The Body Shop Liverpool One | Sustainable Store Opening Event

*Disclosure: Just to note, invitation to the event at The Body Shop Liverpool One store, the services provided at the event and anything gifted to me as part of the event will be disclosed in full in the following post. There was no obligation to do or share anything in return for attending the event or gifting given as part of it. Again, like in my last Body Shop event post I just had such a wonderful time and gained so much information I found helpful and insightful from the event I wanted to share it all here on my blog, to both document the memories and share it all with my readers of similar interests alike.

Rewind... So I'm taking it back to pre-Christmas with this post but there's good reason for it and a change that's not just for Christmas... The Liverpool One Body Shop has had a complete sustainable makeover! If you haven't been into town of recent hold onto your hats and plan your trip hastily, beauty lovers and Body Shop fanatics alike, as we have been gifted with the absolute excitement of an amazingly new kitted out store! Not only is it even more exciting than the already amazing store we had in Liverpool One, the whole focus of the new store is transforming it into one of The Body Shop's new sustainable stores - in their words, a workshop store! So not only have they turned it into an absolute hub of a beauty lover's excitement in a store, like Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, The Body Shop Liverpool One have now made sustainable beauty ten times easier to access on our local high street without you even realising! 

So prior to the event, good old Ryan (@ryantalksskin), who always goes above and beyond in his role and pours his heart into the store, put out a calling for anyone who would like to attend the reopening event for the unveiling of the brand new sustainable store. And of course, I jumped at the chance!

So, one rather toasty festive hot chocolate in and camera to hand, I spent my evening capturing and enjoying all the glory of the new store and my goodness what glorious things I have got to share with you...

Shop's Closure and Purpose for the Store Upgrade

Over October the shop closed for about four weeks, which worked out wonders for me getting my hands on some half price Vanilla Pumpkin Body Butter! They did a complete new re-fit and revamp of the store, including it's lay out, and weeks before the team had told me they were going to be expanding their recycling station, plus the anticipated introduction of the talked-about refill stations (just like the old school Body Shop I believe!). In following with The Body Shop's ethical ethos, the revamp was brought about following the success of their new sustainable flagship store (I believe) in London, to further work towards achieving their goals of delivering affordable sustainable beauty to all! So out with the old and in with the new, the whole Liverpool One store has been re-used and recycled to transform it into the new northern sustainable beauty hub for high street beauty shoppers!

On the night, The Body Shop Liverpool One team explained to us that this new style of eco-friendly, sustainable store is what The Body Shop call one of their workshop stores. If I'm remembering correctly, eventually The Body Shop are planning for a number of stores across the country to become workshop stores. The refill stations however are not exclusive to workshop stores and will be an almost completely store-wide feature in their new sustainable store approach!

 

The New Sustainable Features...

The store not only boasts a fresh new look but most excitedly has seen the introduction of lots of new features in the Liverpool One store. First off, the small recycling point is now a much bigger station, with room for so many more empties. I'd still recommend if you have a large amount of beauty empties disposing of the easier things to recycle at home, like bottles, for the mad beauty fanatics like myself with too many empties for their own good. For your average beauty user though and, most importantly, if stuck on which products you can and can't recycle simply bring them in! What I love about The Body Shop Liverpool One's recycling point is that the team encourage you to bring in all those awkward beauty bits of packaging, like pumps and compacts, that you'd just have no clue where to start on how to recycle them. So yes, the more the merrrier! Get bringing in your empties to The Body Shop - even the really awkward ones - and you'll be able to treat yourself whilst saving the planet! 

The Body Shop Liverpool One store's other exciting new sustainable features and new additions also include their glorious old school refill station, a sustainable paper gift-wrapping station (for those all important gifts of joy - quite literally one of their new mottos), and the magnificent body butter wheel! <3 

I'd just like to highlight here, the gift-wrapping station is Ryan's most favourite part of the new store.

In terms of the actual facarde of the store, inside and out, the team have not scrimped on the little details of sustainability either! Or big details in fact! The team informed us that entire fixtures of the new sustainable store have made out of recycled product packaging and re-used wood and metal. Likewise, melted down plastic has also been re-used to make the new product stands. 

To finish off, the store team took great pride in telling us that they enjoyed customising the store with their choice of an array of plants too!

News Update for The Vegans!

First up on the list of exciting news and one for the vegan beauty lovers alike here...

All body butters and hair care are now vegan!

So the body butters you might have known about from my last Body Shop event post but the exciting news is they are now all vegan! I cannot tell you the joy this brings my Body-Shop-Body-Butter-loving heart. <3 In addition to that, Ryan also told us something I found quite interesting which is that the silk in their haircare products is vegan silk, hence making the haircare range fully vegan. Vegan silk in beauty products is not something I've heard of before and I found that most interesting!

In addition to the fantastic expansion of the vegan choices at The Body Shop we also got to know that all body butter tubs are now made from recycled plastic! How fab is that?

The New Product Testing Island!

One of the most exciting new additions to the Liverpool One store that I loved the look of is the new product testing station. It brings two beauty gems together; it's like the product testing stations of LUSH but with The Body Shop products! Not only does it look gorgeous I think it's a really nice touch to the shopping experience, as I said, similar to the excitement of those LUSH testing stations. I think the Body Shop Liverpool One team are eager to look to use it as quite an interactive part of the store experience too as they're often up for doing little hand massages or pamper sessions! <- This, as I found, is a great opportunity to test out their mammoth collection of body butter scents too and make that all important and very difficult decision of "which scent do I try next!?".

Fun events of the night

Of course one of Ryan's store events wouldn't be complete without an agenda of fun and treats and this event was full of good stuff! We were very kindly treated to a whole host of goodies to try from the new Wagamama vegan range. The vegan sticky ribs *inserts heart eyes emoji now*, oh my, had to be one of my absolute favourites from the Wagamama tasters that evening. However, THE TROPICAL JUICE! Now I don't know if I'm calling this one by it's correct name and if it was in fact the Positive juice as I was under the impression these were all part of the new vegan menu however I've later come to learn Wagamama doesn't class the tropical juice as vegan as the supplier they get their oranges from can't guarantee they don't use animal derived ingredients in the preservation process. Long story short however it was delish and one of the first Wagamama juices I've tried and I can safely say... I am now hooked, like my long rooted love for the Wagamama classic Katsu Curry.

Well what can I say!

On that matter of fact, the vegan chilli squid was also an immense delight and also another abosulte favourite of mine. So I think we can safely say, the whole Wagamama tasting menu was a favourite of mine that night!

It wouldn't be one of Ryan's store Body Shop events if there wasn't a bit of pampering too and this evening we were very luckily all treated to a hand massage at the new sustainable sink station. After an evening of eating delicious food, talking all things beauty and taking an array of pictures this was an absolute treat - and I'd just like to note, Lauren who did my hand massage (hi Lauren!) was so lovely as by the time I got round to the station the event was coming to an end but Lauren still very kindly let me have a hand massage before they wrapped up! As noted above, I took this opportunity to delve into and explore the range of Christmas scents they had this year as I knew I wanted to treat myself to one of them but as with everything scented in The Body Shop,

how can you pick!?

With Lauren's recommendation I ended up trying a combination of two scents, which is actually a really good idea to try if you find yourself at the Body Shop Liverpool One product testing station. I think I went for a combination of wash with Kindness & Pear and massage with the Love & Plums hand cream/ body butter. To see which Christmas scent and product I ended up treating myself to read on...

And lastly, to round off the evening I really wanted to partake in The Body Shop's Christmas campaign this year, The Gift of Joy, by writing and putting my own Post-it Note, documenting how I'm going to share the gift of joy this season with someone I love, on the community hub wall. I like that Ryan emphasised that this isn't just about buying someone a gift, it's about the little things you do to give back to those you love, from making someone a cup of tea or committing to clearing that wash basket every weekend for them! If you'd like to find out how I chose to give my gift of joy this year keep reading...

 

My Refill Station Experience

Over to one of the headline acts of the evening now and we had the pleasure of being some of the first beauty enthusiasts to test out the brand new Body Shop Liverpool One Refill Station. The pleasure was in fact all Charlotte's (as pictured below) as if I remember rightly Charlotte got first dibs on the refill station, volunteering as our glamorous demonstrator! So across the store, Ryan informed us that all your refillable products will be labelled with a green sticker, meaning these beauty gems can be purchased in a refill-suitable container ready for refill on return once empty. (Because what beauty fanatic doesn't find themselves making a regular trip to The Body Shop Store at least ten times a year? *Sees small creature with brown hair, resembling something Ellie-like, emerging out of The Body Shop with a large bag of essential Aloe Calming Cream Cleanser top-ups*....).

Once you've got your refill the fun doesn't stop there! The station has an array of uplifting and positive memo covered stickers you can choose to decorate your bottle in however you so wish to and make it your own. I had great joy in dressing my refill bottle in a collection of positive affirmations, all things love-sharing and a little sticker with a cat on that very much resembled our cat Ziggy.

As mentioned above, the refill stations aren't exclusive to just the new workshop stores. Over the coming months The Body Shop are looking to roll them out in as many stores as possible... so get your empties at the ready to recycle and prepare to refill!

The Christmas Collections

At the time of the event it was pre-Christmas galore and oh my what a show stopper the 2021 Body Shop Christmas range was. There were just an abundance of gift sets to choose from throughout the shop, one which really caught my eye being the Camomile skincare gift set, which consisted of a full sized Camomile Cleansing Balm, Camomile Gentle Makeup Remover and muslin cloth. I eyed this one up straight away as I just couldn't get over how amazing a gift set and bargain it was if you were wanting to try the infamous Camomile cleansing range and I tell you... I was very tempted to treat myself to this one.... On top of that, one note I made that really stood out to me about The Body Shop's Christmas collection this year was the ranges and fragrances they chose. This year they picked three different festive scents - Love & Plums (my personal cheeky favourite), Joy & Jasmine, and Kindness & Pears. Not only were the names of the ranges just absolutely wonderful and fulfilling of the all the things that Christmas encompasses but my goodness the scents really knocked my socks off. Each were very much so Christmas-y and festive yet so unique to what you find out there on the market every Christmas time, compared to your classic Christmas scents, which are amazing but run again and again, time after time. It blew my mind how they managed to come up with not just one but three exceptionally festive yet unique to the market festive fragrances that were just completely different to what you find out there each Christmas time. 

And if that isn't enough to knock your socks off, well wait till you here this one... The Body Shop have now switched all their gift set packing to cardboard packaging and in doing so Ryan informed us that this Christmas The Body Shop has saved over 108,000 plant pots of plastic by switching gifts to cardboard packing - now if I've not got that reference spot on, that's approximately 112 tonnes of plastic according to this reference in this article in the Evening Standard. 

So treating someone or yourself to an absolute bargain of a gift set of well renowned beauty holy grails isn't just good for the soul... you're helping the planet!! Can it be any easier?

For anyone who read that in Chandler Bing's voice, can I just say, I applaud you.

 

Bonus points if you spotted Ryan in his little angel halo there...

My Purchases!...

So as noted above I definitely wanted to treat myself to something from the Christmas ranges so... 

I ended up getting one thing of every scent didn't I! Haha. All the Christmas scents this year were so lovely, I couldn't just pick one. I loved them all! So I ended up treating myself to the Kindness & Pears Body Yogurt (the first of the Body Shop Body Yogurts I'd ever tried), the Love & Plums Lip Balm and Joy & Jasmine Fragrance Mist. I was really excited to make the Joy & Jasmine Body Mist my festive scent the year and I was very much swayed by Meg to get this one and I was made up I did! I really loved making this my signature scent for the Christmas period and it made my heart beam every time I wore it. 

In addition to that, I had ever such the festive joy lathering myself up and glazing myself in the very festive Kindness & Pears Body Yogurt this December. As noted, this was my very first Body Yogurt from The Body Shop and being a body butter girl at heart and all-you-can-get-hydration-fanatic I've long been a little sceptical if the body yogurts would satisfy my quench-desiring thirst. Honestly, one of the biggest beauty surprises I had from the night and in a long time in fact - a proper wow product moment! I do not know how they do it but my goodness what magic does The Body Shop use. What they put on the tin really is not a lie. It genuinely left me feeling moisturised and nourished, albeit in a les buttery way than a body butter but not to any discrepancy, whilst absorbing faster than letting a fart slip when you make one sudden unproved movement (well close to that). I just couldn't get my head around how despite the fact how well and quickly it absorbs how well that it not just nourishes you but the nourishment lasts throughout the day! Honestly socks, once again, knocked off. And just to add the cherry on the merry cake, yes, yes the scent does last all day <3 but not in an overpowering or intense way, just a lovely way to enjoy throughout your day and remind you of those little festivities with that gorgeous Kindness & Pears scent.

Honestly, I've never smelt anything quite like it. A dream and truly festive!

Last lip balm and again another favourite - I think we can safely say they were all favourites - the Love & Plums Lip Balm. I kept getting the name for this cheeky one wrong but it just added to the humour of it! Haha! This was definitely your sweet scented pick of them all and resembled something a little like LUSH's Snow Fairy, of which is one of my absolute favourites. Like sweet berries and festive. It was really lovely to have this with me and apply throughout the day as the scent just added a little extra sprinkle of festive cheer to my day whilst serving it's purpose and being a very good lip moisturiser!

I'm intrigued to see if The Body Shop will bring back any of these scents this year but I'd be even more excited to see if they came up with some new ones after how incredible this year's range was!

Out Goodie Bags

After all that joy, The Body Shop Liverpool One team didn't just end the festivities there. The team very kindly gifted us the most immense goodie bag to take home and my goodness, it felt like my birthday and Christmas all rolled into one! So in my goodie bag I very kindly received two full sized gift sets, the Lemon Gift Set, including the Lemon Hand Wash, body lotion and hand sanitiser, and, wait for it...

We only got gifted the Camomile Gift Set that I'd been eyeing up in our goodie bag!

As noted before, this included a full-sized Camomile Cleansing Balm, the Camomile Gentle Eye-Makeup Remover and muslin cloth. I was most excited to deliver into this one as I had NEVER, never in all my years of blogging tried the camomile cleansing butter and I know it's a star staple that's absolutely raved about. On top of that, we also had the kindest little selection of dinky skincare treats to accompany these, which included a little Hemp Hand Cream (an all the favourite of mine and if you also suffer with dry hands I'd highly recommend reading my How I Fix Dry, Sore, Cracked Hands post), a mini camomile cleansing balm which I very lovingly gave to my mum and I think I was twice as excited as she was just to get her thoughts on it and try it on her skin, and a full-sized (again, how very generous of the team, thank you!) Shea Shower Cream. Well take a break Santa because we were well and truly spoilt!!

A few months down the line and I can safely say, I had a wail of a time with the Camomile Cleansing Balm and I can't wait to re-stock on it again, I thoroughly enjoyed my Shea Shower Cream and it did gentle wonders for my slightly drier not-so-ready-for-summer-but-quick-there's-five-minutes-of-sunshine-get-your-legs-out skin! Likewise, on the subject of skin, it's been a Godsend to have the Lemon Body Lotion in my staff to look after my extremities and make them warmer weather ready on these sunny days and I've also found the scent most uplifting and very fitting for Spring! Speaking of which, I'm going to crack out some of my hemp hand cream as I type now!

A lot of exclamation marks there, I'm very sorry, just lots of joys gratitude! The Body Shop Liverpool One - you are very kind! Thank you.

The Honeypot Charity Fundraise

The last stop I wanted to make before the night came to a close (I won't lie, I think I was the last one there. Oops!) was the new community hub act stand. So the act stand area is somewhere the team and other stores will share their latest fundraising and positive promotion projects. Each store's will have a personal and local aspect to their area and the idea is to support the local community through good things like fundraising. This Christmas Ryan informed us that The Body Shop had teamed up with a charity called Honeypot, of whom support young carers to ensure they have respite, support and special breaks away from their incredible young caring duties, as part of their Christmas mission to "Give With Joy". Over Christmas and throughout January this year The Body Shop were donating 5 pence from every transaction to the charity, whilst also offering the option to add a donation of choice to your transaction. The fundraise was so much of a success, look how much The Body Shop ended up raising!...

🎉 WE DID IT! 🎉 Together with your help, we raised a WHOPPING £320,272 to help support @Honeypotcharity & @CarersIreland this Christmas. This incredible donation will make such a difference to the lives of young carers & their families. 💚 Find out more: https://t.co/uJlcF2x3QG pic.twitter.com/bjFuKED6gr

— The Body Shop UK (@TheBodyShopUK) January 28, 2022

How wonderful is that! In addition to that, Ryan's lovely additional idea for this Christmas was making the community hub wall a "Giving the Gift Of Joy wall" whereby visitors were encouraged to share a Post-It-Notes of how they were planning to "Give the Gift Of Joy" this Christmas and of course, I couldn't resist... ♥

And that my friends was my wonderful night and second Body Shop blogger's event at The body Shop Liverpool One! I cannot thank the team enough for the invite; as ever it was a dream! The Body Shop have long been a favourite of mine, both, in my experience, for skincare that really works, skincare that's aims to do less harm and as a positive choice with your pennies for the world we live in and animals. I am just over joyed by the positive steps The Body Shop have taken to make sustainable and more eco-friendly beauty more accessible. My little younger eco-obsessed-self (yes I was the seven year old child that dreamed of living in an eco pod - does anyone else remember those being a thing about 15 years ago?) beams with delight and I just cannot wait to make as many trips as I possibly can to the new Liverpool One store and sustainable beauty shop, refill and repeat to my delight!

Has your local Body Shop had its sustainable makeover too? Have you been to one of the new workshop stores; what excites you most to try from them first?

Until the next post...

Ellie x

References

https://www.standard.co.uk/futurelondon/theplasticfreeproject/superdrug-the-body-shop-and-boots-pledges-to-reduce-packaging-a4021266.html

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