Christmas ‘Party Season’ Tips

I think I’m still in denial that it’s nearly December as this year really has simply whizzed past, with a wonderful new baby in our lives. Early the other evening though, as I was out walking to soothe poor teething Baby Isabel before bed, I bumped into Maeve, one of my glamorous NCT Mummy friends. She was on her way out to a party, complete with fab sparkly dress and high heels. It reminded me afresh of all those clever tricks that one indulges in before a big night out and, with the Christmas party season just around the corner, I thought I’d share some insider tips with you, to ensure you have the most beautiful skin at all the festive gatherings.

Many of us spend ages debating which little black dress to buy and which killer heels look best, but skincare often comes last on the ‘getting ready to go’ list. And yet your skin is the one thing that people look at all the time!  The most important tip that I’ve picked up from the top make-up artists that we’ve worked with around the world, is that a great ‘face’ begins with great skin prep. I always swear too, that the time to start is actually the night before.

So, set aside just an hour or so to indulge in some true ‘me’ time, and your skin will glisten its thanks. Run yourself a delicious sensory Vital Oils bath (Comfort is my favourite for chilling out) and the skincare fun begins….. This is the time to dip into our ‘Special Treatments’ range – designed for you to ‘dip in’ and ‘dip out’ of, as you need. There are many star SOS treats here including deep cleansers, soothing masks and spot treatments; all designed to tackle a variety of skin issues. As with all our range, all the Special Treatments really do multi-task, making this the perfect ‘quick fix’ pit-stop for all your pre-party needs.

Everyone needs a good face mask before a party – it’s a prerequisite, as much as painting your nails. After cleansing, simply choose between Intensive Nourishing Treatment – a soothing moisture mask to intensively replenish lost moisture, leaving you with baby-soft skin (there is no better skin primer); or try Deep Cleansing Mask – a hard-working botanical mask to help rebalance and regulate oilier skins. (You can use all over, or just on specific areas such as the t zone or congested areas such as the jaw line). You could also use both these masks on different parts of your face, if you’re combination skin – for instance, Intensive Nourishing on dry cheeks and Deep Cleansing on the t zone. Then slough away dead skin cells on the body, to reveal luscious limbs for your LBD, with Energising Body Scrub – super-quick, this gentle foaming exfoliator works to energise and refresh the skin, shoulder to toe.

When you’re dry, finish your pampering session with Superskin Concentrate on the face, neck and décolletage - serious overnight skin-nourishing TLC for all skin types – and massage Superbalm into the cuticles on your hands and feet, sealing with Hand Repair to ensure your manicure is set off to its best.

And for the morning of the party? For those horrid emergency spots – why do they always rear their head before a big day?! – keep handbag-friendly Spot On to hand. This mini rollerball delivers a potent blend of non-drying essential oils to help tackle the causes of outbreaks, with tea tree, lavender and melissa as well as natural vitamin E.  If the day runs away, time is tight and you end up with only 30 minutes to go before the party, don’t worry! Opt for everyone’s hero, Brightening Treatment – this minute mask works quickly to brighten and bring a rosy glow to even the dullest of complexions, leaving skin soft, clean and radiant. What better emergency fix before you start making up? For your evening bag, as well as Spot On which you can also apply over make-up if necessary, take a mini Instant Boost Skin Tonic Spritzer to refresh and revive all the senses, and a mini Botanical Aftersun Gel. Our minis are perfectly portable, and the Aftersun Gel really comes into its own to soothe aching ‘dancing in high heels’ feet!

For the morning after - ouch! – gently does it; reach quickly for soothing eye lotion Eyebright to calm puffiness around the eye area, and soothe weary heads. Sprinkle liberally onto two cotton wool pads, place over the eye area, and lie back for 5 minutes as Eyebright works its gentle wonders. (If you’re super-organised, pop Eyebright in the fridge as you leave the house for the party, so you’re ready for the morning after!) A spritz of Instant Boost from your evening bag will also quickly revive all the senses. Energising Body Wash is a great ‘morning after’ choice, and the eucalyptus in Cleanse & Polish also helps wipe away the cobwebs…

And a final tip…. I often find that I can start going down with colds and horrid winter bugs in the run-up to Christmas, when you’re super busy. Try a morning dose of this, instead of your double-shot skinny latte: add a spoonful of manuka honey and a squeeze of fresh lemon to a cup of hot water. This comforting drink helps ward off the baddies - another example of how our botanicals can work in so many ways, manuka honey in our Deep Cleansing Mask helps soothe the skin but taken orally like this, it can also help ward off infection. Most good supermarkets sell it alongside standard honey. It’s well worth the investment.

Happy partying!

Do come and share your own pre and post-party skincare tips here. We’d love to hear any of your own good suggestions that we can share during our next QVC shows - Liz & I both look forward to seeing you on QVC on Friday the 5th from 2pm!

EMA Awards in LA

I have been in Los Angeles for various press, customer and celebrity events happening here. The main event has been the Environmental Media Association awards, of which we are co-sponsors and the first British brand to be supporters of this prestigious Hollywood event. To help promote it, we held a beauty breakfast for the top ‘blogging’ beauty websites (a hugely growing part of the media in the States – and the UK too). We took over a stunning breakfast room right on the beach at Santa Monica, where I was able to tell the assembled writers a little more about us and also let them know about the EMA awards. Visit www.ema-online.org to find out more. Several of the beauty bloggers had already heard of us – one was a devotee of Cleanse & Polish already, so the word is certainly spreading Stateside. You can now read what one of the ‘bloggers’ had to say as a follow-up to our breakfast together – see www.beautyjunkiesunite.com

Getting ready for the celebrity-studded awards’ ceremony, I chose a British fashion designer, Temperley, and a really lovely green-gold evening gown, teamed with a gold vintage cardigan (very eco) and a metallic evening bag made entirely from recycled tin can ring-pulls and cotton crochet thread. These fabulous bags are made by a co-operative of women in Brazil and they really are amazing – lovely designs, practical and stylish too, yet very eco-friendly,  (and the money the women make goes back into their community projects too). Take a look at the website: www.bottletop.org

Walking down the ‘green carpet’ was slightly daunting as it was packed with TV stars, such as Nicole Richie and Ed Norton, news crews and paparazzi all jostling and hustling for the best shot or exclusive sound-bite. One of the reporters I spoke to, from CBS news, knew exactly who I was (unlike most of the others!) as both she and her sister are big fans of…Cleanse & Polish! So at least I didn’t have to explain to her what we do or how to use a muslin cloth. TV stars didn’t just walk the carpet though – some were driven down in Toyota’s hybrid Prius (very popular with the seen-to-be-greenies in Hollywood) while others made their point by riding a bicycle down the length of the carpet.

The EMA awards are held primarily to harness the power of the celebrity and the media to promote a more sustainable way of life – by giving out positive messages in films and TV shows – and are a valuable link between the entertainment industry and the eco-community. Nominated shows included Into the Wild (the new movie directed by Sean Penn), Boston Legal’s ‘Green Christmas’ episode and TV comedy 30 Rock’s ‘Greenzo’ episode. This last one was the show I voted for on the panel – and it won – so I felt lightly brushed with a little stardust magic.

After the awards, we all went into a beautifully  lit courtyard where many of the other sponsors, such as organic farms and restaurants, were offering canapés and delicious cocktails (antioxidant-enriched pomegranate mojitos were the drink of choice for many). Our own stand was next to Tiffany the jeweller, who were there promoting their ‘clean’ gold (mined with greater social responsibility) and , their ban on red coral and Burmese gemstones (more details on their website). As soon as the doors opened we were mobbed – with guests swarming 8-deep to our stand to receive a complimentary Cleanse & Polish kit, Superskin Moisturiser and Superskin Concentrate. The actress Wendie Malick stopped by with some of her girlfriends to rave about Cleanse & Polish – which she swears by every day - and special-achievement winner, actress Rosario Dawson spent quite a long time chatting with our team and was very interested in trying the range. 

We finally managed to slip away just after 11pm – a very late night by LA standards, where it is perfectly normal to be up and in the gym by 5am. Needless to say, we all had a little bit of a lie-in the following morning and woke-up to see images of the event being flashed around the world on the news-wire – some of which we can share with you here. Enjoy!

High-point: Meeting up with actress Wendie Malick on the ‘green carpet ’ and hearing her say “I’m just loving your Cleanse  & Polish – I use it every single day!” and then having her bring all her Hollywood chums to our stand at the EMA Awards.

Funny-point: Looking for a taxi and asking the driver if he was free? “No Ma-am,” he replied, “you have to pay.”

Info-point: Learning a new expression – “I need a 411 on that” - as in, dialling 411 for information.

US Trip

Hello I’m Tracy, Customer & Brand Relationship Manager, and I thought it would be great to share with you some ‘behind the scenes’ experiences from my recent trip to the US with Liz and the team. 

The trip started in LA, where we had a breakfast meeting with TotalBeauty.com – a network of beauty bloggers – held at the beautiful ‘Shutters on the Beach’ hotel in Santa Monica, which has a stunning view of the sea (not unlike the view from our home here on the Isle of Wight). Then came the really exciting Environmental Media Association Awards (also known as the EMAs), which honour those in the media and film industry who promote and increase awareness of environmental issues. This was a star-studded event where guests walked the green carpet to a stunning ceremony, before enjoying a VIP reception! 

Our day began early at 5am in order for us to prepare for the breakfast event by 8am. Following this we had just enough time for a quick meeting about a photo shoot in LA for Liz’s new book launching next year.  Then it was back to our hotel in Beverly Hills as we had to be dressed and ready to go by 3pm to set up our stand for the awards!  This was hard work as we had to open and empty dozens of boxes of products then arrange and display all the wonderful skincare goodies we were going to treat the guests to. Flat shoes were definitely order of the day and with temperatures of 80 degrees, it was hot! The night proved to be an amazing success with over 1,000 guests in attendance. A major highlight for us was Rosario Dawson stopping by our stand! Our Senior Press Officer, Louise presented Rosario with a Liz Earle Naturally Active Skincare gift bag while flash bulbs were going off all around us.
Although it was a very long and tiring day, we all left in very high spirits after meeting so many friendly and enthusiastic people.

Still buzzing from the EMA’s, we held two in-store customer events: the first was in Studio at Fred Segal, LA, where we celebrated the launch of our Christmas gifts, and where some of the team bumped into Marcia Cross (from Desperate Housewives fame) buying sunglasses!  Then we flew on to Miami for our 2nd anniversary party at Brownes Apothecary on Lincoln Road.  This evening event was organized with the Miami Beach Women’s Chamber of Commerce who were raising money for local charities.  It was a great opportunity to meet so many people and treat them to a relaxing hand & arm massage, which went down really well with all. We also took the opportunity to meet up with our friend, Kerry Gruson who lives in Miami and won this year’s Ladies Day award at Cowes Week here on the Isle of Wight. 

Meeting so many of our US customers (some from as far afield as Nebraska, Iowa and Wisconsin) was such a great experience. We’ve heard how much they love our products and especially how much they love the smell of them! Due to the constant sunshine and air-conditioning in many parts of the US, so many of the women I met had dry skin! Our Superskin range immediately became a real winner and a firm favourite.

Autumn’s Here!

Since I last wrote, I’ve had a fun mini break in Cornwall with my parents and Baby Isabel – my poor husband has just started an MBA, alongside his full time job, and couldn’t join us due to essay deadlines. It was delicious to have a break away, and I found the sea air so refreshing. Such a lovely part of England – it reminded me of the charm of the Isle of Wight in parts, with beautiful rugged coves and quaint villages tucked away. There is definitely something about being by the sea too – my skin really benefited from the relaxing beach walks (and catching up on sleep!)

It reminded me of how pretty the autumn is on the Island – do come and visit us. There is a lot to do locally in Ryde if you fancy a day trip – we’re only 10 minutes away from Portsmouth on the hovercraft. (You may even catch some of our team on the hover – we’re the ones always laughing and talking!) As well as some great coffee spots on Union High Street, where our original store ‘Union’ sits amongst the pretty Victorian buildings, the beach is only a stone’s throw away and there’s more than a handful of pretty shops to browse in, if you have a relaxing day to spare. If you ever want any advice, do let us know and we can recommend the best places – most of our team are from the island and are proud to share more about our beautiful, tranquil world here. And of course our Union team would be delighted to welcome you and help make your day very special.

So, with autumn, comes the dreaded onslaught on our skin! The central heating, the nip in the air and the car heating all combine to quickly dehydrate and unbalance the skin’s subtle equilibrium. I really notice the weather now, just by looking at my hands as I walk in the park with my baby. I like to think of Hand Repair (UK, US, Ireland) as an extra pair of velvety gloves - the days that I forget to pop on a quick application, I quickly live to regret! I wash my hands like never before and have really found the new hand wash helps combat dryness… but it’s the hard-working combination of the hand wash and the hand cream that keeps you totally protected.

Last week, I was pleased to join Alison Keenan on QVC for a special Christmas gifting show. Alison is a huge fan of Cleanse & Polish (particularly after those dreaded late shows, when you fall into bed at 4am), but also raved about the effectiveness of our hand cream. As many of you tell us, it really is such a ‘treatment’ product, much more than just a cream. And of course you now have different sizes to choose from – perfect for dotting all over the place, as a reminder to look after the hands. Like our faces, the skin on the hands really is exposed all the time so do take heed of the change in weather, keep Hand Repair to hand and don’t forget your mitts!

Look forward to speaking to you again on tomorrow’s QVC show, or if you miss that, look out for me on the ‘Gift of Great Skin’ QVC show on the 26^th November……. and thank you for all your positive feedback about the aromatic, hard-working new Orange Flower Hand Wash. We love hearing your stories.

How to make your Christmas just that little bit greener…

Much of my time as the company’s environmental advisor is spent researching and implementing new ideas for the company to lessen the impact we have on our environment. It’s progress, not perfection, but every new, more environmentally friendly thing we do helps to make a difference.

This Christmas for example, I have worked closely with our design team to ensure that our beautiful and award winning Christmas boxes are not only totally fabulous and a delight to open, but are also a little kinder to our world. We made the boxes slightly smaller, so that less packaging is needed inside to protect the products, plus they’re made completely from environmentally friendly 100% recycled board and the Sea Holly design is printed on to paper from a sustainable, FSC accredited source and has a biodegradable matt laminate finish.

I’ve also shared some tips on how you can reuse or recycle any of our Christmas packaging on our website (UK, US, Ireland).

Whilst Christmas is a time when we traditionally consume more than at any other time of year, celebrating doesn’t have to mean we should forget about the extra waste we generate. There are some positive actions we can all take to make the season that little bit greener without getting in the way of the Christmas spirit:

Before Christmas…

Christmas cards
Up to 1 billion Christmas cards could end up in bins across the UK this Christmas (estimate from www.wasteonline.org.uk).

What can we do?
Why not email your Christmas wishes to some of your friends and family? Cancer Research UK have a great festive selection of e-cards and you can donate the money that you would have spent on cards to a good cause! (www.sendandgive.org)

Christmas wrapping paper
Over Christmas, enough wrapping paper will be used to cover an area larger than Guernsey (estimate from www.wasteonline.org.uk). However, wrapping presents is part of the festive ritual and admittedly, it wouldn't be as much fun if you could see what you'd got as soon as you looked under the tree.

What can we do?
Why not use more gift bags and boxes, they look fantastic and can easily be reused. 100% recycled Christmas paper is a great idea too (www.guardianecostore.co.uk). Finally, try to reuse or recycle the Christmas paper you receive this year. To find out how visit: www.recyclenow.com

After Christmas…

Christmas cards
In the 12 years that the Woodland recycling scheme has been running, 600 million cards have been recycled. This has enabled the Woodland Trust to plant 141,000 trees, save 12,000 tonnes of paper from landfill and stop 16,000 tonnes of CO2 from going into the atmosphere – the equivalent to taking more than 5,000 cars off the road for a year. So it a really worthwhile thing to do!

What can we do?
Try to recycle all your cards. A great idea is to use some of your favourite cards to create unique gift tags for next year. You can also take your cards to one of the Woodland Trust collection sites, who will recycle the cards to help raise money to plant new trees (www.woodland-trust.org.uk/cards).

Wasted food
Did you know? Almost a third of food bought at Christmas is wasted by the average family (Friends of the Earth – www.foe.co.uk).

What can we do?
Think carefully this Christmas about what food you will need over the festive season. Why not take a list with you when you go shopping? You are less likely to be tempted to add things you don’t really need into your basket. (This saves money too!)

I’d also recommend popping a Compost Crock onto your Christmas list. These decorative ceramic crocks are the smart new way to collect kitchen scraps for the compost heap and are custom-made for kitchen waste destined for your compost bin (we use them here in our office kitchen!) Find out more from www.naturalcollection.com. If you would like further information on composting visit www.recyclenow.com.

I hope you find these tips useful. If you have any other ideas for making Christmas a little bit ‘greener’, why not share them on this blog – I’m always looking for new ideas.

Traveller’s Tales

I’ve been in Dublin’s fair city to celebrate our arrival in the new Wilde & Green store. Founded earlier this year by Denise Begley and Carmel O’Callaghan, this special food-store-and-more is a real find, stocking delicious homemade delicacies as well as local and organic produce. Both Carmel and Denise are big fans of our range so we were really delighted when they invited us to be the only beauty brand stocked in-store. Since their opening on 27th June, our little area has gone from strength to strength, growing in size until it now feels like stepping into a Liz Earle store within a store. We’ve just put our beautiful new Sea Holly Christmas boxes (UK, US, Ireland) in their windows and they look really spectacular. If you haven’t yet seen these stunning gift boxes, I’ll be showing them in more detail on QVC later on today. Of course, if you live in or near by Dublin, do go along and say hello to the Wilde & Green team – they’d love to see you.

As usual, the team and I managed to pack a lot into a short space of time, starting with a (very) early morning TV appearance on Ireland’s national breakfast show, Ireland AM, with Alan Hughes. We took our lovely model Debbie with us for the slot (you may recognise her from our QVC shows) and despite having to get up before dawn, she actually enjoyed a little more sleep than usual as she’s a new mum and going through the rigours of night feeds. Getting up before daybreak reminded me of the many years I spent as a contributor to GMTV, when it was usual to leave for the studios at 5am and be back home in time to get the children up for breakfast. The most gruelling schedule I can remember was being sent to LA for the Oscars, filming segments for the show all day, then keeping myself awake on a potent blend of expresso and adrenaline until 3am, when I would do a live satellite link back to Lorraine Kelly in the UK studio - falling into bed for a few hours sleep before getting up and doing it all over again, and again. After our QVC shows today I’m actually heading back over to Los Angeles, this time to take part in a very special awards ceremony, not just report from it. Instead of walking down a red carpet for the Oscars I’ll be treading the green carpet for the Environmental Media Awards. I’ll bring you more news from tinsel-town next week. Until then, I hope you’ll be able to catch some of our shows on QVC, or you can watch our launch on Ireland AM.

Customer Satisfaction and Security Online

We all love to shop online because it’s fuss-free, there are no queues (especially important in the lead up to this festive season) and you can easily find what you are looking for.  Our online team’s mission is to make shopping online as easy and safe for you as possible. We were therefore really proud and delighted when we found out this week that our website came top in Which? magazine’s biggest online shopping survey. It was really amazing to receive a customer satisfaction score of 95% in addition to very high scores for delivery and ease of ordering!

As long as you take sensible precautions, online shopping can be just as safe as shopping over the phone, or in shops. However, for those of you who are a little concerned, here are a few of my top online shopping safety tips…

Never include valuable card or bank information in an email
Never give away your Personal Identification Number (PIN) or secure passwords in a response to an email. Sensitive information should never be requested via email, so although an email may look very convincing never give this information away.

Only shop at secure websites
Ensure that the security icon (this is usually a symbol of a locked padlock or unbroken key which appears in the bottom right hand corner of your web browser or on your address bar) has appeared, and look at the retailers web address which will change from ‘http’ to ‘https’ when you have reached a secure connection.

Consider setting up an internet only credit card
If you regularly shop online, you could consider opening an internet only credit card, allowing you to monitor transactions at a glance and set up additional consumer protection just in case something goes wrong.

And finally…..

Sign up to ‘MasterCard SecureCode’ when you are given the option whilst shopping online
Increasingly, when you go to make a purchase online, you will be given the option to sign up to a scheme that gives you extra security when you’re buying online.  This scheme is very similar to entering a PIN when you buy goods or services in person, but involves setting up a username and password that confirms your identity when you buy online.  Our own website uses ‘Mastercard SecureCode’ when using Maestro as a payment method online.

I hope you’ve found these tips useful and they make you feel more confident whilst shopping online and remember, if you ever have any questions about shopping on our own site, our friendly customer centre team are only a phone call away on 01983 813913.

The Secret of The Best Facial

Wow, what a day of bliss! This week, after the hectic rush and prep for the fun QVC show last Sunday (hope everyone managed to get their hands on the new hand wash kit?!), I booked myself in for an hour and a half of pampering in our Duke of York’s Square treatment rooms. Heavenly! My first beauty treatment since Baby Isabel made her entry into the world and, as expected, I found the ‘me’ time the best that I’ve experienced in months! The calmness of the beautiful rooms immediately hits you as you meander downstairs, away from the hustle and bustle of the Kings Road. The beautiful Isle of Wight imagery made me feel right at home and I almost fell onto the inviting couch, I was so full of anticipation! And I wasn’t disappointed, let me tell you……

Time literally seemed to stand still for the whole treatment. One of my big bugbears with treatments (and I have had many facials and treatments, all over the world, on my travels), is that they can seem sadly all too short. I find that one always starts to feel that you are almost anticipating the end, all too quickly! Not so with our wonderful signature facial – Emma’s calm hands worked their wonders for what felt like an eternity. (She even had to tell me to stop asking if it was nearly over, as I was so surprised each time she said, ‘Oh no, not for a long while yet!’). I found the whole experience from the thorough consultation beforehand (including the key question that one is so rarely asked – ‘what do you want to gain from your treatment today?’) to the actual facial and results, to be just what I had expected and hoped for during our long preparation period as we developed the treatments. Just like our product development, the end result has to be perfect before we can share it! There are so many personal touches too, to make it precisely what you want and not just a standard treatment adapted to you. It’s totally bespoke, such is the skill of our team.

I also love the way that our team of expert therapists use the products in new ways – for instance, Emma used Deep Cleansing Mask (UK, US, Ireland) on the tricky t-zone areas and Intensive Nourishing Treatment on my dry cheeks. Sounds logical but something that I rarely remember to do. It’s an incredibly holistic way that our special team work with your skin too – looking at the whole picture. I don’t want to give away too much, as I really invite you to try this wonderful escapism for yourselves, but we also use some clever little gadgets that work naturally alongside facial massage to help really tackle all sorts of skin issues. I found it a perfect balance between actual facial massage, treatment with our hard-working products (our Special Treatments range is perfect for zoning in on specific areas of need) and the little help from the magic gadgets.

Today, two days later, my skin is crystal clear and so matt, ‘plump’ and soft, that a stranger even commented on it today. This morning my husband also complimented me: ‘You must be sleeping deeply as you look great’ (music to my ears!) I think the girls will be seeing a lot more of me in the coming months! Do book up, as word is spreading and that waiting list is starting to grow. And then do come back and let us know what you think here, by posting your thoughts. We’d love to hear your experiences.

Well, now that my skin has had the best workout it has had in months, it’s time to work on the other bits of me that need trimming up! Running shoes, here I come!

Seasonal Treats & Diary Dates!

As Liz says below, it’s that exciting time again and we’ve already started the big countdown to Christmas, here at Liz Earle. I’m amazed at how this year has sped past – one counts every week of pregnancy so meticulously, and yet now that Baby Isabel is here, the seasons have just zipped past. Like many of you who have posted messages here, I too was really excited to watch this past weekend’s TSV and to start planning my Christmas gift list. As I’m still on maternity leave, it was the first time in years that I sat down to watch all the shows with my ‘customer hat’ on. I nearly ordered the TSV myself, I was so hooked. Unfortunately, I have a heavy cold and had to watch from bed (an interesting experience with a lively 7 months’ old baby!), but thoroughly enjoyed seeing all your messages & texts whizzing across the screen. It’s a real interactive experience, and I know many of you tune in with your skincare in front of you, to join in the demos! (I have to admit that I got so carried away watching Liz on the show, that I persuaded my husband to give Baby Izzy her daily bath early, after the 10am show, as I enjoyed the Orange Flower Body Wash baby discussions so much). Very exciting that we received three awards for Cleanse & Polish too last week – well done to our hero product.

Another product I foresee becoming one of our heroes is our new Orange Flower Hand Wash (UK, US, Ireland). I’ve only been using the hand wash for a few weeks but am amazed at how soft my hands are already (and I can tell you they are seriously under the kosh at the moment, with the changing season and cold weather biting into my buggy-clutching hands on daily walks, and the constant washing between nappy changes and feeds!). My other ‘mum’ friends are already pestering me for the secret of soft hands, but my hand wash has been - almost literally - glued to my basin to avoid it going walkabout! Even my husband is intrigued by the new addition to the Liz Earle family in our bathroom.

And my final ‘PS’, I am really excited to let you know that I am due back for a quick QVC show this coming Sunday morning (12th October). Part of the ‘Christmas Stocking Fillers’ show at 11am, I will be revealing a very special new kit with a new hero product! It will be the first time that we’ve aired this fab new product, so please join me on Sunday when I reveal our new kit and look out on the website for more brilliant gift ideas.

Christmas countdown

This week I started thinking about my Christmas list. Each Autumn, I retrieve the small notebook of festive jottings in which I write what I have given my nearest and dearest - partly to make sure I don’t repeat myself but also to keep track of the growing number of nephews, Godchildren and family friends I’d like to buy a little something special for over the next oh-so-short two months. I’ve also made a shopping list of the ingredients for our Christmas cake which I’ll make soon too, on an afternoon when all four children are home so they can all stir the fruity mixture and make a wish. Once made, I tightly wrap the cake in baking parchment and clingfilm (having first sprinkled liberally with brandy to soak in) and leave to ‘mature’ in the pantry until it’s iced. It’s a simple tradition, but one that, for me, marks the beginning of the Christmas countdown and I really enjoy the sense of anticipation for festivities yet to be enjoyed and presents soon to be wrapped (and with a bit of luck, unwrapped!).

This week has also been a busy one on the Island for the team as we get ready for one of the real highlights of the year on QVC, the shopping channel. This is our Christmas TSV and it is a hugely exciting 24-hour period of live broadcasting when we launch a very special offer (and lots more besides), live on-air. For those who have never been part of the experience, TSV stands for Today’s Special Value and QVC launch one every single day at midnight (yes, I know, but this is a very popular time of day for the QVC viewing family…). For one day only, we produce a beautiful set of skincare at an extremely ‘special’ price and promote this as our TSV. The exact contents have to remain a secret and so I’m afraid I’m absolutely not allowed to reveal the details, except to say that this year, the team have really excelled themselves and there’s something really very special that’s been included. Don’t say I didn’t tip you off in advance.

One of the best things for me about the event is the opportunity it gives me to chat live on-air to callers who ring into the studio – which always reminds me of the live phone-ins I used to do on Richard and Judy’s This Morning programme so very many years ago. I love it because it’s so real and inter-active – we also get lots of text messages and emails coming through, so do tune in and join me if you’ve not done so before, especially if you’ve any wonderful stories or skincare experiences to share.

One of the things I’ll be launching on Saturday is our brand new Christmas box range and this year they are all especially beautiful. We’ve spent almost the entire year working on these (our first planning meeting happens in January, just after we’ve taken the tinsel down). We’ve lots of shapes, colour and sizes but the overall theme features a beautiful beach botanical Eryngium maritimum, or Sea Holly. Up-close, the flower of this special, spikey plant looks just like an intricate snowflake but it’s actually an endangered species, found in very few places and one of them is on our very own Isle of Wight. I was fascinated by this unusual botanical, which is not only beautiful and rare, but also extremely useful as this coastal plant has an extensive root system that helps bind sand on our sea shore. This is especially important in areas where there has been much coastal development, as it can help preserve sand dunes and the unique wildlife habitat they attract. If you’re visiting the Island, watch out for this pretty plant which we’ve spotted growing wild in Yarmouth’s Norton Spit, St Helen’s Duver and Newtowns Creek, but don’t pick it as it’s on the Sussex Rare Species Inventory (and even has regional protection in Northern France).

I do hope you’ll be able to tune in over the weekend and join me – either at our live midnight launch, or for some of the many live shows being broadcast throughout Saturday, from mid-morning right the way through the day until late evening. And do let us know what you think of both the shows and our new Christmas boxes by leaving a comment here on the Blog – the team and I really hope you’ll be as dazzled and delighted as we all are.