The golden hour {in partnership with L’Occitane}

In my previous life (read: jobs), 5pm used to be those dreaded end of day deadlines: rushing to get custom documents signed and carnets finished in time for a shoot, running to the postroom to grab looks before they closed for the day, finalising call sheets and booking couriers. Now, whenever I can, I try and save 5pm onwards for Peggy….it’s my favourite time of the day when we wind down for the evening.

Bath-time for us involves nappy free-time in her room (we’ve been using reuseables lately and love them but more on those later), reading a book followed by a warm bath with her favourite toys and L’Occitane products before milk and bed. It all happens quite quickly and is probably the one time of the day which is completely phone-free.

I have always used the gentlest products on Peggy’s skin, and L’Occitane’s Shea Baby range is naturally derived, using only ethically sourced shea butter. We use the Cuddles and Bubbles foaming cream at bath-time, followed by the moisturising milk and the balm is amazing for baby massage, or any extra dry patches which I massage on her elbows and calves in the day, especially during the winter months.

I have been a fan of L’Occitane handcream and soap for years personally, there is something about their packaging which I have always loved. I once, in fact, styled a shoot with Yasmin Le Bon with L’Occitane for Red about 5 years ago in Corsica, and have used the products ever since. The Shea travel size creams are perfect for your handbag in the winter (my hands are so dry this winter, maybe it’s all the nappy changing) and make excellent gifts for friends (and my mother in law!), and they really are the best hand creams around.

But this isn’t the only reason for partnering up with them, when we met to chat about working together, I loved their story and most of all their ethos and ethics and thought I’d share a bit here:

1. L’Occitane have a keen recycling policy, and are working with Terracycle to reduce landfill. Drop your empty products (from any brand!) into store and receive 10% off your next product (find more info here).
3. A lot of their products use renewable resources or sustainable forests for packaging and there are also certain products where you can buy recyclable refill pouches to fill your existing bottles, which are cheaper than rebuying the product.
5. All Shea products are ethically sourced, fair-trade and the transparent supply chain is something they pride themselves on. The shea butter used in these products, for example, is sourced from Burkina Faso, where they employ over 17,000 women and established a co-developing partnership, with the L’Occitane foundation offering women of Burkina Faso access to literacy and girls’ education.

If that’s not a reason to fall in love with this brand, I’m not sure what is.