Liz Earle Naturally Active Skincare blog

With its luxuriously lightweight formulation, the beauty of our new Botanical Shine Nourishing Hair Oil is that you get fabulous, glossy locks whichever way you choose to use it – on wet hair or dry hair…and both ways are fine.

Since its launch last month, many of you have reported the visible differences it has made to your hair, boosting shine and leaving your locks healthy-looking and beautifully smooth and silky! Here are a few of my favourite comments that you’ve already shared with us…

“I love love love it!! I straighten my hair so the ends can look a bit dry at times but it made my hair look glossy and feel so soft. Also smells amazing!”
Anna Walls

“This hair oil is amazing – I love it! It leaves my hair soft and silky, and smells gorgeous. It also tames my son’s tufty hair!”
Victoria Smith

“Wow, this is what I’ve been waiting for. Until now, I’ve never found an oil or serum that tames my fine, frizzy, curly hair, and hair spray and blow dries are a no-no for me. I ordered this as soon as it came out and have only used it once after towel-drying my hair, but it has lessened the frizz already. Even my husband has noticed!”
Elizabeth Gregory

“It smells divine, has a lovely light consistency and you really only need a small amount so I can see it will last for a long time. I have used it on both damp and dry hair and it has really made a difference.”
Abigail Curtis

Healthy, glossy-looking hair isn’t just the remit of supermodels now – we can all achieve energy and luminous shine. And if, like me, you are always looking to cut corners to save time, you’ll love how much this hair oil really does speed up blow-drying time – I keep having to check that I haven’t turned up the heat on my hairdryer, as my hair dries so much more quickly now! Do share your own hair oil tips here, and on our Facebook page. Happy hair to you all!

Caroline

Jennifer Hirsch, our In-house Botanist, answers your questions about our Botanical Shine Nourishing Hair Oil.

Q: Does it smell like the rest of the haircare range, or different?
A: Botanical Shine Nourishing Hair Oil contains the same 100% natural fragrance as the rest of the Botanical Shine range. There are eight delicious essential oils lending their aromas to the blend:  rosemary, lemon peel, rose-scented geranium, spearmint, patchouli, sweet orange, Virginian cedarwood and carrot seed. The same fragrance will smell slightly different in a shampoo compared to a conditioner, or in a treatment compared to a hair oil because of how the blend of ingredients hold on to the fragrance – something you might notice across the Botanical Shine range.

Q: How does it compare to pure argan oil?
A: Neat (not diluted or blended) plant oils like argan, and 100% plant oil blends like Superskin Concentrate, are effective at moisturising the hair and scalp. However, if left in the hair, they can make it feel greasy or lank, especially finer hair types. In fact, fine hair can feel weighed down even after washing the plant oils out of the hair. Plant oils can be difficult to spread evenly throughout the hair, meaning some areas will be oilier than others. Additionally, plant oils may not protect your hair from the heat resulting from heat-styling tools. This intense heat can affect the keratin in unprotected hair, causing it to be brittle and potentially resulting in damage.

Botanical Shine Nourishing Hair Oil contains a blend of silicones and plant oils to deliver the benefits of both. A carefully selected trio of plant oils are included for their conditioning, shine-promoting properties, and the formulation has been carefully composed so it can be evenly distributed throughout the hair, provide protection from damage caused by styling, reduce blow-drying time, give the hair a great, natural-looking glossy shine, and be effective for all hair types.

Q: How do I use your hair oil?
A: Botanical Shine Nourishing Hair Oil lets our customers enjoy multiple benefits in one easy-to-use product, making it the perfect new addition to our simple, fuss-free haircare regime. We chose to formulate a hair oil rather than a serum because hair oils can be used on both wet and dry hair. You can use Botanical Shine Nourishing Hair Oil every time you wash your hair, after shampooing and conditioning. Applied to wet hair, it will reduce blow-drying time and protect hair against damage caused by styling. Or you can use it as a finishing product on dry hair to tame frizz and smooth. You can even use it to retouch hair throughout the day. The lightweight formula means it won’t weigh your hair down.

For more top tips and hints on how to make the most of Botanical Shine Nourishing Hair Oil, tune in to QVC tomorrow, Friday 12th April, at 10.00am and 8.00pm!

Q: Is this any good for fine hair?
A: Absolutely. Botanical Shine Nourishing Hair Oil is formulated to be lightweight, easy to use and flexible enough to slot into any haircare regime.

Every Liz Earle product is developed as a result of customer requests, and this was no different. Almost as soon as we’d launched Botanical Shine Shampoo and Conditioners, you were on the phone, emailing, posting on Facebook and tweeting, asking us for a finishing product that would provide protection from damage caused by styling and address split ends and frizz, while continuing to give you that great natural-looking shine.

And it wasn’t just those of you with one particular hair type that wanted these benefits, so we made sure our multi-tasking Botanical Shine Nourishing Hair Oil is the perfect finishing touch for all hair types. For fine hair, we’d recommend using half a pump on wet hair before blow-drying, and a little less than half a pump on dry hair to tame flyaway hair and frizz.

The number of named plant species on earth tops 300,000 (and those are only the ones we know about), of which we use more than 40,000 and eat even fewer with about 80% of our diet coming from 20 kinds of plants. So when it comes to identifying new botanical ingredients to use, there’s plenty of scope. Our Botanical Shine Treatment contains three new plant gems: sumac wax, cotton extract and red algae.

The story of sumac
The principal ingredient in the ceremonial hair wax used by Japanese sumo wrestlers and geishas, sumac wax has been used for its hair-taming and management properties for centuries. We use it for exactly the same reasons in Botanical Shine Treatment – to improve the condition of frizzy, coarse or very dry hair.

Sumac wax is pressed from the berries of Rhus succedanea, the ‘wax tree’, a small tree native to the temperate parts of Asia. Clusters of greenish-yellow flowers are followed by globular berries, each covered in a fine layer of wax. The clusters remain on the trees over winter as they begin to mature and that coat of wax protects the berry from the elements. Today, this wax coating is harvested as a cosmetic ingredient.

Sumac wax is a secondary product of the lacquer industry in China and India where plantations of the trees are tapped for their resin. Immature berries are harvested in the period after the leaves drop and before the new leaves emerge in the spring, they are then aged, crushed and bleached in the sunlight to create a soft wax.

The story of cotton
Cotton is the name given to four species of Gossypium commercially cultivated for fibres. In the wild, Gossypium is a small tree growing to six metres in frost-free subtropical and tropical parts of the globe. Domesticated cotton is grown as a semi-annual shrub and rarely reaches more than two metres tall. Hibiscus-like flowers are followed by green seed pods or ‘bolls’ that split open at maturity to reveal 27 to 47 seeds covered in fine fibres. Each fibre grows from a single cell on the surface of the seeds: 0.45 kilograms of cotton (a pound of cotton) may contain more than 100 million individual fibres.

Around 97% of the world’s cotton is produced from the New World species Gossypium hirsutum and barbadense. The other two commercially cultivated species, (the Old World species) Gossypium arboretum and Gossypium herbaceum, make up the majority of the remaining 3% of world production. While only four species are commercially grown, more than 500 varieties of these species have been cultivated. With more than 85% of the world’s cotton growing in developing countries, the industry represents a huge opportunity economically and politically for these regions. The species used for our extract, Gossypium herbaceum or Levant cotton, is commercially grown in Pakistan, India and parts of Southeast Asia.

Gossypium produces sugars to protect the cotton fibres. These fibres help the seeds travel on the wind to find a suitable place to grow at a distance from the parent plant. The cotton extract in Botanical Shine Treatment contains seven sugars derived from the plant which work in the same way on hair, forming a barrier that improves the smoothness of each hair shaft. Smooth hair reflects more light in a single direction, resulting in tresses that appear glossier and healthier.

The story of red algae
Kappaphycus alvarezii is a species of red algae native to the sea off Malaysia. Despite its common name, red algae is shiny green to yellow orange, growing to two metres in length. The form of the algae depends on the depth of water in which it grows: in shallow water it grows a few small branches, in deep water it takes on a tangled and gnarled form.

Commercially, Kappaphycus alvarezii is grown in shallow bays in large plantations where hand-harvesting is possible. Seaweeds get the nutrients they need to grow from the water, so water movement through the plantations is critical. At the same time, water temperature (between 25ºC and 30ºC) is essential for rapid growth, as is stable salinity, so the bays have to provide a balance for optimum growth. These perfect conditions for algae cultivation exist in Asia, mainly in the Philippines and Indonesia, but also in Bali and Madagascar. Farmers attach small pieces of young thallus, the seaweed equivalent of leaves and stems, to rods. These pieces develop and grow rapidly to a harvestable size.  Incredibly fast-growing, red algae will double its biomass in a fortnight in optimum conditions.

Red algae is collected between four and six times a year. To maintain the value of the crop, how it is handled after harvest is vital: after collection, the algae is dried in order to reduce the moisture content to a maximum of 35%. When the water in the plant material reaches this level, the algae is ground before being transported to Marseille where it is extracted for us. By drying plant material, we reduce its carbon footprint as it travels back to us across the globe from where it is grown.

We use red algae in Botanical Shine Treatment for its hydrating and barrier-forming properties. Research confirms red algae’s ability to help build an effective barrier against dryness, flattening the cuticle so that each hair is sleeker and softer.

Jennifer Hirsch, our In-house Botanist, and Claire Mant, our Formulations Expert, share their stories about the creation of our new Botanical Shine Treatment.

Why and how did you start creating Botanical Shine Treatment?
Claire: After receiving numerous customer requests, our Marketing team provided me with a brief and work commenced! We wanted to create a treatment that would help people with frizzy, very dry, coarse and/or unmanageable hair get smooth, satin locks. The brief asked us to make sure it was colour safe, just like the other products in our Naturally Active Haircare range, and that it would leave hair smooth, frizz-free, tamed and manageable. As soon as I saw the brief, I knew just where I would start.

When we were developing our Botanical Shine Conditioners, I initially formulated a contender for people with dry hair, which our tests suggested would be better suited to those with very dry hair. Jennifer, however, with her very thick, coarse and frizzy hair loved it! With the addition of some extra lovely botanical actives, I knew I could create a treatment that would make Jennifer’s locks (and those of people with similar hair), soft, smooth and manageable.

Jennifer: As a team, we’re always looking for companies that take the same responsible approach to sourcing botanical ingredients as we do. So when it comes to finding a new botanical active, we have a carefully edited stable of suppliers to choose from. Caring passionately about ingredients can lead to healthy debates – as we each champion favourite contenders for inclusion.  By the time we’ve fought the corner for an ingredient, we know where its strengths lie, and whether it will live up to the expectations of a botanical ingredient in a Liz Earle product.

Claire: Working together for three years, I know when a story is going to meet Jennifer’s high standards for traceability and sustainability, and she knows when the science that supports the activity of an ingredient is going to be of a high enough calibre to hold up under my scrutiny!

Jennifer: Frequently, we find ourselves proposing the same ingredients to each other – a pretty good sign of quality. Then once we’ve settled on our actives, I get down to researching them and leave Claire to work her magic…

Jennifer, this is a project particularly close to your heart, isn’t it?
Jennifer: I have, or should say HAD, manic, curly hair that defies conditioning. Of course, the grass is always greener on the other side and I’ve coveted sleek locks since I was old enough to recognise the difference. I have been on the quest for a satin smooth barnet, and not the Crystal Tipps look I used to sport, for as long as I can remember.

Claire: So you can see, with a head of hair like that sat at the desk opposite me, I was quick to experiment with our next haircare product, Botanical Shine Treatment.  Jennifer was my guinea pig and went home and tried and tested each formulation that I thought was a contender with varying results. One day, she came back in with the words ‘I love it! If we don’t launch this, you’ll have to make it specifically for me!’

What’s special about the ingredients in Botanical Shine Treatment?
Jennifer: Decades of seaweed research sit behind our red algae extract, and there is science that confirms its ability to help build an effective barrier against dryness, flattening the cuticles so that each hair is sleeker and softer. We also take advantage of nature’s caring skills, using a cotton extract from the rarest of the cultivated cottons to help enhance the hair’s natural barrier. Just as cotton sugars work on the fibres of each cotton seed, our extract works to improve smoothness for frizz-free hair. With sumac wax, geisha have taken advantage of its hair-taming properties for centuries. It helps increase combability, manageability and improves the condition of frizzy, coarse or very dry hair.

Claire: Just to make sure that all the actives we had included were pulling their weight – specifically the cotton extract and the red algae extract – I made three different versions of the treatment to test; one containing both, one with cotton extract and one with red algae extract.

Jennifer: So I went home and methodically divided my hair into three and used each treatment in an identical way on each. I arrived on the island the next day sporting my unusual hairstyle under a hat, and Claire had the proof she needed that both cotton extract and red algae extract were critical to achieving the performance.

Claire: And Jennifer had a fantastic hairstyle. We should have taken a photo… I may have to work harder to convince her to try future developments!

Because it’s called a treatment, does that make it any more fussy?
Claire:  Not at all, you just use it in place of your standard conditioner. All this can be done in the shower.

Jennifer: I only wash my hair about once a week, and use this instead of conditioner when I do. I apply it for 10 minutes but, if I want that extra pampering or boost, I apply it for up to 30 minutes.

Claire, as one of the lucky few to be blessed with ‘normal’ hair, you can still use this treatment too, can’t you? Did you intend to create it for more than one hair type? And what does it offer you?
Claire: I can still use this treatment and do so every couple of weeks just to give my hair a little more TLC.  I avoid my roots and just apply from mid-lengths to ends, leaving it on for around 2 minutes, and my hair is left feeling soft and smooth.  The brief was to develop a treatment for people who had very dry, unmanageable and coarse hair, but most people love to give their hair a little boost and pamper, so we wanted it to be suitable for those with dry and normal hair or those whose hair had been subject to more aggressive conditions such as colouring, chlorine, etc. With a lot of experimenting and testing, we realised that using the treatment for different periods of time on different hair types gave the same benefits.