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!

Christmas countdown

This week I started thinking about my Christmas list. Each Autumn, I retrieve the small notebook of festive jottings in which I write what I have given my nearest and dearest - partly to make sure I don’t repeat myself but also to keep track of the growing number of nephews, Godchildren and family friends I’d like to buy a little something special for over the next oh-so-short two months. I’ve also made a shopping list of the ingredients for our Christmas cake which I’ll make soon too, on an afternoon when all four children are home so they can all stir the fruity mixture and make a wish. Once made, I tightly wrap the cake in baking parchment and clingfilm (having first sprinkled liberally with brandy to soak in) and leave to ‘mature’ in the pantry until it’s iced. It’s a simple tradition, but one that, for me, marks the beginning of the Christmas countdown and I really enjoy the sense of anticipation for festivities yet to be enjoyed and presents soon to be wrapped (and with a bit of luck, unwrapped!).

This week has also been a busy one on the Island for the team as we get ready for one of the real highlights of the year on QVC, the shopping channel. This is our Christmas TSV and it is a hugely exciting 24-hour period of live broadcasting when we launch a very special offer (and lots more besides), live on-air. For those who have never been part of the experience, TSV stands for Today’s Special Value and QVC launch one every single day at midnight (yes, I know, but this is a very popular time of day for the QVC viewing family…). For one day only, we produce a beautiful set of skincare at an extremely ‘special’ price and promote this as our TSV. The exact contents have to remain a secret and so I’m afraid I’m absolutely not allowed to reveal the details, except to say that this year, the team have really excelled themselves and there’s something really very special that’s been included. Don’t say I didn’t tip you off in advance.

One of the best things for me about the event is the opportunity it gives me to chat live on-air to callers who ring into the studio – which always reminds me of the live phone-ins I used to do on Richard and Judy’s This Morning programme so very many years ago. I love it because it’s so real and inter-active – we also get lots of text messages and emails coming through, so do tune in and join me if you’ve not done so before, especially if you’ve any wonderful stories or skincare experiences to share.

One of the things I’ll be launching on Saturday is our brand new Christmas box range and this year they are all especially beautiful. We’ve spent almost the entire year working on these (our first planning meeting happens in January, just after we’ve taken the tinsel down). We’ve lots of shapes, colour and sizes but the overall theme features a beautiful beach botanical Eryngium maritimum, or Sea Holly. Up-close, the flower of this special, spikey plant looks just like an intricate snowflake but it’s actually an endangered species, found in very few places and one of them is on our very own Isle of Wight. I was fascinated by this unusual botanical, which is not only beautiful and rare, but also extremely useful as this coastal plant has an extensive root system that helps bind sand on our sea shore. This is especially important in areas where there has been much coastal development, as it can help preserve sand dunes and the unique wildlife habitat they attract. If you’re visiting the Island, watch out for this pretty plant which we’ve spotted growing wild in Yarmouth’s Norton Spit, St Helen’s Duver and Newtowns Creek, but don’t pick it as it’s on the Sussex Rare Species Inventory (and even has regional protection in Northern France).

I do hope you’ll be able to tune in over the weekend and join me – either at our live midnight launch, or for some of the many live shows being broadcast throughout Saturday, from mid-morning right the way through the day until late evening. And do let us know what you think of both the shows and our new Christmas boxes by leaving a comment here on the Blog – the team and I really hope you’ll be as dazzled and delighted as we all are.

Post-baby tips

Baby Isabel is now four months’ old and I am now finally sitting down for a proper blog session, whilst Izzy is happily cooing from her playmat. (She’s just learnt to roll over onto her tummy, highly amusing to watch the delight on her face when she accomplishes this successfully). Life is very full nowadays, and I have been totally relying on my Liz Earle favourites to get me through the past few months. Initially, baby and I were in and out of hospital for about two weeks and I found that, as well as the sleepless nights and emotional exhaustion of getting used to our new baby, my skin was also totally ‘stressed out’ - dry and dehydrated with the high heat that they use in maternity wards to keep the babies warm. Whilst I hardly had time to think of me when my husband called me each morning to ask what to bring in – breakfast, clean baby clothes, a cup of home-made coffee etc, I would always remember to add a mini Liz Earle product onto the wish list. The new star in my life became Superskin Moisturiser (UK, US) – not only did this rid me immediately of any dry, tight skin sensations from the hospital heating, but it was also my godsend during those first few crazy weeks of motherhood. Even if I didn’t manage to have my daily shower until 4pm, I would enjoy the 3 minutes of ‘me time’ that was my cleanse, tone and Superskin Moisturiser each morning.

Now, four months into our wonderful new life, I still have little time to indulge myself with the long baths and skincare luxuries of my pre-baby days. However, I have actually found that I am relying on the range more than ever for its ease and simplicity – to give me great, immediate results time after time. (I’m sure this has been why my ante natal friends always say that, despite tired eyes, my skin always looked healthy in those early months). Since Isabel was born, we have experienced all sorts of weather – from the heavy snow on her first Sunday trip to Mass, to the heat of last Saturday night as well as balmy evenings in France, where we holidayed last month; but my skincare has remained the same – our three essentials, with a touch of Superskin Concentrate on days when I needed a bit of TLC. Though my routine is much shorter than it used to be (I finally managed to find time to use our Intensive Nourishing Treatment Mask (UK, US) for the first time on Tuesday evening!), I am still delighted with the amazing quick results.

I would particularly recommend our large size Instant Boost Skin Tonic Spritzer (UK, US) for anyone in hospital, or as a gift for friends in hospital – more original than a bunch of flowers, but the same uplifting effects! You also get to take it home after your stay. All the midwives kept asking what the gorgeous smell in our room was, as I enthusiastically sprayed mine around to calm Isabel and I during the relentless night feeds – and, to their delight, they all received our handy mini 30ml versions as thank you’s when we left. I wasn’t surprised to discover that many of the midwives already use the range – particular favourites are Energising Hip & Thigh Gel for sore feet, Hand Repair to soothe their hands after applying the anti-bacterial gel after visiting each patient, and Superbalm for tired, dry skin on the nails and for lips. Thank you to all of you who helped us – I know that many of you already read our blog…

And now, time for a quick application of Hand Repair (UK, US) (I keep one in the kitchen, one in the bathroom, one by the changing table, one under my bed, one in the car, one in the buggy…. my husband also uses it, to help combat the dryness after multiple hand washes, post nappy changing!) and then it’s time to go back to Baby Isabel….

“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.

No one understands us like you do

Welcome to my first blog. It’s a biggy, as I have a fantastic opportunity for any budding future Liz Earle recruits.

My role is Director of Customer Relations, and each week I work closely with our Customer Centre and Retail stores teams both in the UK and internationally and I’m lucky to hear first hand the passion that you, our customers, have for the products, brand and the services that we offer.

I’d like to invite you to take that passion further...

As many of you will know we have now launched successfully in four John Lewis stores and we have an exciting roll out programme to new stores over the next few months, taking our products to more locations nationwide. Talking with many of you when I am in the stores, I know you love the fact that your favourite products are now available to touch and test, and that importantly there is a friendly Liz Earle Customer Advisor on hand to assist you.

Our Customer Advisors are invaluable in helping us to provide you with everything from botanical ingredients knowledge, product information, details about our philosophy, to where to find information about the next QVC shows, Liz’s talks and finding your way around the John Lewis store where they are based. They really understand what makes our company and products different, and receive full induction and ongoing training from our expert support team.

The only problem we have with our Customer Advisors is we simply don’t have enough!

So, I’m looking to recruit passionate people to become Customer Advisors in the John Lewis stores around the country, and would love to hear from you, your family or friends, or anyone who shares your enthusiasm for Liz Earle Naturally Active Skincare.

We know that no one understands us like you do and that so many of you enjoy talking to others about our “best kept beauty secret”.

If you are interested then please send your CV and details to:

People and Development
Liz Earle Beauty Co. Limited   
The Green House 
Ryde
Isle of Wight
PO33 1BD

Or visit our job pages (on our UK website)

We can’t promise that the John Lewis store nearest to you is next on the list, but we will certainly keep you up to date as we grow.

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.

Traveller's Tales

The nightmare started ten days ago at Terminal Five, a potential beacon of British brilliance and now forever a synonym of terminal incompetence. As (bad) luck would have it, my family and I were booked on one of the very first flights out on opening day and we arrived to a barrage of brightly coloured balloons, camera crews and scores of smiling recruits wearing T-shirts with the slogan “How can I help?” and carrying empty clipboards. The first clue that something was amiss was when I tried to change one of our tickets to a later flight and the process that should have taken 30 seconds took 30 minutes. The ticketing lady explained that not only were they getting used to a new building that day, but a whole new computer system had just gone live too – and no-one was entirely clued up on how it worked. Undeterred, we climbed aboard with excited children looking forward to their annual trip to the Austrian Alps. After an hour and a half on the tarmac due to ‘technical difficulties’ we were finally away and soon landed at Zurich airport. An embarrassed announcement from our Captain then informed us that although we had indeed left Terminal Five, our luggage had not… Joining the end of a plane-long queue we filled out the requisite forms, quietened fractious children and received a small plastic bag from British Airways containing a dirty T-shirt, toothbrush and deodorant sample. BA has lost my luggage before, so I know that you are also always entitled to a small amount of immediate cash compensation before leaving the airport to buy essentials (unbelievably, no-one tells you this - you have to ask!). We left the airport with no luggage but the assurance that it would follow on ‘shortly’.

A few hours later we arrived at our friends’ house high up in the picturesque Arlberg and on hearing our plight, our hostess opened her bathroom cupboard to reveal a stash of Liz Earle goodies. I don’t think I have ever been so thankful to see one of our mini essentials travel kits in my life! It was just perfect after a long and highly stressful journey to finally enjoy the skin soothing (and mood calming) botanical benefits of cleanse, tone and moisturise – followed by the lengthy soak in a tub filled with delicious Orange Flower Botanical Body Wash. It made me determined to stock my own cupboards with a few mini kits of my own, ready to greet and revive future visitors at home.

Days passed since our arrival in Austria and daily calls to British Airways to try and locate our luggage were met with deafening silence. We trooped out en-masse to buy a few basic bits of clothing for ourselves and children - not an easy task in a tiny Tyrolean village unless you fancy full-length dirndl skirts and leather Lederhosen. We resisted the temptation to dress like the von Trapp family and managed to mostly borrow from kind friends and hand-wash most nights. A few days later and two suitcases had arrived. However, the remaining three (including mine, of course) had seemingly vanished into thin air. With my mini travel kit running low, I made a call to the Island and spoke to our Customer Centre. “No problem” said Sarah, “I’ll have some things sent out. It was an interesting exercise to see which of our 30 or so products would make it into our emergency rations kit: For me, the absolute must-haves were a Cleanse & Polish starter kit, Instant Boost Skin Tonic spritz, Superskin Moisturiser  (two jars of this magical skin cream – just in case…), Orange Flower Botanical Body Wash, Nourishing Botanical Body Cream, Hand Repair and Superbalm. Being in a ski-resort with snow-glare and high-altitude rays I also slipped in some Sunshade Face Protector SPF 25. In future, I will make sure I travel with our mini-sizes of at least one each of these face and body essentials (together with extra underwear, nightie, tights, a jersey non-crush dress and pair of decent shoes). As a special Thank You to my skin-saving friend Lorna, I asked for an extra jar of Superskin Moisturiser, our latest addition which she had not yet tried.

We moved on into our hotel and a few days later I received this note from Lorna:

“Dear Liz,
Thank you so much for the Superskin Moisturiser. I have been searching for a cream to give me that little bit more - what can I say – the mountain air, lack of time, pregnancy hormones, late nights and early mornings have all taken their toll!!. I have spent so much money and tried so many products …(she then went on to list a huge number of well-known brand names which I had better not mention here…)… and nothing did the trick – until just now. When you left, I washed my face and tried Superskin Moisturiser, I swear it felt like “a blanket of youth covering my skin” and it’s now an hour later and my skin still feels silky smooth. As I babbled away with excitement telling my hubby he smiled and with fake enthusiasm told me I looked younger, who knows maybe after a week of use I’ll be able to look for a toyboy – and then we’ll see who’s smiling…
Many thanks, Lorna xx”

A week went by and Lorna was still loving her Superskin but our relationship with BA was less positive and no more suitcases appeared. Following the news on the BBC website we learnt that our luggage was most probably amongst the many thousands of bags sent on airplanes to Milan for sorting out. How bizarre. You would have thought that those with baggage tags labelled Zurich would be sent to Zurich, Geneva to Geneva and so on, but perhaps this is too logical. Then – cue trumpet fanfare – my suitcase arrived! Hoorah! … Just in time to be loaded into the taxi as we were about to leave. When I say we were about to leave, I mean that we had checked the British Airways website for flight information and it assured us that “all flights to and from Terminal Five today will be operating normally”. Excellent news. But, just to be sure, I stopped by our hotel reception to check-in on-line. How strange – the system didn’t seem to be working – why couldn’t I check in? You’ve guessed it – our return flight was cancelled. British Airways were eerily silent and their ‘customer service’ phone lines rang unanswered. Eventually we were told we might be able to be booked on a flight home… two days later.

With several live QVC TV shows looming I just couldn’t wait that long to get home. Many hours of phone calls later and we found ourselves an Easyjet flight the following day that could take us from Innsbruck to Bristol. So, we trekked down the mountain and arrived in plenty of time, checking-in with ease at this tiny provincial airport. The café was shut and so there were no refreshments for tired and thirsty children, but never mind, we won’t be here for long. Or so we thought. As I type this on my laptop by the departure gate, I can see a screen announcing that our flight has just been cancelled – and Innsbruck airport is closing due to fog. I am too exhausted to continue this Blog right now, so this little traveller’s tale will have to be continued….

Traveller's Tales (continued)

Well, we finally made it home from the last flight out of Munich airport last night, having found a man with a van who could drive us across the border into Germany and we landed at Stansted 36 hours later than expected, facing a four hour drive home. The good news is that our luggage actually arrived with us – apart that is, from the bags still circumnavigating the globe courtesy of British Airways on-going fiasco of ten days ago (will my luggage get air miles?). Apart from some useful hints on what to pack as cabin baggage (don’t forget a mobile phone charger, foreign adapter and plenty of Rescue Remedy), one of my most useful discoveries in all this has been a real-time flight information website called www.flightstats.com, which usefully gives cockpit information on take-off and landing times for all aircraft in the skies. Very handy if you’re waiting for someone to arrive or you just want to check on the progress of a flight in the system while waiting for an airport announcement.

Arriving back in the UK I’m catching up on the news about Terminal Five and the scale of the chaos defies belief. I know that a new building and new systems require time and planning (we did it ourselves last year when we moved our entire business operation overnight into our new purpose-built eco-building - without a hitch) but what about staff training? As many of you will know, we pride ourselves on our level of customer service and on the same day that I experienced such appalling service from BA, I also received an email from our Greenhouse HQ to say that we’d just had a very busy day, with a record number of around 3000 orders dispatched on time. Each order is highly complex, contains many parts (often personalised) and is sent to a different address. Our success rate is exemplary (over 99.9%) and when (as can very occasionally happen) something does go wrong, we go to great efforts to put things right in a swift, friendly, personal, calm and efficient way. As a business, we don’t chase profits, we intently strive instead for happy customers - as that’s the surest way to build a successful company. For example, had I been planning the Terminal Five building, I would have made the loos easy to find and made it fast and simple to buy a cup of coffee and a newspaper by the departure gates, as in every other major international airport. Obvious really. Perhaps the bosses as BA might like to spend some time with us to find out how to make their customers happy?? Just a thought.

A Bright New Start!

Like most of the UK, life here on the farm has been unseasonably chilly and much of our Easter weekend was spent in the outdoor lambing barns, piling up bales of hay around the newborn lambs to help shield them from the biting winds and occasional snow flurries. Unfortunately for us, it was not much warmer indoors as our boiler broke down on Good Friday morning, leaving us all somewhat cold for the four-day bank holiday break! We were truly grateful for the warmth of a traditional log fire and went to bed wearing layers of assorted woolly jumpers surrounded by a sea of hot water bottles. To warm and brighten my skin I relied on generous layers of our Brightening Treatment, a fast-fix wonder mix of traditionally uplifting and reviving ingredients. For those who haven’t yet tried this fabulous skin-saver, our Brightening Treatment is a truly fast-acting pick-me-up for tired, stressed or jaded skins. Perfect for this time of year, whatever the weather. Working well on all skin types, it has an effect in as little as 30 seconds, making it one of the speediest skin remedies I know.

When first devising the formula for Brightening Treatment, we looked at some of the most traditional natural ingredients, including a fine white clay known as kaolin or English china clay. Ours comes from Cornwall where it is mined, washed, powdered and sieved for fineness and it is highly prized because of its natural purity. Kaolin is an excellent skincare ingredient for treatment masks as it is semi-porous – under a microscope the particles look like tiny sponges – making it very good for mopping up and absorbing the skin’s excess oil from the surface whilst gently drawing out impurities from deeper down. One of the other key ingredients in Brightening Treatment is camphor oil, which comes from further afield as it is distilled from the wood of Cinnamomum camphora, an Oriental tree highly prized for its therapeutic and aromatic fragrance properties. Camphor oil comes from China where it has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years for both its antiseptic and stimulating properties. One of the reasons we include it in Brightening Treatment is for its ability to bring a naturally healthy, rosy glow to the skin (whatever the temperature!) and it is a wonderful way to literally brighten the complexion. Many top models and actresses swear by using Brightening Treatment before a photo shoot as it brings a visible glow to the skin. You can try its powers for yourself at the moment as our terrific Bright New Start offer* (UK only)  gives you a complimentary full-size tube with our latest Cleanse and Polish offer. A wonderful way to encourage a brighter Springtime.

* We apologise that this limited Bright New Start Offer has now sold out and is no longer available.