Well, here I am typing away thousands of feet above Australia – on my way home c/o BA, after the TVSN shows in Sydney this week. Talk about ‘whistle-stop tour’ – we landed 6am Monday, and have spent the past 6 days literally on our toes the entire time. I’m on a fitness regime for my summer holiday – exercise really helps your skin looks its best too - so I forced my good friend & colleague Manja to jog with me, most mornings – we even managed the harbour bridge on two days; stunning at 6am with the city traffic whirling by and the lights of this buzzing city as it wakes up and comes alive. Everyone is so fit here – so many peeps out running with us, though Manja and I felt rather unfit in comparison! (That’s what living in a country dominated by an outdoors lifestyles does to you!)

The shows were fun – we had some wonderful T calls (when customers call into the studio during the live shows) with some fab feedback. Superskin Concentrate still continues to be a best-seller out here – our Buyer’s Choice flew out of the door with this special skin-saver featured in the product line-up. This time, our lovely presenter Carla King Turner was on maternity leave (she is due to give birth any day!) and we were delighted to work with two other fans: the stunning and vivacious Sarah Vandenbergh (of ex ‘Neighbours’ & ‘Hollyoaks’ fame!), and Marnie Meredith. After our shows yesterday, Marnie emailed me to say what a profound difference our range had made to her skin, which suffers from the hot studio lighting and air conditioning: “Liz Earle truly is the most beautiful products and I am so thoroughly enjoying the entire range.  I don't say this light-heartedly either. I am privileged enough to receive a variety of skincare samples due to my job, but can honestly say, I've not enjoyed a range like this before.  I was truly grateful….”. Both lovely ladies. It was the first time that I’d worked with Marnie (I told her that her name mirrored my favourite Hitchcock movie, so all boded well for our first set of shows together!), but our range is so easy to demonstrate, that Marnie was hooked very quickly – as her comments above show!

This time, between shows, Manja and I managed to explore Paddington (the hip boutique-y area of Sydney), looking at some hip designer stores such as Collette Dinnigan and The Corner Shop, as well as some fun beauty spas and salons. One day, between shows, as we visited Mecca and Kit – a fab chain of skincare boutiques -  we stumbled upon a real find: a new florist called Lillifields on Oxford Street – with an organic café in the back courtyard garden, complete with botanicals growing wild and delicious juices, and a florist inside packed with the most stunning floral specimens. Also, to suit the taste of Manja (cosmopolitan German girlie) and me (supposedly discerning Londoner) – there were also some select bijoux and gifts. Just up our street and a real find for any Sydney trippers to discover…..

The weather was warmer than seasonably predicted, so we enjoyed similar May weather to the UK – but the sun is just so hot here. Again, I plied myself with SPF whenever we were in the sun for more than a few minutes as it just seems to bore down on you. 

Back in the UK for a few weeks now, complete with a stinking cold – thanks to good old long-haul flights, I’m sure!

Well. it’s nearly midnight, but I’m still buzzing from our evening show so thought I’d hop online and write a few of my thoughts. We’re nearly there now, with only one show tomorrow left. The Buyer’s Choice (a bit like the TSV on QVC in the UK) has sold out, and Manja has been working with our TVSN buyer Daniel, to put together special kits for each hour, so there is something fab and new for customers on each of our seven shows.

Today was the longest day, with three shows spread across the day – the hardest thing is to keep yourself ‘paced’. I tend to find my adrenaline makes me very energetic or incredibly tired, so we have been planning our day carefully to try and squeeze in some time away from the studio so we can review how things are going.

Craig, our make-up artist, has worked with many Australian celebrities, and he always passed on his favourite Naturally Active Skincare tricks to them – he loves Brightening Treatment best of all. When he flies all over Australia and the States, he tends to find that he hits the ground, then hits the hotel, and then has to hit the crew ‘get togethers’ over cocktails. He says that Brightening Treatment is his absolute rescue remedy for a quick, radiant fix – he just hops in the shower, and no matter how tired he looks or how jet-lagged he feels, this quick fix mask makes him look and feel invigorated and radiant in no time. Great tip for frequent travellers!

The shows have gone well – many customers are now becoming firm friends, coming back to stock up on their Daily Essentials. We learn so much from customer feedback out here and hearing positive t-calls (live telephone calls to the studio set) during the shows makes it very motivating. Women are still buying Superbalm Concentrate in droves – they know their stuff! This super soother is just perfect out here….Our regular presenter Carla is 5 months pregnant so her new-found tips are really valuable for us to share on air. Carla is always a delight and is totally passionate about the range.

We also worked with another energetic, Naturally Active Skincare enthusiast called Sarah this time, who shared the presenting of the shows with Carla. Relatively new to TVSN, Sarah is a well-known face already Down Under - and in the UK - as she starred in both Neighbours and Hollyoaks (teen soap operas). Although she’s still relatively new to our range, Sarah has embraced all we’re about and was a trusted and positive host for our shows – she adores many of the products and loved the live demonstrations on air, as some she hadn’t seen before. Seeing her interest and understanding really made the shows pass so quickly – she asks great questions as so much about us is new to her. Hopefully our Australian friend enjoyed the shows as much as we did!

Well, off to bed now as one more show tomorrow – then a well-earned day off on Sunday. It’s actually my birthday on Sunday, so Manja and I are treating ourselves to a performance of ‘La Traviata’ at the Opera House – can’t wait, then back to the UK on Monday…

Well, all the English are in town – Ralph Fiennes and Charles Dance are starring in local plays as part of the Sydney Festival. The whole town is buzzing. Manja & I went for an early morning run in the Botanical Gardens this morning – we ran past a huge open air screen over the water, where some of the festival’s films are being shown. On the steps of the Opera House, a team were beginning to erect another huge sports screen to show the Melbourne Tennis Open live for Sydney-siders to watch. It really is the outdoors life out here! It feels very strange speaking to the team back home in the cold, and we’re struggling to stay cool here; there’s no air con in the studio so we’ve had to buy a big fan to keep us cool ‘backstage’. This is the biggest challenge at the moment, as the humidity seems quite high.

Only one show today so we took the opportunity to visit some more specialist boutiques and spas around town, to see what the latest beauty buzz is. We also met up with an ex-English hairdresser, called Hugh, who has a fab new spa in Wooloomooloo in a converted Victorian house. He is a huge fan of the range and regularly tunes in to watch the shows. Everyone here seems very into their skincare – the sun is so hot that Sun Shade would really have to be part of your daily routine. The girls who work in the City out here are very chic – and even the backstage crew at TVSN have fab manicures! It seems that it’s just part of life out here – looking good is important though on a deeper level. The hole in the ozone out here means the sun truly is intense – I religiously apply Superbalm Concentrate to any exposed skin on my face & body at the end of each day, to rejuvenate my skin and help minimise any sun damage that I can’t see (UVA rays cause the premature ageing).

The TVSN team have moved to a new building in French’s Forest so they can all be together under one roof, but the only problem is that the studio is still in the throes of being built. This means that we are literally walking among overhead hanging cables and plaster, and lots of builders. I’m sure that the health & safety team back on the IOW would have a field day out here – I can’t believe that we’re allowed to walk around ‘hard hat only’ areas without hats. I have been strictly told that it’s closed-toe shoes only too on set – which is a bit of an issue as I’ve only bought summer sandals, of course!

Anyway, we’ve found ourselves a rough & ready green room to get ready for the shows (it was looking like the canteen at one point!) and I’m looking forward to the refreshing challenge of a new studio. It’s state-of-the-art and seems as if everything has been carefully organised to make the live shows easy & comfortable – watch this space!

This afternoon, after a busy morning spent training some of the teams at the Call Centre at TVSN, I’ve headed back to the hot city whilst Manja remains at the TVSN studio, preparing the set for our first show tomorrow. This involved organising the whole set and product line-up – using real botanical ingredients (many of which grow in the wild out here), our set backdrops and all the special kits that we’ve bought out to show our customers. I’m busy preparing for the shows in the hotel room, using some botanical ingredients notes that our ethno-botanist Anna has given me – there are so many fascinating stories about how our ingredients are sourced: such as the difference between male and female plants, what part of the botanical we use (e.g. leaf, root, petals), where it’s grown, the local environment, the climate, the soil conditions, the altitude… the list goes on! Having our own ethno-botanist - who works alongside Liz and our in-house experts - means that we can make ethical choices about our skincare and which ingredients we use. It’s fascinating reading, and I hope to share more of this in the shows this week…

Well, the New Year has gone in a flash! I’m now off on my travels again and am back in sunny Sydney, in 35 degree heat. We’re back for our next set of TVSN shows (the Australian TV home shopping channel, available on Foxtel and Austar). It’s great to be back, as I missed our last set of shows in September as I was on my honeymoon. Sydney is a great city – one of my favourites now – and I always get a huge buzz from being back in town and seeing how Australian women shop for skincare.

Out here, it’s not dissimilar to the States, where you find numerous info-mericals on the television, particularly during the morning and daytime tv show slots. I always feel a little ‘bombarded’ by this sort of advertising early in the mornings. But it’s good on show days to really wake you up, as it assaults the senses with all the pressure sales and ‘hooks’ – it reminds me that this is not the way to persuade people to buy. I’d rather listen to a calm, fun show and pick up tips from the presenters on how to use the products, and hear other customer testimonials from real women to hear what they think. This, in a nutshell, is what our tv shopping shows are all about, world-over.

My colleague Manja and I touched down yesterday at 6am, and I forced her to stay awake to tackle the jet-lag, so we literally walked & walked & walked all day, till we were ready to drop! The Botanical Gardens here stunned Manja as much as they did me, when I first came to Sydney several years ago – the abundance of huge, weird & wonderful plants and trees against the stunning backdrop of the harbour, the city sky-scrapers, the famous ‘coathanger’ bridge and stunning Opera House all make for a wonderful day out. I managed to find the little botanical garden that I remembered from previous trips, where many of the ingredients that we use are grown. This time, we were greeted with the vibrant pink of the echinacea flowers, and saw the succulent aloe vera plants soaking up the sun, alongside huge bushes of aromatic rosemary and some small yarrow plants, tucked into the shade. A great way to start the trip – and very fragrant! I took some more photos, which we hope to use on some of the shows out here.

Up bright and early for our final show day, fortunately with no ill-effects from last night’s delicious seafood feast. We’ve almost sold out of our gift sets and special skincare kits, so our last show is really quite a simple one. It’s great to leave on a high and we’ve had record sales, met some lovely customers and made several new friends during our brief trip here. Stop in at several new beauty stores to see what’s going on in this part of the globe – one of the nicest was Kit, a great new chain of natural beauty stores that are springing up throughout Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and beyond. I visited their Paddington Street branch, where the manageress was especially friendly and the standard of service unusually high. Back to the airport for the afternoon flight. I’m not a natural flyer, but I’ve had to get used to it over the last few years. Actually, the flight is so long that it’s a welcome break to have 24 hours with no phones, emails, or text message distractions.

Two more shows today – and more sell-outs. We had a great call from a customer who’d been using the range for years in England before moving Down Under. She gets her sister to air-mail her supplies from the UK and had no idea we were doing some shows on TVSN – so nearly fell off her chair when she was channel-flicking with the remote control and suddenly found us. Her favourite is Skin Repair for Dry Skin, as the weather here is so incredibly hot and dry.
To rest and revive between shows I head to Salon Empyrean, 34 Crown Street, Woolloomooloo, where I’m booked under an assumed name to try it out. The salon is in a converted Victorian town house and is very welcoming. It got a bit tricky to be anonymous when my delightful therapist, Silka, asked me what skincare I was using as my skin was so clear and hydrated. I mumbled something about “making my own out of oils and things”, which was sort-of true after the in-flight experience. I was just paying the bill and ready to run out of the door when the charming owner, Hugh Skanlon, came over and said “I know you, don’t I?” “ No, I don’t think so”, I said (truthfully), “What’s your name?” “Er, Elizabeth,” I said (still being truthful, but hoping to get away with anonymity). “Ha!” He announced, “No you’re not, you’re Liz Earle and I just LOVE Cleanse & Polish – my sister sends it over to me from Dublin, it’s just fabulous and I couldn’t be without it”. We end up chatting like old friends and he shows me around the rest of the day spa – which I highly recommend if you find yourself in that part of the world.

Whizz back in a taxi just in time to take the TV show production girls to the Sydney Opera House as a ‘thank you’ treat. We meet at Bennelong – one of Sydney’s finest restaurants, which yesterday won its third chef’s hat (a bit like our Michelin star system – so three is very, very special). I’d been tipped off that instead of having to book ahead for a hugely expensive dinner, you can simply stroll up to the bar. Provided you don’t mind perching on a barstool, here you can sample some of most mouth-watering seafood tapas and a glass of chilled Australian Sauvignon Blanc for a much more reasonable 30 Australian dollars (about £12) a head, overlooking one of the prettiest and buzziest harbours in the world.

We’re in luck - on the only evening we’re not working, there is a production of the classic Italian opera Rigoletto. I often find you can get returned tickets to even the top sell-out shows from the Box Office on the day, without having to pay extortionate ticket-tout prices.I have to say it was completely fabulous – set in the 1950’s with sets designed and lit like Edward Hopper paintings. I came away thinking I could sit through it allover again, it was that good. We decided to hover around the stage door afterwards like real opera-groupies, to ask some of the stars to sign our programmes as souvenirs and to let them know just how much we call enjoyed their performance. The Australian-born tenor, Rosario La Spina, played the dastardly Count and I can see why he’s had such acclaim, having won first prize in the tenor competition at Milan’s famous La Scala in 2000. Despite being a world-class male diva and the undoubted star of tonight’s performance, he was so charming in real life I nearly offered him some Cleanse & Polish for all that stage make-up but he has a beard. How well does C&P work with a beard, I wonder? If anyone has experience of this perhaps they could let our Customer Care team know?!  On the way back, I call my husband to tell him of our wonderful evening. As he’s in the film business he’s more concerned with the news that I ate oysters during show days. “If any of my ‘talent’ ate raw shellfish during a shoot I’d be furious’” he says. I’m crossing my fingers that Bennelong’s three ‘chefs hats’ is a safe bet…

Woke up to fire alarm going off – is this going to be a habit when I stay in a hotel?? Not risking another nightdress-incident, I struggle half-asleep into some jogging bottoms and a warm jumper. An automated voice commands us to stay put and not to panic. Peering out of the window all seems to be normal and soon the alarm stops with no explanation. Figure that whilst I’m dressed for exercise, I might as well do some. A couple of years ago I bought a very expensive pair of trainers called MBTs. They’ve not exactly had a lot of wear, but I do periodically pack them on my travels so I feel better about spending so much money on gym shoes. They’ve been out on display in many a hotel bedroom, but not actually ‘seen the sights’ as such. Today is their first outing. You have to tuck your bottom in and walk in a long, rolling stride, planting the heel of the foot firmly on the ground before rolling through to the toe, which makes you feel like John Cleese in The Ministry of Funny Walks sketch and takes a bit of getting used to. Regular use is supposed to make your bottom shrink, which would be nice were it to be true.
I walked around Circular Quay, passing the vintage Manley ferries chugging to and fro across the picturesque harbour and on to the Botanical gardens. These beautiful, tropical gardens are lush with vegetation of most descriptions – including many varieties which are confined to the tropical glass houses in Kew Gardens. Here, the aloes and palms grow along the pathways without any special treatment. I spy many of our naturally active ingredients growing wild, including several varieties of aloe, fragrant jasmine blooms and avocado trees. There seem to be quite a few activities and lectures that happen in and around the Botanic Gardens in Sydney, so well worth checking out their website for some advance information if you’re planning a trip.

What a pleasure to be back in such a beautiful city as Sydney. My hotel room has a beautiful balcony view overlooking Sydney Harbour bridge and the phenomenal architectural landmark that is the Sydney Opera House. Did you know that the designer of this marvel apparently fell out with the construction team and has never actually set foot in his marvellous creation? But not much time for sightseeing as today we have a live show in the morning and then need to prepare for our first live audience show in the evening.

The live show has gone well – great to meet our customers face to face – many with similar tales of skin problems being solved and healthy addictions to the range. I felt a bit like Oprah fielding the live questions and audience participation, but it’s pretty dynamic and something we should consider doing back in the UK, I think. We’ll suggest it to QVC – although it does take quite a bit of setting up, so they may not be too keen.

Spend much of the day packing for Australia – our Autumn is their Spring, so the weather should be fairly similar. I’ll need different outfits for each of the shows though, including a live audience show – our first ever. The main problem is the new restrictions of what we can take in our hand luggage. 24 hours with no skincare – this is going to be a disaster. How am I going to keep my skin intact for the TVSN shows over the next few days? I don’t think I’ve ever gone more than 12 hours without a generous application of both Cleanse & Polish and Skin Repair for well over a decade. My skin just might go into shock. Decide the best solution is to reinforce my Vitamin E and EFA’s from within, swallow extra oils and multi-vits
Caroline bravely smeared a large dab of illicit Superbalm on her pocket mirror to use in-flight, as she maintained she couldn’t get by on the last flight without it. I fear being arrested for such a terrible crime and so wonder if I can smuggle the olive oil from my salad plate into the loo for a bit of make-do moisturiser. Decide against it as it might make me smell a bit peculiar going through customs.

Once landed in Sydney the quarantine checks are as lengthy and as thorough as security getting on the plane in the UK – no fruit, vegetables, plants, seeds, wooden items, tinned meats, honey, cheese, packets of peanuts – the list goes on. Avian flu, foot and mouth, BSE and numerous other agricultural scares have seen a tightening on the import restrictions of anything natural. It’s a wonder they allow our botanical skincare in at all.