QVC Customer Beauty Awards - thank you

I just wanted to say a quick thank you to all of you, on behalf of everyone here at The Green House, for voting for our Cleanse & Polish, Superskin Moisturiser and Superskin Body Cream, as the best in their categories in QVC’s recent Customer Beauty Awards. We’re absolutely thrilled that during our 15th anniversary celebrations, our Cleanse & Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser scooped the QVC Beauty Award for Best Facial Cleanser. Celebrating its first anniversary, our Superskin Body Cream won Best Body Care Product - this sumptuous body cream really is the ultimate treat for very dry or mature skin and has now won 3 awards  - an amazing achievement in its first year!  And not forgetting our luxurious, fragrance-free  Superskin Moisturiser winning Best Moisturiser -  for the second year in a row.

As these awards were voted for by you they mean so much to all of us here, so again, thank you very much to everyone who voted!

To celebrate we’ve created an exclusive kit of these award-winners for you to try: Cleanse & Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser, Superskin Moisturiser plus a free Superskin Body Cream worth £12.

Liz is back on air today (Wednesday 11th August) at 5pm and 10pm, so do tune in if you can.

Cowes Week 2010, on and off the water

What a fantastic time we had last week – Cowes Week is a whirlwind of activity on and off the water and since blogging last Tuesday so much seems to have happened. Around 900 competitors battled it out on the sea against some very challenging weather – sunshine, gusty winds and rain – but that is what they come for and that is what makes it exciting.  Tuesday saw Mike Golding win the Artemis 50 mile round the Island challenge in near perfect conditions, Wednesday celebrated Ladies Day for the fifth year running and crowned accomplished sailor Louise Morton the overall winner, Thursday’s highlight was the re-enactment of the 1851 race around the Isle of Wight that spawned sailings greatest competition, the America’s Cup – this was won by the American team in BMW Oracle beating skipper and helmsman Ben Ainslie and his team in TEAM ORIGIN, he commented: “It was fantastic. These guys are a great team to race against. It is great for us to be out there racing the America’s Cup holders around the Isle of Wight."   Friday brought with it rain and poor visibility but this did not dampen spirits and thousands of people turned out to see the wonderful firework display.  Saturday saw the last of the races culminating in the Prize Giving – there are some very coveted trophies to win but I was particularly proud to award the Liz Earle Close Shave Trophy to Eric Williams in Ecstatic - Dragon Class.

On shore at the Liz Earle stand all of us have had a great time meeting so many of our Liz Earle fans and also making so many new friends.  Hand Repair became a firm favourite with competitors as they either popped in to prepare their hands before or to soothe them after racing and the pampering hand and arm massages were as always a hit with all sessions being fully booked by mid morning every day – sorry to anyone who couldn’t book in but do try again next year or pop into either one of our stores where you can enjoy one with our compliments.  Excitingly we held our very first event at Biskra Beach House with Liz last Thursday where over 100 customers enjoyed an evening of champagne and an opportunity to meet Liz all in celebration of our 15^th Anniversary – it was a truly brilliant evening.  We would love to run some more events at our home on the Island so if you or your friends would like to join us please let us know by emailing RSVP@lizearle.com

It seems sad that it is all over for another year but there is 2011 to look forward to – a big thank you to everybody who came to visit us on our Cowes Week stand last week. We loved meeting so many of you despite the occasional drizzle! If you were there, then see if you can spot yourself in our Cowes Week gallery on Facebook.

15 today!

In celebration of our true beauty hero, I wanted to take the opportunity to share some of my favourite pieces of press coverage our coveted Cleanse & Polish has received over the last 15 years…

Vogue Millennium

 

My all time favourite piece of press coverage has to be when Cleanse & Polish was chosen for Vogue’s ‘Smash Hits’ where the beauty team selected 10 products to feature within their ‘Beauty Hall of Fame’ for the iconic Millennium gold issue.  This was our first ever accolade for Cleanse & Polish which is why it is so special.  It was also our first public endorsement that we had created a classic product which was really worthy of being listed alongside the global beauty giants -  it set the phones in our Customer Centre ringing off the hook and we haven’t looked back since!

Sunday Times Style - August 2007



When I saw the front cover of this magazine, it listed an article called ‘Cult beauty – The 10 best products in the world’.  I remember flicking to the page to see which products had been selected and being thrilled to see our Cleanse & Polish listed as one of them. When reading through the article now, it still rings true for our Cleanse & Polish today:

 “If a product is genuinely revolutionary, a crop of imitations will soon hit the shelves, but nothing will knock the original off its perch.  These formulations cannot be improved upon...Cult products are the ones you can rely on, the ones you turn to time and time again, which stand the passing of the years and the whims of fancy.  If only everything in life were so dependable.”

Woman & Home – April 2010

We were delighted to see in Woman & Home magazine’s annual Best Beauty Buys that Cleanse & Polish won the readers choice award for the 5th year running.  Awards voted for by readers are so special to us, and to have won this award 5 times over is true testament to the high performance results that Cleanse & Polish delivers.  It’s amazing to think that 15 years on Cleanse & Polish is still winning awards and remains a firm favourite among magazine editors and readers alike having won 49 awards and accolades to date – the latest being Essentials magazine, hot off the press this month!  We are all keeping our fingers crossed that we will reach our 50th award for Cleanse & Polish during its 15th birthday year.

The Beauty Oscars…

We were truly honoured to win 3 Cosmetic Executive Women (CEW) awards at the 2010 ‘Beauty Oscars’.  Cleanse & Polish scooped the award for ‘Best Classic Beauty Product – prestige.’  You may have read in my last blog that the annual CEW Awards are known as the ‘Beauty Industry Oscars’ because they are judged by CEW members; a panel of high calibre ‘beauty insiders’ including experts and professionals.  The CEW Awards are recognised as the beauty industry’s highest honour, acknowledging that a product is the very best in its category. 

First USA award – March 2010

We were all so excited to win our 1st ever USA award from leading beauty website Total Beauty.com.  Totalbeauty.com is the largest unbiased product review directory in the US, and they picked our Cleanse & Polish as the winner of their annual awards for ‘Best Cleanser’. The Totalbeauty.com editors checked out the top 10% of skin and body care products as rated by the Totalbeauty.com readers, the editors then tested these products and chose Cleanse & Polish as their official winner for 'Best Cleanser'. 

So, our Cleanse & Polish truly has been tried, tested, approved and loved over the last 15 years and remains our ‘can’t live without it’ best seller.  I personally love Cleanse & Polish because I can depend on it for clear radiant skin day in, day out. 

Now it’s your turn to tell us why you love Cleanse & Polish – Upload your video to YouTube or tell us why and you could win a prize!

The Beauty Industry Oscars….

This is my first blog and I am really excited to be sharing some fantastic news with you all.  Yesterday Tracy, our Events & Loyalty Manager, and I attended the Cosmetic Executive Women (CEW) Awards and we were honoured to win not 1 but 3 of these prestigious awards!

For those of you who may not know what the CEW Awards are, let me explain why they are so coveted. The annual CEW Awards are known as the ‘Beauty Industry Oscars’ because they are judged by CEW members, a panel of high calibre ‘beauty insiders’ including experts and professionals.  The CEW Awards are recognised as the beauty industry’s highest honour, acknowledging that a product is the very best in its category.

Tracy and I travelled up to London yesterday to attend the CEW Awards luncheon.  The anticipation surrounding this prestigious event was an experience in itself, as we waited anxiously for the ceremony to begin.  The first category that we were a finalist in was ‘Best New Bath and Body Product – Prestige’ with our Superskin Body Cream (UK, IE & US).  When it was announced that we had won, Tracy and I were absolutely thrilled!  I was honoured to go up onto the stage to accept the beautiful Lalique ‘Oscar’ statuette on behalf of the Liz Earle team.  What a phenomenal achievement for our Superskin Body Cream to be recognised as the cream of the crop, especially as it is not yet a year old!

The next category was ‘Best New Everyday Skincare Product – Prestige’ and our Superskin Moisturiser (UK, IE & US) was up against some tough competition.  When we were announced as the winner a second time, we just couldn’t believe it.  Tracy collected the award and thanked the CEW and all of the members who voted for us.

As the award ceremony progressed, we were getting closer to a very special award -  ‘Best Classic Beauty Product – Prestige’.  Our much loved Cleanse & Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser (UK, IE & US) was a finalist and when it was announced as the winner, it was a mixture of tingling excitement, surprise and real pride. Tracy and I were so delighted that we both went up onto the stage together to collect our highly prized award.  Cleanse & Polish is no stranger to winning awards – just last week our hero cleanser won awards in both Natural Health & Beauty and She magazine – but this is our first beauty industry accolade, and so we are especially pleased.  It means so much to us that Cleanse & Polish has been recognised as the ‘Best Classic Beauty Product’ – especially as this year we celebrate its 15th Anniversary.  Can you believe that Cleanse & Polish has now won a total of 48 awards and accolades!!

After the awards ceremony we were whisked away for a quick photocall before heading back home to the Isle of Wight.  What an exciting and truly unbelievable day - 3 CEW Awards!  As we travelled home we couldn’t wait to get back to the office to show everyone the amazing ‘Beauty Oscars’ we had won.  A huge thank you to the CEW and all the members that voted for us to win our awards.

Look out for coverage of the CEW Awards in YOU magazine next weekend on Sunday 25th April and Easy Living magazine on sale from 3rd June.  And do tune in to the dedicated QVC CEW Awards show on Monday 26th April at 8.00pm. You can find out more about the CEW Awards here: http://www.cewuk.co.uk/event.cfm?action=ba_finalist

Best of British Poll – Thank You….

I wanted to hop online to thank you, on behalf of our whole team, for recently voting for us as part of QVC’s Best of British poll. We were so excited when the results revealed that you voted for us as your favourite British beauty brand.

As I’m sure you know, we’re incredibly proud of our heritage (on our QVC shows you can even see the fluttering Union Jack flag flying over The Solent – a view from our home on the Isle of Wight – in the background). This recognition is very motivating for us all and it means so much when it’s actually you voting. The industry awards are a great recognition, but it’s what you think that counts.

I started my Liz Earle life as a customer too, and it’s wonderful to see how the range has developed (as well as our home-grown team) in the past decade into Britain’s biggest independent beauty company. It’s been thrilling to be a part of this journey, and this credit by you encourages us all to continue to strive to be the very best of British.

Liz is back on air this weekend with some Christmas treats, and I’ll see you next on the 19th….

Enjoy the start of the festive season – thank goodness for QVC’s stocking filler shows for inspiration!