Reflections on 2020

“My philosophy is to say yes to every opportunity and then work out how to make it happen. And, more than ever, I’ve done that this year.”

Clare, founder of Guava & Gold

It’s an understatement to say that 2020 has not been the year any one of us was expecting and that’s also true for Guava & Gold.

Having started the year with the fantastic news that Guava & Gold had been chosen as one of the Country & Townhouse invitation-only Great British Brands 2020, we had some exciting plans for the brand earlier this year which literally changed overnight with Covid-19 lockdowns. That meant, like so many independent businesses all over the world, Guava & Gold needed to make some rapid adjustments to a hugely different reality.

 

Dealing with the commercial impact of the virus has tested the resilience of so many companies which have been around for a lot longer than Guava & Gold but we decided the way forward as a still young and independent beauty brand was to keep building on what we had started, focus on the positives and aim to do as much to help others as we could.

 

Throughout 2020, our luxury bath and body collection has kept winning recognition and awards. There were quite a few but highlights included a gold Global Makeup Award for our Paradise Found Bath & Shower Gel and silver awards in the Global Green Makeup Awards and Beauty Bible Awards for our Paradise Found Body Lotion and Coco & Cherimoya Body Lotion. Our Coco & Cherimoya Shampoo featured as best for super-glossy locks in the Country & Townhouse round-up of the very best luxury shampoos on the market alongside some huge names in the beauty industry.

 

And we’ve continued to build relationships throughout the year with highly respected retailers including Modafirma, Wolf & Badger and other wonderful online platforms and shops who are all leading the way in cheerleading for independent beauty brands. We’ve also seen Guava & Gold expanding into Europe where we’re now stocked in some absolutely stunning lifestyle ‘bricks and mortar’ stores in Belgium and The Netherlands with another three new European retailers coming on board the weekend before Christmas.

 

But Guava & Gold has always set out to be more than just a business. We’re in just our second year of business but we’ve faced the pandemic as best we can – donating products to frontline workers and supporting causes to help eliminate hygiene poverty. With a new outlook on shopping emerging so clearly this year, consumers are ever more conscious of the ethos and sustainability of the brands they buy, which is in line with our values of using natural extracts and kind-to-skin ingredients, doing as little harm as possible to the environment and giving to others whenever we can.

 

The Guava & Gold collection is all about capturing the colour, vibrancy, fun and sheer joy of the best tropical holiday ever in an elegant bottle and transporting you from your bathroom shower to the waters of the tropics. So many of us can’t travel at the moment but we’re heading into 2021 with positivity and optimism and we’d love you to come along with us too.