Spring is here!

The launch of our Spring Newsletter means spring has truly sprung! And just like the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, I feel I am late for a very important date, with seeds to sow, suppliers to visit and customers to meet.  Thankfully I’ll have our wonderful new spring offer to help me greet the new season with radiant, sparkling skin.

Whilst every newsletter is special, this one is just an absolute joy for me: from cover to cover.  It stars our Botanical Essence No. 1 (UK, IE) and as a botanist, I couldn’t be prouder. Each of the 14 precious botanical ingredients in our bespoke, fine fragrance has a special story to tell, and it was my job to track down every single one.

My research took me to Grasse, the heart of the French perfume industry, to meet the team at Laboratoire Monique Remy (LMR). As you may have picked up, I’m just a tad passionate about plants, so spending time with people as plant-crazy as I am was my definition of a great time.  In the fragrance industry, LMR are the byword for excellence when it comes to natural ingredients, and visiting them it was easy to see why. From travelling the world to establish close working relationships with growers and collectors, trialling new varieties and growing techniques in their fields in the hills above Grasse, to distilling new fragrance materials in their state of the art laboratories, LMR pursue quality and knowledge believing - as I do - that the two are inextricably intertwined. The result is the best natural ingredients for fine fragrance.

We wanted to bottle the romance of fine fragrance, that intimate and complex relationship between a woman and her scent, that illusive quality where the fragrance becomes her signature, a shorthand for her personality and individuality. With Botanical Essence No. 1, you are a critical component of the fragrance: your skin will change the notes, enhancing the scent as it develops and matures in a way that is all your own.

This winter I have had the chance to meet some of you at events in our flagship store at the Duke of York, at Biskra our island home, and over lunch at Chewton Glen. And all through the cold and gloomy months, the magic of Botanical Essence No. 1 has been a hot topic. I’ve  taken some of you on a journey across the globe, to the high-altitude lavender fields on the slopes of Mount Ventoux, to the sun-drenched Italian orchards of bergamot and mandarin, and to the damp, earthy rainforests of the Amazon where tonka bean trees tower overhead like enormous giants holding up the sky.  And you have shared with me the powerful scent memories Botanical Essence No. 1 brings back, the elation of finding a new signature scent that captures you. I couldn’t be more proud to have played a part in Botanical Essence No. 1.

But this newsletter is not just about fragrance. Another perennial favourite of mine is our original plant-packed Cleanse & Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser, which this year celebrates its 15th birthday (watch this space for more news) so be sure to check out the ‘Day in, Day out’ (UK, IE) feature by my fellow QVC expert and Treatments Manager, Jo Givens, filled with lots of handy tips to help you get the most from your daily beauty regime. Last, but not least, the team here has been ultra-busy creating not one but three irresistible new offers to get your skin and spirits in the mood for spring.

I can’t wait for you to receive your copy and let me know what you think - it’s due to land on doormats any day now but if, like me, you are a little impatient, then why not take a sneaky peek at the online version (UK, IE)?

My recent travels...

The generous quantities of high quality, naturally active ingredients are a key reason why our range is so phenomenally effective. We literally go to the ends of the earth to source the very best, most effective botanicals and then use them in amounts that really work. Researching and sourcing these wonderful ingredients is one of the most interesting and challenging parts of my job and I’ve just returned from a fascinating field trip to East Africa, on the trail of a truly amazing new plant ingredient. I can’t say too much about it at the moment (it’s still being tested and reviewed for a really exciting, brand new, product range for next year…watch this space…), but I can tell you a little about my extraordinary trip and give you a flavour of the excitement soon to come.

As you probably know from recent pictures in the news, there has been a major drought across sub-Saharan Africa for the last six months or so and this has had a major impact on all kinds of crops and harvesting. For us, scheduling our production and the availability of key ingredients, such as shea butter and essential oils, takes great skill from our supply team as they forecast crop requirements often far more than a year ahead. Most botanicals only harvest once a year, so once they’ve been used up there are no more supplies until the following harvest-time. Unlike standard synthetics, we can’t simply step back into the lab to concoct more chemicals. We’re also subject to the vagaries of nature and the recent climatic catastrophe has played particular havoc with the flowering shrubs and trees. So when I arrived in the Great Rift Valley (a vast expanse of land that runs down the entire Eastern side of Africa, running from North to South) ready to film some special flowering trees, I discovered acres of forest – but not a single blossom in sight; not even a bud, let alone a petal! This was not great news for our filming and photographic mission as we had hoped to capture some flowering footage prior to harvesting for a new website clip.

Our trip had been planned for some time and we’d arranged to meet representatives from the Kenyan Forestry Commission whose job it is to protect the Rift Valley’s trees from illegal logging and deforestation. We were set to meet by a petrol station in a small shanty town at the foot of the main escarpment and, sure enough, two hours after the appointed time (not bad for a country where transport and time-keeping is erratic at best), a pick-up truck arrived with an official and several camouflage-clad armed guards. It’s somewhat nerve-wracking walking through the bush accompanied by complete strangers armed with AK47s, but we were told they are armed to deter poachers, bandits – and buffalo! Fortunately, we didn’t encounter any of these…just plenty of smiley, waving children from the local Kikuyu tribe, intrigued and excited to know why we were there. We also saw several of the local harvesters who will hand-gather the precious botanicals we’ll need and whose communities will greatly benefit from the income this will generate for them.

Suddenly, shortly after we set off on foot, the heavens opened…yes, the six-month long drought decided to break on the very day we embarked without so much as a folding umbrella between us. The weather changed unbelievably quickly – from sunshine to stair-rod rainfall seemingly in seconds as rain-filled storm clouds darkened the immense Rift Valley skies. I sent a quick text to Kim back home to let her know the situation and she summed it up with her SMS reply “fabulous and miserable all at the same time!!” The rain ended up pouring down across much of Kenya for several days without a break, especially on the coast where bridges collapsed and many roads were washed away, making our transport tricky. It certainly made sense of the phrase “it never rains but it pours”. The good news is that these welcome rains are at last turning the dry, dusty arid African plains green again and we’ll be returning once the blossoms are in full bloom to bring you more news of the very best botanicals this remarkable region so abundantly provides.

Our sourcing trip to Malawi

Eight years ago, Liz first discovered Kigelia africana, and its distinctive fruits at Pamplemousses Botanical Garden in Mauritius. Following much research into this ingredient, this spring Liz and I travelled to Malawi, southern Africa to participate in the harvest of kigelia fruits – one of the key ingredients in our new Superskin Bust Treatment (UK & IE).

Kigelia, renowned for its skin-tightening properties, has been blended in our Superskin Bust Treatment with mangosteen, quince, white lupin and chlorella extracts in a potent synergy of botanicals, each with properties to help improve skin elasticity, firmness and tone.

The fruits are collected from the wild by trained harvesters, then grated and dried in Malawi before being sent to the UK where the extract is made. Through a benefit sharing scheme, the whole community, not just the collectors, receives income from the harvest. This recognises that the trees belong to the community, and it gives them an incredibly valuable income, which is used to benefit everyone rather than individuals.

Following this ingredient from Liz’s initial discovery, through all of the research and development stages until you complete the circle and see the beautiful bottles on the shelf is fascinating and incredibly rewarding. As is knowing that our involvement with kigelia is helping to educate children in these rural communities in Malawi. Discover more about kigelia and the impact its harvest has on the people and forests of Malawi in this exclusive video diary of our expedition.

“Are you that ‘polish’ woman?”

One of the most rewarding things about creating the range with Kim all those years ago is hearing what a difference it makes to others as well as ourselves – sometimes when you least expect it. I was in Starbucks the other day, just around the corner from our King’s Road store, ordering my current favourite soya chai latte, when I spied a group of teenage lads huddled in the corner pointing at me. One of the boys finally plucked up the courage and wandered over asking “so, are you that ‘polish’ woman?” He then went on to tell me how he enjoys using our “stuff” – as do his friends. Curious to find out how he first discovered the range he admitted that his mum bought him his first Cleanse & Polish  (UK, US)  and the rest, as they say, is history. From the calls and letters we receive every day, we know that this is how so many of our male customers find out about us. Many mums have bought Cleanse & Polish for their sons as a ‘last resort’ for skin that is spotty and have been simply amazed at the smooth transformation. It’s really quite incredible that one simple product can consistently give such great results – whatever your age and stage in life. One day I’d love to do a clinical trial for acne-prone skins as I’m just so convinced the results would be outstanding. I’d also say to any mother concerned about her teenage son’s (or daughter’s) skin to definitely give it a go. It really can pave the way to smoother, clearer skin in a matter of days.

Over the years, a surprising number of guys have been using our original Cleanse & Polish (even in its first pale pink packaging!) and when we looked into the figures we discovered that in fact 15% of our male customers are already buying Cleanse & Polish.  My husband has long been a Cleanse & Polish devotee. Before we brought out the Sensitive Shave Cream he used it for his daily shave; now he uses it simply as it’s intended: to get his skin really, really clean. My teenage son has more recently become a fan and, so he says, are his friends. So, it’s really exciting to finally be able to give the guys a Cleanse & Polish of their very own… with the debut of Cleanse & Polish For Men (UK, Coming soon in the US) , complete with it’s unique colour-edged cloth and storage bag.

Why make it for men? Well, we know they will benefit from using it. We all want clean, fresh, healthy skin and guy’s faces in particular can get grimy due to their more masculine habits of DIY, car mechanics, playing rugby or football in the mud, or simply trudging home through the urban grime. Our super-rich cream is simply the best way to clean even very dirty facial skin. The beauty therapists I’ve been working with recently (yes, we will have some more exciting news to share with you here soon), recommend that if skin is especially grimy then give it a second application for a really ‘deep cleanse’. A great clean-skin tip. Also, as male skin tends to be both thicker and oilier than ours (great for avoiding early wrinkles but perhaps a little more resistant to cleansing), rinsing the muslin cloth in very hot water before removing the cream can make it extra hard-working as it helps soften pores, drawing out even more grime. Finishing off with a final rinse of bracingly cold water can then help tighten up the feel of the skin again. As men’s skin tends to be more resilient, this slightly ‘rugged’ way of using Cleanse & Polish is probably just one for the boys though. 

The many men I know who have already tested Cleanse & Polish For Men have all commented on its bracing aroma - that potent hit of eucalyptus that whooshes up the nostrils as soon as you squirt some into your hand. The favourite snack-food of the koala, eucalyptus is native to Australia and steam distillation is used to extract the unmistakably aromatic and potent essential oil from the plant’s leaves and twigs. Renowned for its antiseptic and purifying properties, we use Eucalyptus globulus (or blue gum eucalyptus). Cleanse & Polish’s ability to deeply cleanse the skin makes it particularly ideal for guys to use before shaving and it’s brilliant for spot-prone skin as it can help treat breakouts. I’ve always been a great believer in the saying that if something’s good, don’t change it. That’s why even though we considered adapting the original multi-award-winning formula specifically for the men’s market, we couldn’t quite work out how to improve something that’s already considered by so many to be the best. So it’s stayed reassuringly true to the original skincare classic and the only change is its more ‘manly’ identity, teaming well with the rest of the men’s range. If you’re interested, there’s lots more info in our summer newsletter and special men’s brochure, just out now.

Sloane in Bloom

The whole of Chelsea is filled with flowers! This is definitely the best week of the year to take a stroll down Sloane Street. So many of the biggest names in the fashion and beauty world have put an enormous amount of time and effort to make beautiful botanical displays to theme with Chelsea Flower Show. I loved British shoe designer Emma Hope’s beach garden shop front (a home from home for us!), which apparently she just “threw together” at the last minute, uprooting plants from her garden, including two impressive 2m high Buddleia set against subtle blue-grey Cornish slate slabs. Perfumer Jo Malone filled her boutique with fabulously scented white and palest pink scented blooms, including an impressive iron bedstead overflowing with exotic varieties, from Casablanca to Tuberose and my May-time English garden favourite Lily of the Valley. Tiffany the jewellers swapped their glass front door for a giant white walk-in birdcage, complete with metal birds. Cartier outlined their world-famous watch shapes with darkly green foliage and French fashion giant Hermes took an Indian theme with arches bedecked with exotic flowers. Even the classic British menswear designers, Hackett, got in on the act with a quintessentially British male gardening theme of the potting shed, principally made with cut box stalks. So very stylish and fun – I have made a diary note to bring the family to London this time next year to marvel at this free display of talent and imagination.

Kim and I were lucky enough to get tickets this year to visit the Chelsea Flower Show today and so we headed off for the first time since my days covering the event as part of the GMTV team. Like so many, we made for the central pavilion as we wanted to catch up with gold medallist Jekka McVicar, who grows her organic herbs to an astonishingly high standard. She was watering her precious plants when we arrived, standing next to her gold medal certificate. This was her 60th gold medal no less and she proudly told us that she was the only certified organic winner too. We spent a while discussing the many botanicals we have in common, including some featured in her display such as comfrey, rosemary and melissa. One of Jekka’s favourite uses of rosemary is to make a fresh herb tea – a simple infusion of a freshly picked rosemary sprig in a jugful of just-boiled water. It sounds delicious and we promised to try it. Outside the pavilion the central avenue was lined with the big display gardens, and I spent longest admiring the ‘best in show’ gold medal winner, the Laurent-Perrier all-green grove designed by Tom Stuart-Smith. His unusual and spectacular display of 30 year-old English hornbeams were especially pruned so that the leaves and branches floated like puffed clouds, seemingly floating in mid-air. Beneath, banks of velvety moss and grasses provided a textured botanical blanket, using texture and form instead of colour for variety. Pale blue-grey zinc tanks filled with overflowing water added to the calm air of tranquillity – a welcome haven for the eyes amongst all the hustle and bustle around us. 

I also enjoyed strolling along the much smaller Eastern walkway, filled with smaller gardens each with their own quirky themes, many of which were built from antique mossy stones that looked as if they’d been there for years. We were just finishing our stroll of these when a call came through on Kim’s mobile – the judging of the Sloane in Bloom competition had just taken place and we’d won second prize!! We were speechless and so very thrilled. The deserving winner was Jo Malone for her magnificent scented arrangements, but we were more than ecstatic to be judged ahead of so many top international designer stores – especially as this was our first attempt. The talented florist Jane Packer did incredibly well with her traditional garden bench surrounded by our skincare botanicals, so we’re delighted for her that we were awarded a prize. We’re already starting to think ahead now for next year, although those perfectly sculpted, cloud-filled hornbeams will definitely be a long way off.

Green Beauty

Phew! No sooner had we arrived back from our exhilarating West Coast launch in LA then it was straight off to do three special beauty evening shows on QVC. Just in time for this I received a review copy of the new, much anticipated Green Beauty Bible  (available on our UK website), out today. Written by top beauty duo Sarah Stacey and Jo Fairley, this eco-edition of the best-selling Beauty Bible series records the feedback of over 1000 individual testers to uncover which of the ‘more natural’ and ‘eco’ brands score the highest. Not only covering ranges that include natural ingredients in their formulations (like us), but also those that try to reduce their carbon footprint, minimise packaging, print with ‘green’ inks, have a genuine commitment to cruelty-free and all the rest. You know, when Kim and I started putting our range together 13 years ago, we didn’t set out to be a ‘natural’ brand – we set out to be the ‘best’ brand. This included a heavy dose of potent plant ingredients, a strong commitment to cruelty-free, minimum fuss-free packaging etc. long before it was seen as fashionable and certainly before the words ‘green,’ ‘eco’ or ‘carbon-neutral’ had entered the beauty dictionary. Being a ‘greener’ beauty brand is only one part of what makes us tick, which also includes a genuine commitment to outstanding customer service, research into product safety and efficacy and always aiming to be an affordable luxury.

As a brand, we fared so well in the original Beauty Bible that I did wonder quite how we would compete now with many of the newer ranges to hit the shelves in recent years. After all, 13 years on and we still stick to our founding principles and our formulations are pretty much the same as they were when launched. So you can imagine the delight/relief to discover our multi-tasking Cleanse & Polish is still top of the Cleansers section (more than 80 were trialled). With 9.5 out of a possible 10, C&P as we affectionately call it, remains the number 1 highest scoring product of all time! WOW!  It was also rated one of the book’s ‘Star Buys’ because of its price and the fact that it lasts for ages.

Alongside the tester’s favourites of Cleanse & Polish and Skin Repair (which came tops again in Neck Creams) the book includes many of our as-yet unsung ‘heroines’; those Cinderella products that sometimes get overlooked yet give amazing, reliable results as well. Little gems such as Eyebright Soothing Eye Lotion (UK , US), Intensive Nourishing Treatment Mask, Energising Body Scrub and Energising Hip and Thigh Gel have all received their first ever awards. Eyebright is also a ‘star buy’ in the Treats for Tired and Puffy Eyes category as well as gaining 2nd place in the Eye Make-up Removers section, and really is fantastic for me at this time of year as I battle the annual onslaught of pollen-polluted eyes. One tester raved that it’s “a fab pick-me-up for mornings when your eyes are really sore and tired, also helped with moisturising dry under-eyes”. We receive good feedback from other hayfever sufferers who swear by it for reducing itchiness too. At this time of year, I always keep one in the fridge and a mini in my make-up bag for itchy-eye emergencies. 

Our moisture mask, Intensive Nourishing Treatment, is another of my seasonal essentials as it works wonders for rehydrating and restoring skin that’s feeling dry and tight after too much travelling, sun or simply over doing it…  With GLA-rich borage oil – one of my favourite natural oils which works both topically and internally to help keep the complexion supple and strong – plus moisturising shea butter and soothing St John’s wort. A thick layer of this replenishing cream is deeply nourishing and calming – a comfort blanket for poorly skins. If you’re looking for visibly velvety skin, one tester said her “skin felt like a soft, ripe peach”… and that’s good enough for me too.

With summer holidays and the promise of more warm weather approaching, I’m definitely beginning to become more conscious of my legs and arms once hemlines (and sleeves) start reducing. That’s why it’s such great news that two of our body energisers made the headlines too. Ideal for sloughing away dull, dingy and dry skin cells our invigorating Energising Body Scrub leaves skin smooth -and perfectly prepped for a spritz of golden self-tan. Massaged in afterwards, its partner Energising Hip and Thigh Gel – loaded with circulation-boosting botanicals such as ginkgo biloba, ivy, horse chestnut and butcher’s broom – really can help improve the tone and appearance of your skin. I’m also a big fan of dry skin body brushing, having first written about it in a book I wrote on cellulite nearly twenty years ago. I find the most effective way to incorporate this into my beauty routine is to use a natural bristle brush before I jump into the shower, always working upwards towards my heart with long, sweeping movements. Then I revitalise, slough and smooth with my Energising body trio. If you’re anything like me, you’ll find there’s nothing like it for helping to get mind and body going on those far-too-early mornings.

The whole area of ‘green’ beauty has grown and developed significantly over the last decade, with a panoply of new products and ranges to choose from, ranging in eco-shade from eau-de-nil to bottle green. It’s a complex and frequently confusing area. I wouldn’t say I agree with every aspect of the greenest eco-warrior’s footpath, but I travel pretty much in the same direction. To this end, the Green Beauty Bible book is a very useful addition to my bookshelves and well worth a read.

With all things botanical as the theme, I was able to spend a rare few minutes of tranquillity amongst the hustle and bustle of London’s King’s Road when I stopped inside our Duke of York Square store earlier today. As part of the ‘Sloane In Bloom’ competition, run in homage to the nearby Chelsea Flower Show, shops in the Sloane Square area (of which we are one) are invited to transform themselves with a floral theme. Our inspiration came from a traditional English garden and so I caught a few moments outside on a weathered wooden bench and breathed in the sweet scent of early lavender and headily-scented climbing roses. Put together for us by the wonderfully talented Jane Packer, who Kim and I worked with twenty or so years ago – even before she had her first shop - it’s well worth a visit if you’re in town, as the whole area is bedecked in stunning spring flora. I finished the evening by giving a talk on some of our botanical ingredients to complement the surrounding theme, soon to be available as an audio download on our website. I hope you enjoy.

Christmas and Research in Kenya

I’m now back in Kenya for Christmas, combining time spent with family and friends with some new botanical ingredient research in the New Year too. One species our botanist Anna Macleod and I have been investigating for several years now is the fascinating ‘sausage tree’, so-called because of the long sausage-shaped pods that hang from its tall branches, not unlike salamis hanging in an Italian deli’s window. The sausage tree (real name Kigelia africana) has some very unusual and interesting skin-tightening and firming properties, as well as being a useful local antiseptic and anti-inflammatory ingredient used here in herbal medicine. It’s also a very attractive tree, with large, dark green, fig-like leaves that provide useful shade cover in very hot climates. We have an extensive tree planting programme here on our small farm and one of the first things we do on arrival is to check on their progress. I spent the best part of today in thick-soled, thorn-proof boots walking the boundaries to make sure that all our newly planted trees are being regularly watered and protected from marauding giraffe, who like nothing better than to nibble out the tasty central crown shoots of a young thorn tree. I was especially keen to check on the progress of the three small Kigelia africana planted last time I was here. We chose a hot, dry, dusty area at the back of our boundary for these, in the hope that they will one day provide a useful respite from the relentless sun. Fortunately, they don’t seem to be to the giraffe’s liking and they all look healthy and strong, with lots of shiny green leaves sprouting.

There’s no doubt that extreme sun exposure causes many problems for the skin, especially in tropical countries or locations close to the Equator. The arid desert plains of Kenya are especially harsh as there is low humidity and little moisture in the air, so the sun over-dries the face in an instant. I’ve been especially pleased that I packed several jars of our Superskin Moisturiser, as its high levels of skin-repairing Essential Fatty Acids (EFA’s) and plant oils are fantastically re-moisturising without being in the slightest bit sticky. It’s so rich and nourishing that I can feel my skin being instantly replenished and soothed after a long day in the extreme heat. I’m obviously using our Sunshade SPF25 when outside too, but the additional antioxidant benefits of the pomegranate and natural-source Vitamin E are especially soothing and repairing. By contrast, I’ve just received the last instalment from Dr Amy Rogers, the researcher we helped sponsor for new research into climate change on an Antarctic expedition. There are probably not many skin creams currently being exposed to two such climatic extremes so many thousands of miles apart – and it’s good to know that Superskin’s botanical formulation holds up well under pressure! Here is Dr Roger’s last journal entry:

Dr Amy Rogers writes:
“I’ve now been in Antarctica for about 5 weeks. We were due to fly out last week, on December 10th. Unfortunately an Antarctic snowstorm has meant that we have been stranded here with no possibility of an aircraft landing to pick us up. We haven't seen the sun for nine days now and have had total whiteout conditions. At the moment visibility is down to a few metres. We've also had snow drifts up to six feet high, so we have been busy digging our tent out of the snow each day to ensure we don’t end up buried. The weather has cleared and we are hoping that it will be possible to clear the ice runway of over 6000 tonnes of snow by tomorrow morning. If the plane from Punta Arenas can’t land tomorrow, then we will most likely be stuck in Antarctica for another week. This means that we could be spending Christmas in Antarctica. We’ve all got our fingers crossed that the snow-blowers will be able to move the snow off the runaway before the weather closes in again. This last week has brought some new challenges to test my Superskin moisturiser. Now back at the main basecamp we spend a lot of time moving between mess tents and the outdoors. This can involve temperature changes of 30-40 degrees. Moving between these different temperatures doesn’t seem to have presented too many problems. I’ve been really pleased with the way that the Superskin moisturiser has worked at protecting my face in such extreme conditions. It’s made my Antarctic expedition a lot more comfortable. Instead of the lasting skin damage that I was worried I would get from being here, I think that my skin feels better than it did before I went away.”

Echinacea Harvest

The recent flood warnings across the UK takes me back to the echinacea that we harvested this summer. Our Echinacea is being grown for us by James Lambe on his organic farm in Herefordshire which was right in the middle of the dreadful floods. We kept in close contact with James over the week leading up to the harvest to see how the Echinacea was faring and amazingly (and you can see by the photo in the newsletter) that this hardy perennial stood up to the lashing of rain that fell. The next problem was whether we would be able to get to the farm. James and his family had been stuck in traffic for 12 hours while trying to travel 10 miles back to the farm a couple of days before the harvest and they had been closely watching the normally small river that gently flows past their farm building as it rose and came very close to flooding their premises.

Part of my job is sourcing our botanical ingredients from across the world and over the years we have worked very hard to establish supplies from British farmers to support British agriculture and have traceability of our ingredients. I always thought that another plus side of this was that it made it easy for us to visit the crops as they are grown and harvested, not this July!!

This is part of the appeal of botanicals for me. Not only do they have the most amazing skin properties but they are never predictable!! I work very closely with our product development team and we often joke (and cry!) about how using botanicals does make our life more difficult, or challenging as we like to call it!! We could use synthetic versions of the same ingredients but Liz's research over the years has shown that the natural version really is best for our skin due to all the added benefits that they provide (as you will know from the amazing results we get from our products).

Grasse, the traditional perfume capital of the world

In Grasse to visit one of our essential oil suppliers and to see first-hand how the plants are turned into high quality oils. Grasse is the traditional perfume capital of the world as the first fine fragrances were made from the flower oils that were grown in the hillside around this medieval walled town. Today, many of the centuries-old buildings remain but most of the flower fields have been ploughed up and built over. We are fortunate to work with one of the last remaining traditional fragrance oil makers, who distil and extract the highest quality natural aromatic essences.

The fine weather throughout southern Europe has meant that the jasmine harvest continued throughout September, instead of finishing a few weeks ago. As luck has it, we arrive just as the very last ten kilos of hand-picked jasmine blossoms arrive from the fields. I am especially keen to see this process as it is a key ‘naturally active’ ingredient in our Bliss Vital Oil range (UK) , (USA) and can be found in our Bliss Bath Oil, Body Spray and vegetable-wax candles. It takes about an hour to carefully pick a kilo of delicate jasmine flowers, so just two basketfuls represent ten hours of labour! Once the blossoms arrive, they are placed into a huge vat where the oil is extracted under pressure – a bit like a huge pressure cooker. The oil-rich flowers give up their volatile oils easily (unlike other more solid natural materials, such as tree bark or seed pods), so before long, a sweetly pungent, golden wax is being siphoned off into metal containers to be stored in cool, dark conditions until we need it. You can see why jasmine oil is so hugely expensive as not only to the flowers take so long to pick, the 10 kilos of petals produce just 30mls of jasmine absolute. In the next door processing room we could smell the extracting of tonka bean absolute, a key aromatic ingredient for fine fragrances. We followed the entire process, from the shiny brown pods being finely ground into powder before being sprinkled by hand onto blanched (odourless) straw and placed inside a round metal vat. It’s a time-consuming and labour-intensive process that hasn’t changed in fifty years or more. Once sealed into vats, the deliciously chocolately tonka bean aroma is extracted under pressure, a process that takes around 20 hours in all as beans are harder to extract from than oil-rich flowers. Other essential oils we saw in production included orris (ground iris root), one of the most expensive perfume ingredients due to its scarcity, lavender, oak moss and petitgrain (from the leaves and twigs of a citrus tree). The genuine essential oil business is built on a real labour of love and our hosts commented on how rare it is for them to work with an organisation such as ours that is prepared to pay for the genuine article. So often in the beauty world it is easier (and very much cheaper) to choose the synthetic option.

As our discussions turned to talk about neroli (the essential oil from orange blossom trees, which we use in Hand Repair (UK) , (USA) , Superbalm (UK) , (USA) and Superskin Concentrate (UK) , (USA) we discovered that we are using about 15% of the entire world’s supply – almost everyone else, apart from a few fine fragrance houses, has now switched to a synthetic chemical copy. We’re proud to be one of the few companies left that still supports this traditional, sustainable process, which not only supports small-scale local farmers and growers but also produces the very best quality, natural ingredients.

Short hop across to France

Spent the afternoon at Heathrow waiting for a flight to Nice, in theory a short hop across to France, but the reality made longer by air traffic delays. When finally called to our departure gate I was met by a lovely stewardess who took one look at my passport and exclaimed “oh, I use all your things, especially the Cleanse & Polish!” and we then had a nice chat about skincare while the queue grew even longer behind me… Two hours later and I emerged blinking into the South of France sunshine, my senses immediately assailed by the warm wafts of scented breeze coming from the plethora of pine trees growing wild around the airport. The essential oil from pine needles was one of the first to be documented as being naturally therapeutic. The properties of many essential oils were documented by the French chemist Rene-Maurice Gattefossé during the First World War, when he noted how many injured troops recovered more quickly from bronchial infections when they had been amidst the pine forests. Gattefossé is often credited as being the ‘father of modern aromatherapy’ as a laboratory experiment saw him plunge his scalded hand into a vat of nearby lavender essential oil and was amazed at how quickly his burnt skin healed. This chance discovery lead him to further research the healing properties of this remarkable oil and today it is widely recognised as one of the few true natural healers. I keep a small bottle of pure lavender essential oil above the Aga in my kitchen specifically for dabbing onto minor burns and scalds. It really does work wonders. I’m now here in France for some more research into the amazing properties of the many essential oils that grow here, lots of which we use throughout the range, including high-altitude French lavender, rosemary and the highly-prized (and extremely costly) jasmine oil, which I’m really hoping to see being made here during my stay.