Online Beauty at Bath & Unwind

In the dim and distant past I could lose an entire afternoon trawling the beauty department of Liberty's. I would also frequently lose a significant portion of my income on expensive products in those heady days pre kids, when spending £30 on a new face cream seemed like a sound investment. A lifetime later and I'm a mother of two with very little time to mooch about sniffing perfumes and trying creams, and even less disposable income to spend on superfluous luxuries. However, there's no denying that I'm getting older and showing the effects of years of little sleep, excessive sunbathing and general daily stress on my face, so I reckon making a little bit of an investment in the skincare department isn't something to feel too guilty about. 

So I was excited to hear about Bath & Unwind, an online beauty retailer selling a great range of premium beauty products without the exorbitant price tag. Furthemore, Bath & Unwind is a local company, with head offices based in the heart of Bristol. I like to support local business as much as possible, so I decided to trial their service and see what they offer that makes them different to the many other online beauty retailers out there.

Image courtesy of Bath & Unwind

It's a nicely merchandised site with clear navigation and clean design - always a big winner for me as someone who's worked in the web industry since the early noughties and who has a big thing for usability. The registration function is equally seamless so you can enter your details and make your purchase quickly. Functionality aside, Bath & Unwind offers some nice added extras to the service, such as free standard delivery with no minimum spend and a loyalty points scheme whereby you automatically earn 5 reward points for every £1 spent, which can then be redeemed on subsequent purchases. Your points never expire and you can use them straight away or save them up and enjoy a bigger discount on a later order. 

For my purchase I opted for the fast delivery service which is £2.49 (or free for orders over £35) and guarantees delivery within 2 days; in my case I made my order mid-morning and received it first thing the next day, conveniently averting a 'run-out-of-moisturiser' crisis which could easily have resulted in a pre school-run tantrum (and a rather dry face.)

In terms of brands, Bath & Unwind is pretty far-reaching, taking in premium names such as Bliss, Elemis and Perricone MD alongside more mid-range, affordable brands such as Burt's Bees, Korres and Neal's Yard Remedies. In terms of pricing it's competitive with the other major players in the online beauty arena, but the site features frequent special offers and 3 for 1 deals. At the time of writing I spotted some tempting offers including free sample sets with any two products from the Ren range and 25% off the 'soothing' range from Aromatherapy Associates. There's also an outlet department where you can pick up great discounts, plus the range includes products for men and babies. 

Another aspect of the site I really like is the personal element that makes Bath & Unwind less of a faceless e-commerce site and more of a friendly beauty advisor. According to the 'about us' spiel, each product in the Bath & Unwind range is hand-picked by a beauty expert and facialist who adds her own 'Emily Loves' tag to the products she loves and recommends. Alongside personally picked products there are also beauty blogs written by members of the Bath & Unwind team so you can get some background info about the products and learn some useful tricks of the trade.

All in all Bath & Unwind ticks a lot of boxes and I'd really recommend it if you're after a particularly niche beauty brand or you simply don't have time for extended shopping trips. It offers really efficient service and a carefully edited, balanced range that makes for a most pleasant online shopping experience.

You can visit the Bath & Unwind website here.