Listening to your ideas

Last week was a busy one for me – on Thursday, I presented some mini slots on QVC at 9am and 10pm, with a talk in our King's Road shop in-between. I love hearing your messages during the shows – there is always such a variety of questions, suggestions and feedback that I can hardly wait to come off-air and will often rush off the set to jot down your feedback and my own thoughts on your comments. I thought that you'd like to know that all your suggestions are fed back to our Customer Care team on the island – whenever and however you tell us, in our shops, online, on the phone or via QVC – and we do then look to develop new products based on your suggestions and requests.

In fact, I was chatting to Kim before Christmas after one of our talks and she was telling me how she'd been doing some archiving in her office and had found one of the original monthly 'customer product requests' forms – interestingly, all the products that we now have available for you were there, in their infancy. Requests included: a soft, nourishing balm to calm and soothe dry, chapped skin; a delicious smelling body cream using hard-working botanicals to enrich dry body skin – ring any bells?! Our talk last week in the King's Road shop was another great chance to hear current customer requests afresh – foot treatments and haircare appear to be the favourites at the moment. I was also reading everyone's comments on our Facebook page and was delighted to see that someone had posted a discussion asking what products everyone would like us to launch next – other people responded with some really great ideas. Keep your eyes peeled for some exciting new product launches this year!...

I just wanted to ask you here, if you are a regular QVC fan, is there anything that you'd like to see more of in our shows? What do you enjoy most? Please do let me know what you'd like to see more of – I would love to hear your thoughts… Thank you too for your kind emails. I am really enjoying hosting some of the QVC shows and your support is really encouraging.

Keep warm and don't forget that Gentle Face Exfoliator is also a great skin reviver for those dreaded flaky skin patches, at this time of the year. Roll on the spring!

Skin secrets...

It was great to have so many of you join me at the weekend for our Spring TSV (Today's Special Value) on QVC The Shopping Channel. Thanks for all your calls and text messages to the studio. I was especially amused by the caller who asked if I had enjoyed a lie-in by not being 'live' at 8am (which QVC always air as a repeat of the midnight and 1am launch). As the TSV guest, I am in the studio until the small hours of the morning and my head hits the pillow at around 3am for a few hours of zzzzzs before heading backstage for prep early morning. So as you can guess, with only 4-5 hours sleep, a lie-in is unfortunately never possible during a TSV show weekend! In fact, one of the biggest challenges I face during these days is being on-air throughout a 24 hour period and needing to remain fresh-faced. I rely very heavily on every skincare resource, especially our Brightening Treatment and Harmony Vital Oils body spray – an invigorating blend of uplifting and de-stressing essential oils (mostly citrus-based) which really do act as a potent pick-me-up. I'm aware that new viewers especially, tune-in throughout the day and will scrutinise the state of my own skin before listening to any advice about their own, which makes the schedule especially tough. Fortunately I also have the help of a wonderful make-up artist, Kerry, who always makes me look better – so much so, my six year old recently asked me why I always looked much prettier on TV and couldn’t I wear a bit more lipstick at home!

Talking of skin scrutiny, it was also good to be able to preview the launch of my latest – and largest – book, 'Skin Secrets', which will be published next month. I have spent much of the last twelve months researching and writing this, and it includes information for every age and stage of life, from children and teens right the way through to septuagenarians and beyond… Writing and researching this has taken me right back to my original roots as a journalist and author (I wrote my first book, 'Vital Oils', over eighteen years ago). I love the process of investigating skin issues, talking to leading academics and world-class experts on a very wide range of subjects, including practical help for specific skin problems. This section includes the latest advice for acne, eczema and rosacea, to name but a few. As it's a large hardback book, I've also been able to add some wonderful photography, from fabulous botanical images from my field-trip travels to beautiful plant illustrations and more. I've even included a few family snaps to illustrate skin changes across the generations as well as shots taken at home on my farm to complement the large chapter on food and skin-boosting recipes. Watch out for more details in our next newsletter – which should be coming your way next week – and let us know what you think.