A beauty and skincare company based in Falmouth has won the top award at an international event.

Bloomtown, which has offices on the Tregoniggie Industrial Estate, was awarded joint gold in the overall best brand category at the ninth annual Free From Skincare Awards, alongside New Zealand skincare company Antipodes.

More than 250 products from more than 100 brands were entered into this year’s competition, which was founded in 2012 to highlight the best skincare products that are free from many of the allergens and ingredients associated with skin sensitivities, health concerns and ethical and environmental issues.

The best brand accolade followed the company winning another gold medal in the bath oil category for their Meadow Body & Bath Oil, two silvers in the 'fresh and fragrant' category for their natural deodorants and a bronze medal in the hand, foot and nail care category for their 70 per cent alcohol organic hand sanitiser.

The success comes just over year after owners Preyanka Clark Prakash and Medwin Culmer, from Mylor, failed to win funding on BBC Dragons' Den - despite winning praise from the dragons.

They have since gone on to secure funding to expand their product line and scale up production in the coming year.

Read next: Mylor couple come face to face with dragons on popular TV programme

The couple said now: "We have worked extremely hard to get our formulations just right and we’re really pleased that the testers at the Free From awards have given us their stamp of approval, which gives us extra energy to pursue our goals of delivering the best ethical and environmental friendly skincare products possible.”

The announcements followed a long judging process that included a rigorous month-long assessment by four experienced skincare testers, and concluded with expert judging sessions conducted both in person and virtually on Zoom.

Bloomtown was founded in April 2016 by Medwin and Preyanka after they spendt time in Indonesia, where they witnessed first-hand the destruction of orangutan habitat due to palm oil cultivation.

“From that point it became our mission to create a ‘ticks-all-the-boxes’ body and skincare company to offer concerned consumers truly ethical and cruelty-free alternatives,” added Preyanka.