Once a year, CEW President, Carlotta
Jacobson, and Senior Vice President, Lisa Klein, travel to London to meet with
colleagues at CEW UK. After their visit this year, Carlotta and Lisa agreed
that London is fast becoming a major beauty capital—with department stores serving
as beauty’s top destinations. Here, Carlotta reports on the two London retailers
that stand out, and provides feedback from CEW UK’s 20th Annual
Celebration.

Lisa
and I could have spent all day at Selfridges. Their new Beauty Workshop takes
the concept of offering a variety of products at different price points and
combines it with a rich menu of beauty services…and not just the usual ones.
Brow shaping, threading, 15-minute blowouts, half-hour massages, quickie
manicures, even hair extensions are all on offer. The Beauty Workshop is a
great-looking, enormously inviting space; quick, affordable and just so
accessible.
Urban Retreat at Harrods is
probably the most luxurious beauty salon in London. It is, for certain, the
largest, with a staggering 22,000 square feet of space, 32 beauty rooms, 45
styling stations, 14 mani-pedi stations and 224 highly-trained staff members.
Currently,

Urban Retreat at Harrods offers a comprehensive range of
services from luxury body treatments to more technologically-advanced services,
such as low-level laser body contouring, semi-permanent tattooing and, the new HYPOXI-Method, that actually helps
clients change their body shape.

While
the shopping experience was beyond expectations, the primary reason for this
trip was to attend CEW UK’s 20th Anniversary celebration at their annual
Achiever Awards event. A Who’s Who in beauty was there. CEW UK’s 1,000 members
are the major players in beauty and retail: Celine Gilg of The Estée Lauder Companies and Tom Ford
Beauty; Daniela Rinaldi of Harvey Nichols; Marigay McKee from Harrods; and beauty entrepreneur, Michelle Feeney, CEO of PZ Cussons Beauty. The honorees were equally impressive: Roisin Donnelly of
P&G (who is also CEW UK’s Chairperson); Janet Saunders of Clinique; Jo
Walker from The Perfume Shop; Alice Hart-Davis of Good Things Skincare, and
Kenneth Green of Kenneth Green Associates.

CEW
is known for nurturing beauty start-ups that are energizing the beauty market.
Balance Me, NEOM Organics, and Maddi Alexander, were finalists for the CEW UK
Member Achiever Award along with the innovative Scratch and Sniff Events.
(Balance Me took home the award).

Perhaps
the most moving moment of the evening was when Caroline Neville, President of
CEW UK, was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award for building CEW UK
into a major force in the industry.

And certainly
most humbling was when I was presented with a Special Industry Award for my
contributions and guidance to CEW UK.