soon
after the The Body Shop (UK version) wanted to enter the US market, through a
licensing agreement.
Being over in the UK, you often get the story of the big bad American firm
swooping in to gobble up and change the UK landscape. Hello Starbucks! So
ironically, little Body Time gives me some hope that the US isn’t the only
country to steamroll over the world. They chose to stay small, and it’s the Body
Shop that seems to be on every street corner these days.
Ironically, I ran out of my Body Time face lotion last month. I’ll get some
more on my next trip back to California in May. With a slight pang of guilt, I
bought some to keep me going — from The Body Shop.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Hey Danny,
I know the post not exactly about face cream, but I just wanted to remark on:
“What kind of a man uses face lotion?”
I totally agree: “One smart enough to listen to women.”
I was having very similar problems as you, especially in the dry cali winters… Finally i started listening to my wife and began using Face Lotion. I use Neutrogena Healthy Skin® Anti-Wrinkle Cream SPF 15 works great!