NB: Entry to the Free From Skincare Awards 2020 is closed, but 2021’s Awards will open in January. The below guidelines refer to the 2020 Awards, but are likely to remain largely in line with those for 2021.
First …
1/ Read and understand the FAQs and Criteria & Rules.
2/ Consider the Categories you wish to enter, and check your products meet our Criteria. If unsure, email Alex.
Fees and dates
1/ Entry opens 3rd February 2020.
2/ Entry fee is £165 or £132 per product. (VAT is not charged.)
3/ Only skincare brands with fewer than three individuals in employment across the whole company (owners included, both nationally and internationally, if applicable) are entitled to the lower fee of £132 per product. (We may ask for evidence to support this. NB The condition applies to the cosmetic brand or parent company, and not to any PR, regional representative or independent agent entering the brand’s products. Two full-time individuals and one part-time individual is the maximum total accepted under ‘fewer than three’)
4/ There are no additional fees at any later stage of the Award.
5/ Final deadline to enter is 22nd March 2020.
Entering …
1/ Once you have decided what to enter, visit our Online Entry Form and Payment Store.
2/ Complete your Company Details on page 1.
3/ Then, on page 2, complete a Product Entry Form for each product you are entering — choose ‘Add Product Entry’ for additional Product Entry Forms. If you wish to enter the same product into multiple categories, a Product Entry Form must be completed, and paid for, for each one.
4/ You can click the ‘Save’ button at the foot of the page as you go along, and return to your forms later via the unique link provided.
5/ Once you have completed all your Product Entry Forms, proceed to page 3 to enter your payment details and ‘Submit’ once you are done. Forms cannot be edited once they are submitted.
6/ You should receive a confirmation of entry email. Do not send samples at this stage, as in the event of a problem they cannot be returned.
What next?
1/ Entries will be checked for any discrepancies or possible issues: such as products entered into inappropriate categories, or ingredients excluded under our criteria. While we endeavour to resolve any issues and make entrants aware of problems before we accept them, we remind entrants it is their responsibility to ensure submissions are accurate and to check whether there are problems that may disqualify them for any reason.
2/ We aim to confirm acceptance of entry within 72 hours. If you don’t hear from us within a week of having submitted your entry forms, contact us.
3/ When we confirm acceptance, we will email you instructions for sending us samples — normally, six full-size units of each product entered in each category will be required (but see point 4 below). These must arrive within 10 days of being requested. Samples must be in the size specified on the entry form, and be products as they are sold to the purchasing consumer in the UK / EU. Pre-trade / tester / trial / mock-up samples cannot be accepted.
4/ In the case of single-use products only (eg bath bombs, sheet face masks), more than six samples will be required. The quantity is likely to be around twenty. Please contact us to discuss.
5/ Entrants are wholly responsible for postage and delivery fees to our UK address. Duties and taxes incurred because of shipment from outside the UK must also be met by the entrant.
6/ We will email you a Free From Skincare Awards Entrant Logo which you are free to use to denote your participation in the Awards.
7/ We will welcome you on social media channels. (Our hashtag is #FFSA20.)
Then what?
1/ Once your products are received at our offices, we will confirm their receipt, and begin to send them to our Testers. Four experienced testers will test your products for one month. (To learn more about testing and judging, click here.)
2/ Once the testing period is over, testers submit detailed feedback and scores to us. Once this is received for all entries, the data will be carefully collated and a Shortlist compiled.
3/ The Shortlist will be announced in May, and shared widely on social media and to the press / beauty media. We will write to all successful and unsuccessful entrants, and send a Shortlisted Logo to shortlisted brands. Entrants who do not hear from us by the end of May should contact us.
4/ Shortlisted products are presented to independent round-table panels of judges consisting of, for example, cosmetic formulators, beauty writers, skincare experts, allergy bloggers, ‘free from’ experts and selected brand owners, for further assessment during a dedicated judging week in May. The feedback from the Testers is presented to these judges, along with the products themselves, and this feedback is combined with the views of judges, in order to decide upon a list of winners and runners-up, with usually one Gold winner, several Silver and several Bronze in each category, as well as Overall / Achievement / Best Brand winners.
5/ Winners will be announced online in mid-late June 2020 (date TBC), and showcased widely on our websites and social media channels.
And after the announcements?
1/ Soon after the announcements, we will email Winners Logos to all winning brands.
2/ The Overall Winner will receive the trophy for best Free From Skincare Product 2020, either delivered in person by member(s) of the Free From Skincare Awards team, or via courier.
3/ We will issue press releases about the Awards and the Winners, and encourage all winners to participate in publicity regarding their win, which we will aim to support in any way we can. (For previous press coverage, see here.)
4/ We will share news and winners on all our social media channels, and showcase a large selection of products and brands across our websites and accounts, and at any shows at which we will be exhibiting, such as The Allergy & Free From Show.
5/ Detailed testers’ feedback on products will be available on request in the weeks after the awards to all participants, whether or not shortlisted, whether or not winning.