Bollocks to Boots: London Skincare Shopping

The London trip went smashingly well.  I spent a lot of time just wandering the city and looking for stores that carry beauty supplies.  It was quite a learning experience and a bit of cultural shock.  I spoke to people, compared ingredients in products, compared prices and even tried something new.

I couldn't throw a stick without hitting a Boots pharmacy, but unfortunately their product line was mostly horrendous. Their Botanics line has beautiful packaging and boasts about organic ingredients, but I also found that some of the line included parabens (toxic chemicals used for preservation).  In all fairness to Boots they do have a decent selection online and some stores carry the Weleda brand, I just couldn't find anything decent within their actual stores and I went into about 10 of them throughout London.  Let's face it when you're on vacation you need to get your hands on something quickly, not order it over the Internet.

A friend tipped me off to the So Organic shop in Greenwich, which was AMAZING.  They carry a large selection of excellent products and also provide skin care services such as facials.  My number one rule is that if you can't find anything good, go to an organic or natural store.  Guaranteed you'll be able to find cleansers without sodium laureth sulfate, which I despise for it's natural oil stripping properties.  So Organic also sells their products online for anyone wanting to check their selection.  Unfortunately, they do not currently ship outside of Europe so if you see something you like and you live in the U.S., you'll have to buy it elsewhere.

Another rule of thumb if you're having difficulty finding a good product while traveling is to check out skin care lines for babies or children.  As a general rule these will be milder and contain less chemicals.  My favorite line in London is the Weleda brand.  They have excellent ingredients and can be found in many stores, even Boots.

I decided to stop by a Jo Malone store to see what all the fuss was about.  They had excellent smelling products, but I wasn't blown away by the ingredients list.  Once again sodium laureth sulfate was found in many of the cleansers and some contained parabens.  I did, however, sample some excellent smelling body lotions.  My favorite was the Blue Agava & Cacao Body Crème, which smelled amazing and the Lime Basil & Mandarin was delicious smelling too.

While walking around the Camden Market I found a booth that offered fish pedicures.  Fish pedicures are performed by Garra Rufa a.k.a. doctor fish.  You emerge your feet into a bath filled with them and they nibble away at your dead skin.  I had been reading about this for years, but in San Francisco this service cannot be found.  Although it was fun feeling little fish nibbling at my feet I didn't really notice any improvement.  I have pretty decent feet to begin with so maybe it's only noticeable on someone who has really dry and cracked feet.  It was only 8 pounds for 15 minutes and even though I didn't find it effective the experience was fun.