Great news! We entered three products for the 'Free From Skincare Awards', and won silver with two of them. And also came away with a bronze award for the best skincare brand. Which - considering the number of products and size of companies taking part - was a pretty good result. Even if we do say so ourselves!

The winners were announced yesterday at The Allergy & Free From Show, which is taking place in London's Olympia Exhibition Centre. The prizes were presented by well-known beauty broadcaster and blogger, Janey Lee Grace (pictured far right with yours truly).

The three products we entered were our Rose & camellia cleansing melt (face care take-off category), Rose & camellia facial balm (face care leave-on category), and our Lavender & chamomile botanical balm (problem skin category). Both our cleansing melt and lavender balm won silver. But just getting all of the three through to the shortlist was quite an achievement.

The shortlisted products were then given to panels of experienced Beauty Bible testers (all of whom either have sensitive/problem skins, specific allergies/intolerances, or are particularly passionate about organic/natural skincare) for a month's in-depth testing of their ease of use and efficacy.

Here are some of the judges' comments about our cleansing melt:

“Skin felt very soft and supple after cleansing ... minimal moisturiser needed, and skin felt good for hours”

“Perfect consistency for a cleansing balm ... pretty packaging, and a little goes a long way”

“Had heard good things about Botanicals and this lived up to that promise and I would definitely purchase”

Commenting on our lavender & chamomile balm, the judges said:

“Very good on dry and rough winter skin ... skin looked more moisturised and had a slight sheen - a natural healing product”

“Gorgeous texture - almost like whipped egg whites”

“Soothing, softening, protecting - would buy for soothing properties alone”

“Much better than most balms I’ve used and very economical”

Best Free From Skincare Brand

We were particularly delighted to get an award in the 'Best FreeFrom Skincare Brand' category. All the winning companies were entered into this award, so there was some serious competition. Neal's Yard Remedies won gold. And we feel very much like David against Goliath trying to compete against such huge brands with their multi-million pound turnovers and chains of high street shops.

Here's what the judges said about us:

A wonderful range of mother nature-inspired products - unashamedly and charmingly English, with considerate environmental and ethical foundations, and demonstrating good understanding of natural ingredients and their particular qualities. Very well tolerated, low allergen and 'free from' friendly products, which deserve to be more widely known.

I couldn't have said it better myself! But Botanicals is very much a team effort. So my grateful thanks to everyone for all their wonderful efforts and support. As well as to all our loyal customers and therapists. But I'd better sign-off at this point - before I start sounding like one of those tearful actors at the Oscars!