Are you a fan of 'Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares'?

He's the famous TV celebrity Chef who, apart from building his own branded successful chain of restaurants and depending on your point of view makes for great car crash TV viewing. 

The format for the show is based on the same premise - he focuses on restaurants that have fallen on hard times and face imminent closure in his hit TV show 'Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares'. 

He has a fairly straightforward repeatable process that manages to help struggling and mainly 'stubborn' restaurant owners to revive, and at times save terminal business scenarios. 

He always visits the local competition, he always gets honest authentic feedback from employees and customers alike, and he always has a good bust up with the stubborn owner who still wants to do what they've always been doing despite all the commercial evidence saying a big loud 'NO' - sounds like a familiar story in retail land to me!

Have you ever heard the phrase 'a retail warm up'?

The answer is;

When consumers choose one channel to get warmed up over a brand and go on to make a purchase via another!!

The majority of that consumer ‘warm up’ is going on via 'Social Media' channels whilst using a mobile phone and making purchase decisions based on ideas from their favourite 'influencers'..

It seems that the big global beauty brands are now having to listen to a plethora of social media 'influencers' who are showing us that many of the things sat in our kitchens can be used as amazing alternative solutions to expensive beauty products.

Many effective and affordable natural ingredients for your skin can be found right in your home. In fact, most can be found in your pantry or refrigerator.

Here's a couple of ideas that seem to work;

Have you tried a DIY yogurt face mask? 

People have noticed a lot of positive results after applying yogurt to their skin like added moisture, evened skin tone, reduced fine lines and acne and decreased inflammation. Not only is the yogurt cooling for the skin but the extra dose of probiotics can help your skin’s microbiome balance itself naturally.

Oatmeal - If your body is itchy or dry try adding a cup of oats to your bath. For your face: blend equal parts oats and water in a food processor or blender. Add a little honey and lather that mixture on your face OR blend up dry oats to make oat flour and use this as a gentle exfoliator for dead skin. 

And finally Turmeric – A bonus ingredient that most of you probably have in your pantry!

Turmeric is a super powerful herb and can really help to decrease skin inflammation but it can also stain the skin so consider this your warning. Turmeric can help clear up breakouts and help with acne scarring.

Who says that retail is constantly in need of innovation?