News

Hot on the heels of our recent success in the Beauty Shortlist awards, we’re thrilled to announce that we’ve gone all the way in the Biteable Beauty Awards! Our gorgeous Siam Roots Skin Conditioner with Lemongrass & Ginger recently WON the best body oil category – and we couldn’t be happier!

Biteable Beauty is an award-winning blog dedicated to natural and organic products across the beauty, health and lifestyle sectors. It is run by Rebecca Goodyear, who also owns a boutique PR agency specialising in natural products. Well respected as an industry expert and thought leader, she has featured in the Who’s Who of Natural Beauty list for the past four years. She certainly knows her stuff and her opinions really count.

Here’s a victory photo of the winning product:

What a beauty

Siam Roots skin conditioner blends four organic oils – jojoba, sweet almond, grape seed and sesame – with the typically Thai scents of lemongrass, ginger and plai to create a deeply hydrating skin oil with a fresh, uplifting scent. 98% of the total ingredients are organic, and the product has been certified by COSMOS.

Other winning brands include Bodhi & Birch, JĀSÖN and Green People, so we are in excellent company and are very proud that our small indie brand is getting the recognition it deserves in the UK!

Click here to buy our award-winning Siam Roots skin conditioner, which retails at ฿720 for 90g.

Congratulations to #winner of best body oil category @SiamBotanicals with this product! #biteablebestof #beauty https://t.co/3JmFnhdMSj

— rebecca goodyear (@biteablebeauty) March 21, 2016

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March 21, 2016

Shave Oil makes finals of Beauty Shortlist Awards

Although well established in Thailand and southeast Asia, the Siam Botanicals brand is relatively new to the UK and the EU, where the natural skincare industry is growing rapidly. A few months ago, we decided to put our head above the parapet by entering a couple of our top-selling products into the Beauty Shortlist Awards. The Beauty Shortlist is one of the UK’s top beauty blogs, so it was a good opportunity for us to increase awareness of our products and reach more potential customers who are interested in natural and organic skincare.

All the winners were announced last week – see the full list here – and we were thrilled to discover that our Gentlemen of Siam Shave Oil had been made a finalist in the ‘Best Shaving Product’ category!

We’re giving ourselves a little pat on the back – and we might even pour ourselves a nice glass of something fizzy!

Don’t mind if I do! Photo by Yi Wang / CC BY-SA

OK, so we didn’t win an actual gong – this time – but for a newcomer entering awards in the UK for the first time, it’s a real achievement to make the shortlist, especially when other entrants include such mega brands as Liz Earle (owned by Walgreens Boots Alliance), REN (owned by Unilever), Neal’s Yard (founded in 1981) and Weleda (which is represented in over 50 countries).

We’re keen to build on this important breakthrough – and we have some exciting plans in the pipeline, which include another foray into the world of awards and an industry event. Watch this space for details…!

Click here to buy our organic lemongrass & tea tree shave oil, which has been certified by COSMOS and retails at ฿590 for 24g (up to 100 shaves).

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February 9, 2016

Siam Botanicals’ flagship store

Did you know that our new Siam Botanicals flagship store recently opened its doors? It’s located in the Charoen Krung area of Bangkok, by the Chao Phraya river.

About Charoen Krung Road

Charoen Krung Road (Thanon Charoen Krung) translates as ‘Road of the Prosperous City’ and is thought to have been the city’s first ‘proper’ road. To travel along its 8.5km length is to get a snapshot of many of the historical and cultural influences that make Bangkok such an interesting and eclectic city.

About the flagship store

Our flagship store is in the OP Garden complex, which is located near several five-star hotels including the Mandarin Oriental. It is spacious and light, with ceiling-height windows on three sides that look out onto leafy gardens.

The full range of Siam Botanicals 100% natural skincare and haircare products is on display, and there’s also a facial treatment room – why not book yourself in for our signature four-step organic facial?

Our friendly, knowledgeable staff are always on hand to answer any questions you might have about our products, ingredients, production process and our 100% natural ethos.

About the area

Our neighbours in the complex include art galleries and high-end boutique shops selling antiques, home décor products, jewellery and more. In the middle of the complex is a relaxing outdoor courtyard with a bar and a Mango Tree restaurant serving modern Thai cuisine.

In next-door OP Place, a beautifully restored colonial mansion, there are more independent shops and galleries. It’s particularly well known for antiques, but you’ll also find carpets, hand-woven Thai silk, leather goods, jewellery and a host of other handmade items.

If you have time for a little sightseeing, pop into the charming but little-known Bangkokian Museum – it’s free to enter. Set in beautiful gardens, it consists mainly of two wooden houses that have been preserved exactly as they were when they were built in the early 20th century. Also worth a visit is the Assumption Cathedral, Thailand’s principal Roman Catholic Church; its Romanesque red-brick exterior and French colonial influences make it an unusual sight in Bangkok.

For more information about our flagship store and the surrounding area, click here. We look forward to seeing you soon!

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October 6, 2015

REVIEW: Lemongrass & Tea Tree Shave Oil

Our weekend got off to a great start on Friday, when Del Brown of UK-based website Del Brown Approved published his review of our Lemongrass & Tea Tree shave oil.

Del is a self-proclaimed ‘ingredient scrutiniser’ with a passion for natural and organic skincare, so he certainly knows his stuff. He is a respected skincare blogger and his reviews are always very thoroughly researched, so we were very keen to hear his feedback.

As expected, his first port of call was the ingredients list. He quickly noted that there was ‘not a synthetic additive in sight. No artificial perfume, colourings or preservatives. 97% of the total ingredients are certified organic.’

Satisfied that the ingredients met his high standards he gave the shave oil a try, even going so far as to shave his head with it! The great thing about this oil is that it is very versatile, as Del discovered when he ‘went a bit rogue’:

‘With an ingredient list this good, it would have been a sin just to use it as a shave oil. So, I tried it as a beard and face oil and it is amazing! As a beard oil, the combination of ingredients meant I only required a couple of drops, brushed into my beard, to give it a healthy, glossy, soft look and feel. I also used a couple of drops at night as a face oil and my face was left feeling smooth, hydrated and calm.’

What man wouldn’t appreciate a multi-tasking product like this?!

Del concludes:

‘I really like the philosophy of Siam Botanicals. They do not use ANY synthetic ingredients, are cruelty free, committed to responsible sources and where possible, use local providers. So if you’re already a fan of using shave oils, you should certainly add this one to your try list. A highly practical, multi-tasking oil, packed full of skin benefiting ingredients. Fully Del Brown Approved!

Read the full review here; click here to buy or find out more about our shave oil.

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July 13, 2015

COSMOS-standard Certification for Siam Botanicals!

With the organic and natural skincare market becoming ever more competitive, consumers are quite rightly becoming more and more discerning about the products they use and the ingredients they put onto their skin. One way to stand out in a crowded market is to go through the lengthy process of receiving certification from an official body.

In a world of greenwashing, where terms such as ‘natural’ and ‘organic’ are bandied about all too freely with little or no substance behind them, a recognised ‘stamp of approval’ such as the COSMOS-standard certification gives customers confidence that a company really is sticking to the ethos it claims to espouse, and that the ingredients it uses really can be trusted.

This is the road that Siam Botanicals started down last year – and finally, in April of this year, our products were approved! [**Pops cork**]

We were, in fact, one of the first companies to be awarded the COSMOS certification under the new, more stringent guidelines introduced in February. Our products were assessed and approved by BDIH, the German non-profit association, but the COSMOS-standard label is a Europe-wide standard that was developed by not only BDIH but also Cosmebio (France), Ecocert (France), ICEA (Italy) and Soil Association (UK). The certification can be approved by any of these organisations.

What does the COSMOS-standard certification mean?

Maybe you’re imagining that we simply send our ingredients lists off for analysis, wait for a bit and then receive our certification in the post. Well, you’d be very much mistaken! Reassuringly for consumers, it’s a LOT more comprehensive than this – and we chose COSMOS precisely because it is (in our view) the strictest and most rigorous of all the certifications out there.

When you see a product that has been COSMOS-certified, it means that every aspect of that company’s production process has been put under scrutiny during an audit that can last several days. It means that:

•the manufacturing facility has been inspected

•there has been a full audit of ingredients, including their origin and how they were processed

•the company has demonstrated that its production methods are ecologically sound – this includes providing an environmental management plan that addresses the whole manufacturing process

•its product formulas, labels and packaging have been approved

•any non-organic ingredients have been used because no organic equivalents were available

•all ingredients are GM-free (non-organic ingredients can only be used if the supplier has submitted a declaration that they are non-GM)

There are two certifications available – COSMOS Organic and COSMOS Natural. To achieve either option, the full audit must be carried out successfully on each product.

To receive the COSMOS Organic label, at least 95% of the agro-ingredients must be organic.

Products that pass the audit but do not contain at least 95% agro-organic ingredients are eligible for the COSMOS Natural certification. COSMOS Natural products may of course contain some organic ingredients (as ours do), but at a lower percentage than those with the Organic certification. For these products, the percentage of natural origin ingredients must be indicated on the label – except where the products are 100% natural origin.

We are proud to say that ALL Siam Botanicals products are 100% natural origin. We do not use any synthetic chemicals, nor do we use ‘nature identical’ ingredients. We strive to find the best, most ethical providers and have chosen organic ingredients wherever possible.

The full list of Siam Botanicals products that are COSMOS-standard approved is listed below. You can buy these products safe in the knowledge that we take our responsibilities and promises incredibly seriously – and we have the stamp to prove it!

COSMOS Organic:

Argan & Moringa Face Polish

Rosehip and Tea Tree Face Cleanser

Apricot Face Cleanser for Dry Skin

Apricot Face Cleanser for Oily Skin

Rudis Oleum Botanical Face Care – Day Formula

Rudis Oleum Botanical Face Care – Night Formula

Rudis Oleum Botanical Face Care – Repair Formula

Rudis Oleum Botanical Face Care – Replenish Formula

Gentlemen of Siam Lemongrass & Tea Tree Shave Oil

Gentlemen of Siam After Shave Toner

100% Pure Bulgarian Rose Water