Our History
Since 1997 we’ve made it our mission to be in your homes selling high quality, performance driven Make Up, Skin Care and Bath and Body ranges, and in more recent times fabulous Jewellery, Homeware and Aromatherapy too. So here’s a little snippet into our history, who we are, how we started and how we got to where we are today.
2009
New year, new name: We started the year off with a bang and announced we’d be relaunching as VIE at home, led by the management team who started us 12 years ago and the same CEO Ros Simmons who has been with us since the very start. Find out more about VIE at home, the new name for Virgin Vie At Home.
Hong Kong here we come: 88 of our top performing Consultants and Managers took a luxurious trip of a lifetime to Hong Kong. The agenda included a day at the races, trips and shopping around Hong Kong, some very decadent dinner parties and most importantly fun!
What a way to relaunch! At the 2009 Direct Selling Association Awards, we were nominated as finalists in every category bar one and won two prestigious awards. We were thrilled to win the Innovation and Training Award for our new commission and training plan – we knew it was enlightened and delivered the very best to our Consultants, but it’s always nice when industry experts agree we’re the best in the business
New products: In the Summer of 2009 we acquired an Aromatherapy Company, introducing a brand new, comprehensive Aromatherapy range to the VIE at home product offering. See the full collection here.
Back to the Future: 800 of our top Consultants and Managers gathered at the new 5* Sofitel at Heathrow Airport for our Christmas Launch. Not only did we launch our new Make Up and Jewellery products, but celebrity Make Up Artist Lisa Valencia gave a makeover demonstration and our Consultants received lots of well deserved recognition. Many went home with free products, some went home knowing their flights were booked for an all expenses paid trip to Cape Town, and one lucky lady won an MX5 Sports Car for a year.
New territories: Autumn 2009 and we were thrilled to announce we’d recruited an incredible 1200 Consultants in Lebanon. Amazing in just 18 months of trading. Towards the end of the year we also opened our doors to the German market, the largest Direct Selling market in Europe. We expect great things from our fantastic team there and we have lots of very exciting new markets on the horizon for early 2010.
New recruits: In September we ran our most successful campaign encouraging women all over the UK to Make Money from Make Up and join us as a Consultant. For every recruit we pledged to donate £10 to our nominated charity Clic Sargent – we were therefore thrilled to present Clic with a cheque for over £11,000 in September 2009. In total we have raised over £400,000 for CLIC and are one of their biggest sponsors
High Flyer Club Dinner: As a thank you to our high flying Consultants and Managers and the partners who support them with their businesses, we held our Gala Dinner at top London restaurant and nightspot ‘Avenue’. Guests met Strictly Come Dancing and England Cricket Star Mark Ramprakash, who even took a spin on the dance floor.
Come dine with us: In November top performers accompanied by their partners enjoyed an evening at Marriott St Pierre Hotel and Leisure Country Club as a celebration for their achievements.
No beauty school drop-outs here: With a little bit of help from Celebrity Make Up Artist Lisa Valencia, we launched our Beauty School. A fun day of make up top tips, tricks of the trade and advice all offered so your Consultant can give you the best Make Up advice at your VIE at home Party.
A brief history from 2008 back to 1997
2008
Skin Care Focus: We’re thrilled to launch our new range of Skin Care – innovative, effective and affordable it’s the Skin Care range of our dreams. Essentials awarded our Cloud 9 Day Cream best moisturiser as part of their prestigious Beauty Awards and we knew we were onto great things
Good quality gets an even better price: We love a bargain and we know you all do too. So we launched our Clearance store online. Premium products at reduced prices.
We found the faces of the future: We launch a ‘real model’ competition looking for the future faces of the modelling industry. The three winners starred in their very own photoshoot – you can read more here.
Miami here we come! Our top performing Consultants and Managers take a all expenses trip to Miami, all aboard the luxurious Cruise, Century.
2007
Happy Birthday: 10 years old and we’ve sold over £6M Vitamin C Skin Fix Moisturiser, over half a million cans of Foot Fizz and half a million tubes of Hand Cream alone!
The carnival starts: Our Consultants set off to Rio De Janeiro – for a fun packed party!
In your home, furnishing your home: A new category, Homeware, launches. Designed exclusively for us by us.
A new look to our online shop: We took the future by storm and launched our new look website – our online shop was the new convenient way to buy our products.
2006
Award-winning Jewellery: We’re awarded a Highly Commended honour in the Fashion Retailer of the Year category at the Retail Jewellery Awards.
A new name for a growing business: We rebrand to ‘Virgin Vie At Home’.
2005
Gorgeous Jewellery: We launch a range of exclusively designed, trend-inspired Jewellery.
The awards are still coming: Virgin Cosmetics wins ‘Direct Sales Team of the Year Award’ at the 2005 National Sales Awards.
2004
We love an award … For the second year running, Virgin Cosmetics wins the Innovation and Excellence Award at the Direct Selling Association Award Ceremony in London.
2003, We extended our award shelf! Recognised for its commitment and expertise in the Direct Selling Industry, Virgin Cosmetics brings home the Direct Selling Association (DSA) Award for helping to change the face of Direct Selling.
2000, 1 Million is the magic number and in October we celebrated our 1,000,000 customer.
1999, Recruit, recruit, recruit Two years since our launch and we celebrate our 2000th Consultant.
1998, Work hard, play hard: So we award 23 Consultants to a five-star all expenses paid trip to Monte Carlo as a reward for their hard work and commitment.
1996, We’ll start at the beginning: In 1996 Sir Richard Branson set up Virgin Cosmetics, selling gorgeous premium Cosmetics, Skin Care and Bath & Body products through Direct Selling Party Plan. A star is born!
