Celebrating our Sloane in Bloom award

We did it! Our beautiful woodland display for Sloane in Bloom scooped first prize, and we couldn’t be more thrilled or proud of our team. It has been an absolute pleasure to share our little corner of botanical Britain with you and I have been delighted by the events and conversations that it has inspired. Thank you so much to everyone who supported us during the week by coming to see us.

I am now about to embark on the task of dismantling our display. As sustainability is so important to me, I am pleased that the 14 trees we have used will be going on to a happy life with Trees for Cities, a wonderful independent charity working with local communities on tree-planting and landscaping projects. Their aim is to tackle global warming, create social cohesion and beautify cities through tree planting, community education and training initiatives in urban areas of greatest need. Throughout their work they place special emphasis on the involvement of local people, especially the younger generations and those from ethnic minority backgrounds. Trees for Cities are going to use our hazel coppices for planting in a fruit and nut planting scheme in London where the local community will be encouraged to harvest and eat the nuts. The rest of the plants are making the journey back to our home on the Isle of Wight where they will be the foundation planting of a botanical ingredient scheme… I’ll keep you posted on the development of this.

In the meantime, as I slather Foot Repair Moisturiser on my feet and put them up for a well-deserved rest, I’m already thinking about what we could do next year…

Sloane in Bloom

Hello! I’m Jennifer, the Botanical Research Manager here at Liz Earle Naturally Active Skincare. For those of you for whom Anna Macleod is a familiar face, I am picking up the reins from Anna who is spending some time growing children and not plants. My first blog comes to you as we are preparing for this week’s Sloane in Bloom and I am thrilled to be able to share our inspiration and preparation for the big event.

Blogs don’t give away accents, so you can’t tell that I don’t come from these islands, but from the southeast of the US, South Carolina, where I worked with a noted American plantswoman before packing my life into a few bags to pursue my passion for plants. I was offered the chance to study and work at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew – THE centre of the botanical plant world - and spent four years immersed in plants and all things botanical before striking out on my own as a horticultural and environmental consultant…the job that brought me to Liz Earle.

I have also been lucky enough to work behind the scenes at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show, including designing and building two courtyard gardens for which I won silver medals. Sloane in Bloom is a large-scale floral fashion show, in support of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, which takes place in the Sloane shopping area and last year, Liz Earle’s display took second place - a big achievement for our first entry. So with my experience, it was only natural that I would get involved with this year’s entry from the start.

One of the things that thrills me about being part of the Liz Earle Naturally Active Skincare team is the passion everyone has for botanical ingredients. Sloane in Bloom gives us the chance to share with you our appreciation in another context – the garden. The fantastic thing about our display is that it is born totally out of our passion for the botanical ingredients we use in our skincare. From its inception to planting, the garden has been a collaborative and passionate effort, and has given me the opportunity to work with our talented creative team.

For those of you who haven’t had a chance to visit us at Duke of York Square, our store has huge windows that flood the shop with light. We knew from the start that whatever we did, we wanted to bring it into the shop and incorporate some of the fantastic botanical ingredients that we use in our range. Michael, our Head of Creative, was inspired by a display that he’d seen on a recent trip to America whilst I was inspired by the bluebells and wood anemones that grow in the New Forest, near my house. So, between these two pieces of inspiration, we came up with our beautiful British woodland.

This year we are using wonderful mature hazel coppices, grown by one of my favourite suppliers from my days as a horticultural consultant, Barcham Trees. These trees were grown from seed at their site in Ely, Cambridgeshire, and as young saplings cut down to encourage them to send up lots of stems. Corylus avellana, the hazel, is a British native and we use the oil from its nuts in two of my favourite products, Superskin Concentrate and the gardener’s saviour, Superbalm. Even my product-phobic husband is addicted to Superbalm, using it to help mend cracked fingers and dry lips!

To weave a little woodland magic, we are spreading an undulating carpet of botanicals from the pavement up beneath the trees and right through our windows into the store. I spent a happy afternoon last week choosing the lavender, rosemary, chamomile and peppermint plants that will form the fragrant woodland floor beneath the hazels’ canopy. These treasured botanical ingredients sit at the core of our range: rosemary and chamomile extracts in our Cleanse & Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser; peppermint and rosemary are part of a blend of essential oils that make our new Foot Repair Moisturiser and Foot Scrub so special.

After weeks of anticipation and painstaking planning, we start building the garden today. I’ve packed my bag, and next to Cleanse & Polish, Sunshade SPF25 (I’m a redhead, so I can’t be too careful), my gardener’s hat, favourite pair of gloves and trusty secateurs, I’ve added our latest additions, Foot Scrub and Foot Repair Moisturiser, just in case I can convince someone to reward my hard working feet!

Our little corner of British woodland will be in Duke of York Square from Tuesday 19th May through to Monday 25th May. Come on down for a cup of peppermint or chamomile tea and a browse in our botanical garden of delights!

Welcome to Liz Earle Treatments

Let me introduce myself - my name is Jo, and I am the Treatments Manager at our London flagship store. I am excited to write my first blog for you, as I have so much to tell you about our blissful treatments…

I have worked around the world as a professional therapist for over 16 years. I started as a make-up artist, however I quickly got interested in skincare and how amazing products, combined with the power of touch, can really give you a feeling of wellbeing. Having studied nationally and internationally, my passion is now to share my knowledge with everyone, including our therapists. I feel that you can never stop learning and my thirst for knowledge has increased over the years, especially since I joined Liz Earle!

My job is wonderful... I have worked with many ranges over the years, and as a professional therapist, I believe that Liz Earle is the ‘Holy Grail’ of skincare and delivers outstanding results. The therapist team and I get to ‘play’ with the Liz Earle Naturally Active Skincare range on a daily basis, so that we can impart our in-depth knowledge to you during treatments to bring out the best in your skin whatever your age, skin type or skin concern.

One of my favourite treatments is the Liz Earle Signature Facial. Lasting a luxurious hour and a half and totally bespoke to your skincare needs, it incorporates a full consultation, cleansing and exfoliation, optional ozone steaming to soften pores, and optional extraction (removal of blackheads), followed by high-frequency to calm any redness. Vacuum suction follows - soothing glass cups almost dance over your skin, to reveal a deeply cleansed, calmer and more plumped complexion.  The facial then proceeds with the real ‘hands-on’ magic - a personalised face, neck and shoulder massage to de-stress, followed by a mask and homecare advice. I would highly recommend it for healthier looking, glowing skin - I am having it monthly in the lead-up to my wedding.

However, if you can’t spare any time for a treatment, don’t worry, there are things that you can do at home – exfoliation, for example, is a quick and simple home treatment and ideal for preparing your skin for summer. Your skin renews itself every 28-45 days, so removing those dead cells will encourage brighter skin and boost cell renewal. Exfoliating 2-3 times a week with our Gentle Face Exfoliator will really help to brighten the skin, with those delicate jojoba beads sloughing away those pesky dead cells. If your skin is sensitive like mine, try mixing 1 pump of your Cleanse & Polish with your exfoliator for a gentler treatment. And remember for ‘post-facial’ looking skin always exfoliate before you apply a face mask.

I hope to meet you in our Treatment Rooms soon…

The Secret of The Best Facial

Wow, what a day of bliss! This week, after the hectic rush and prep for the fun QVC show last Sunday (hope everyone managed to get their hands on the new hand wash kit?!), I booked myself in for an hour and a half of pampering in our Duke of York’s Square treatment rooms. Heavenly! My first beauty treatment since Baby Isabel made her entry into the world and, as expected, I found the ‘me’ time the best that I’ve experienced in months! The calmness of the beautiful rooms immediately hits you as you meander downstairs, away from the hustle and bustle of the Kings Road. The beautiful Isle of Wight imagery made me feel right at home and I almost fell onto the inviting couch, I was so full of anticipation! And I wasn’t disappointed, let me tell you……

Time literally seemed to stand still for the whole treatment. One of my big bugbears with treatments (and I have had many facials and treatments, all over the world, on my travels), is that they can seem sadly all too short. I find that one always starts to feel that you are almost anticipating the end, all too quickly! Not so with our wonderful signature facial – Emma’s calm hands worked their wonders for what felt like an eternity. (She even had to tell me to stop asking if it was nearly over, as I was so surprised each time she said, ‘Oh no, not for a long while yet!’). I found the whole experience from the thorough consultation beforehand (including the key question that one is so rarely asked – ‘what do you want to gain from your treatment today?’) to the actual facial and results, to be just what I had expected and hoped for during our long preparation period as we developed the treatments. Just like our product development, the end result has to be perfect before we can share it! There are so many personal touches too, to make it precisely what you want and not just a standard treatment adapted to you. It’s totally bespoke, such is the skill of our team.

I also love the way that our team of expert therapists use the products in new ways – for instance, Emma used Deep Cleansing Mask (UK, US, Ireland) on the tricky t-zone areas and Intensive Nourishing Treatment on my dry cheeks. Sounds logical but something that I rarely remember to do. It’s an incredibly holistic way that our special team work with your skin too – looking at the whole picture. I don’t want to give away too much, as I really invite you to try this wonderful escapism for yourselves, but we also use some clever little gadgets that work naturally alongside facial massage to help really tackle all sorts of skin issues. I found it a perfect balance between actual facial massage, treatment with our hard-working products (our Special Treatments range is perfect for zoning in on specific areas of need) and the little help from the magic gadgets.

Today, two days later, my skin is crystal clear and so matt, ‘plump’ and soft, that a stranger even commented on it today. This morning my husband also complimented me: ‘You must be sleeping deeply as you look great’ (music to my ears!) I think the girls will be seeing a lot more of me in the coming months! Do book up, as word is spreading and that waiting list is starting to grow. And then do come back and let us know what you think here, by posting your thoughts. We’d love to hear your experiences.

Well, now that my skin has had the best workout it has had in months, it’s time to work on the other bits of me that need trimming up! Running shoes, here I come!

“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.

Easter Egg Hunt

I’ve been in London recently for our QVC shows and spending time going to see our area in the beauty hall of John Lewis, Oxford Street as well as our own flagship store at the top of the King’s Road, Chelsea. I used to live just off the King’s Road and have spent more than 20 years walking up and down its pavements, seeing the shops come and go. One shop which not only remains, but has deservedly expanded, is Rococo, a fabulous chocolate ‘boutique’ run by the dynamic chocolatier Chantal Coady. She has brought fresh new ways with high quality chocolate to the high street, with her fabulous range of unusual shapes and flavours, including my own favourite rose-scented mini chocolate bars. So with Easter in mind, I headed into one of the newer branches of Rococo in Belgravia’s Motcomb Street. Here they have the most beautiful hand-decorated chocolate eggs, stunningly painted and glazed with butterflies, hearts and flowers. We were all so impressed that we chose these beautiful eggs to feature in our fabulous Easter Egg Hunt featured on our Home page.

On the subject of chocolate, I’m also a big fan of Green & Black’s, the organic chocolate company founded by multi-tasker extrordinaire, Josephine Fairley, also one of the co-authors of The Beauty Bible. Her husband, Craig Sams (founder of Whole Earth foods and credited with bringing brown rice to Britain back in the ‘60’s) was sent some organic chocolate to try. Spying this on his desk, she nibbled it and declared it to be the finest she’d ever tasted – and Green & Black’s was born. Jo is often asked whether she and Sam are, in fact, Mr Green and Mrs Black, but in choosing their brand name they looked back to the old fashioned, traditional confectionary brands of their childhood, choosing ‘Green’ for organic and ‘Black’ for the deeply dark brown, almost black chocolate. Recently voted ‘favourite comfort food’ by Good Housekeeping magazine (amongst many other awards) there’s no doubt that a square or two of this divine indulgence really does act as a potent pick-me-up and it certainly has a permanent place in my pantry.

Chocolate is made from cocoa pods grown on the Theobroma cacao tree, a small evergreen native to the tropical regions of South America. It was so highly prized it was called ‘God’s food’ from the Latin word Theo for God. The secret to the best quality chocolate is in its amount of cocoa solids (a mixture of cocoa mass and cocoa butter). Green & Black’s darkest chocolate prides itself on a minimum of 70% cocoa solids and even their milk chocolate contains 34% (more than mass-market plain dark chocolate). More cocoa solids means less room for unhealthy fillers, such as hydrogenated (hardened) vegetable oils and sugar, so the higher the percentage of cocoa solids the better the chocolate is for us. Mass-market chocolate tends to contain around 20% cocoa solids and some may have as little as 7% cocoa solids and high levels of vegetable oils instead. This has led to the EU suggesting that some British brands be re-named ‘vegolate’ as their low cocoa content means they shouldn’t really be called chocolate at all!

Instead of the mass market brands, I always suggest eating smaller quantities of better quality chocolate, which we can eat with a clear conscience as quality chocolate is actually good for us. Mass-produced brands are made with high levels of those dietary villains sugar and saturated fats, but those with a high cocoa content not only have less sugar, they also contain higher levels of interesting antioxidants. These include catechins and phenols, more frequently highlighted in black tea. Dark chocolate contains four times as many catechins as black tea and its phenols help prevent free radical cell damage. Interestingly, each square of Green & Black’s milk chocolate contains 17 calories and each square of their dark chocolate 18 calories – an easy way to ration it as a treat.

When making chocolate, the cocoa solids are separated from the cocoa butter, which can then be added back to the recipe depending on the type of chocolate being made. Pure, natural cocoa butter is a key naturally active ingredient in several of our formulations, including our classic Cleanse & Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser and our newer Gentle Face Exfoliator. It’s also a key ingredient in our soon-to-launch Men’s Cleanse & Polish (hoorah! At last our menfolk can stop stealing ours!!). We use cocoa butter for its superb, creamy emollient properties and also its ability to literally melt onto the skin (in much the same way as chocolate melts in the mouth). As a natural plant ‘butter’ it is also highly skin compatible and also eco-friendly, being a 100% renewable and sustainable natural ingredient (unlike petrochemical alternatives such as mineral oils and waxes). So if you don’t fancy giving chocolate Easter eggs this year, you can always give the ‘gift of good skin’ by choosing cocoa butter in a different form and sharing Cleanse & Polish or Gentle Face Exfoliator with those you love.

John Lewis – the perfect partnership

This is the second week of our promotion in Union (our IOW shop) and our London shop of a complimentary mini Cleanse & Polish, plus the chance to win a year’s supply in our prize draw competition. In John Lewis, Oxford Street, we’ve also been given one of the key windows for two weeks, which is terribly exciting to see – I caught a bus down last week, and felt all tingly with excitement to see us in the window. Inside, we have a special stand where we can meet new customers and greet old friends, who have come to see us in this new home. The John Lewis team are very positive and we’re learning together about how to translate our high service levels in this new retail environment – the team are positive, and so helpful – a great partnership. Our next stores to launch are Cambridge and Edinburgh so looking forward to getting out and training the teams in these towns shortly.

Meeting the Press

This week, we've been meeting beauty journalists and showing them around our new London shop. It's been wonderful watching them interacting with our customers, and hearing their feedback. Alice at Instyle Magazine raved: 'The perfect location to house all the lovely Liz Earle products. It definitely makes shopping for skincare a more enjoyable experience'. Very exciting to see both customers and beauty industry experts are such fans already! It's also unusual to successfully persuade busy journalists away from their desks, but the pull of the Liz Earle experience in-store was too much for them - and we were thrilled to welcome so many happy faces. Many use Cleanse & Polish religiously - and their glowing skins were of course testament to our hero product.

On another note, it is fascinating to hear both customers and journalists questioning the Channel 4 programme on beauty last night. The press are delighted to read Liz's blog entry last night, and to hear about a more 'balanced' view - they feel that there is too much scaremongering going on generally in the industry, and many are musing over writing their own responses, as skincare experts. Customers have similarly questioned the purpose of the programme - and have come to us for our advice and thoughts. It's refreshing to hear their positive feedback on what we try to achieve and where our focus lies. Today, a lady told me how much she valued our open and genuine approach to making skincare more transparent, helping to dispel common beauty myths. What struck me personally was that there is often little balance when hot topics are up for debate - hopefully, we can help offer a more balanced view. It was also wonderful to hear that our customers are also taking a more cautious view of the programme - everyone is so much more knowledgeable about skincare now, and I really enjoy discussing these sorts of issues with a wide variety of customers.