liz earle

On June 15th, Liz Earle will be celebrating their fifteenth anniversary by "going back to their roots" and selling their iconic Cleanse and Polish product at the price at which it originally launched.  You'll make a saving of £3.50, as the original launch price was £9.50 - and today's retail price is £13.

The offer is available for one day only, the 15th June, via the Liz Earle website, so if you're a fan of Cleanse and Polish, mark this one in your diary and stock up!

Disclosure:  the items reviewed here were supplied by PR.

As we crawl steadily towards what's looking like a pretty hot summer, footcare comes to the fore, particularly as the sandals and flipflops emerge from the depths of wardrobes all over the land.  We'll be writing a few foot focused posts over the next couple of weeks - and we're starting with two Liz Earle products designed to refresh and pamper hard working feet - the Foot Scrub, and Foot Repair Moisturiser.  Firstly- one of my favourite things about Liz Earle is the attention to detail in order fulfilment.  Everything arrives beautifully wrapped in tissue paper, and it really makes me feel like the company is pleased to have me as a customer, which, in a world of faceless corporations, is something quite special, in my mind.

Anyway; on to the products.  The Foot Scrub is pumice based, with a menthol-based scent.  It's quite a thick product, and a small dab contains plenty of scrubbing particles, so you don't really need a lot of it.  On application, the first thing that hits you is the scent - it's very, very intense.  If you were to use this in the morning, it'd certainly wake you up!  The presence of the menthol also serves to make the feet feel tingly and fresh as you work the scrub in.

After use, my feet (which are chronically ignored and a bit worse for wear) felt smooth, fresh, and noticeably softer.  While the scrub isn't hugely effective on very hard areas of skin, it does deal very well with areas of dryness.  I think my favourite thing about it is the menthol-y freshness - I've taken to using it after a full day of walking, and have found it to be very refreshing for tired feet.

The Foot Repair Moisturiser continues on the same theme, with its peppermint scent and shea butter base.  I particularly liked the packaging of this one - the tube ends with a pump, so you can more effectively control how much you dispense.  A few pumps is all that's required - the cream, while not massively thick, is very emollient, which means that a little goes a long way.  On application, you get the same refreshing feeling that you get with the scrub.

The product sinks into the skin very quickly, which I really liked - I hate having to sit around waiting for my feet to stop feeling slick.  My feet were left feeling soft and smooth, although again the cream wasn't particularly effective on very dry areas.  I've been using this every couple of days and have found that my feet are in general much softer than they were before - this is definitely a good maintenance product.

At £12.25 for 100ml of the moisturiser, and £10.25 for 100ml of the scrub, these aren't a budget friendly buy, but given that you need so little each time, I would imagine that they'd last a fair while.  If you'd like to try them for yourself, you can get them from Liz Earle's website - and smaller sizes are available too, which is great if you want to try them out without the commitment of the larger sizes.

Disclosure: this was a PR sample.


Liz Earle's newest sun product is a mineral based sun cream which claims to be light and non-greasy, and works by reflecting UVA and UVB rays away from the skin.  So far, so standard, right? The unique selling point of this product that it contains titanium dioxide, which is the part of mineral makeup which makes it such an effective physical sunblock - this is the ingredient behind the cream's "mineral" moniker.  As with all of Liz Earle's products, you also get natural ingredients, and the inclusion of skincare ingredients such as shea butter to condition the skin.

Being a pale skinned person, I am no stranger to sun cream, and regularly slather myself with anything up to an SPF 50 during the summer.  Over the years I've been through a variety of brands, some of which manage to be very light despite high SPFs, and some of which have been thick and gloopy.  Unfortunately, the Liz Earle Mineral Sun Cream falls into the latter category.  Firstly - this is very thick cream.  As you can see, dispensing the product onto your hand results in a blob which holds its shape, indicating that this isn't the lightest and thinnest of creams.  It also has an unfortunate mushroom-y colour, which makes it look a bit unappealing to use.

I found that as I tried to rub it in, it didn't really sink in particularly quickly.  Instead, it felt more like I was just moving the cream around on top of my skin instead of spreading it evenly over (and into) the skin.  After a good five minutes of rubbing, I finally felt that it had absorbed into the skin enough for me to get dressed.

On the upside, I found that there was no white cast left behind where I had applied it.  On the downside, I felt sticky.  The sticky feeling did eventually dissipate, but it took far too long - a couple of hours, by which time you'd need to reapply.  I also tried it on my face, and found that the cream is far too heavy for facial use - it doesn't sink in properly, and the sticky feeling is still there, which doesn't exactly make for a good makeup application on top.

For me, this level of heaviness and stickiness is pretty much unacceptable in a cream with SPF 20 - I've used SPF 50 creams which are smoother and left my skin feeling uncoated.  For that reason, this is not something I'd be prepared to use again.  Perhaps if your skin is drier, or if you have a problem with conventional sun creams and need a more natural block thanks to the titanium dioxide, this will serve you better. For me, though, this gets a thumbs down.

If you'd like to try it for yourself, you can get it from Liz Earle's website, where it will cost you £18.50 for a 150ml tube - a smaller, handbag sized 30ml tube is also available for £6.50, which would be a great way of trying this product out.

Disclosure - service was provided free of charge by PR

Earlier this week I wandered out in the blazing sunshine to attend a skincare tutorial with Liz Earle's treatment manager and skincare expert Jo Givens at the Liz Earle store in Chelsea.

The skincare tutorial is part of Liz Earle's range of treatment services, and costs a rather daunting £45 for 45 minutes. It's a one-on-one session designed to allow clients to discuss skincare concerns and learn how to adjust their skincare routine to address them. It's also a chance to learn exactly how to use Liz Earle products and how to get the best out of your skincare generally through application techniques and advice.

On arrival I was given a cup of iced tea and a very thorough pre-treatment questionnaire to  fill in, covering my medical history, current skincare routine and  various other relevant details. I filled it out sitting in a very welcoming relaxation area at  the back of the store.

As Beauty Mouth points out in her  excellent "facials  checklist", you should always expect a history to be taken or to  have some discussion with your therapist before any treatments. Liz  Earle's questionnaire is very thorough (down to asking how firm you like  the pressure during a massage).

Then I was introduced to Jo, and led through into the treatment area of the store, which is blocked off from the shop floor by a door and passageway (good for keeping the noise out).

I'd say the service is probably most suied to those with a particular or acute skincare concern, like an outbreak of acne, eczema or rosacea. I am lucky enough to have pretty easy-going skin, although I have started to see the dreaded First Signs Of Aging in the last year, particularly in the form of smile-lines and crows feet around my eyes. That was the first thing I raised once I was sitting in the treatment room (light, very spacious, spa-esque music playing) with Jo.

Jo had set out a tray containing all the Liz Earle skincare products for us to run through, and we sat down and started chatting. Jo explained that she could either talk me through the products, or I could apply them myself following her instructions. As I had come bare-faced to the session, I thought I would opt for the latter.

She showed me a simple 2-minute massage technique I could use with my cleanser, and also gave me very detailed advice on how to handle my skin, what sort of strokes to use and what level of pressure I should be applying (I am far too rough with it at the moment). She explained, using a diagram, how fine lines appear and where they originate in the skin. Her explanation made good sense to me and tied in logically with the advice she gave me. Having studied biology, I'm generally pretty sceptical about "the science bit" when I hear it from beauty professionals, but Jo's reasoning seemed very sound to me.

We moved on to treatments, and Jo showed me several auxiliary products in the Liz Earle line, including the Gentle Facial Exfoliator. This is simply a version of Cleanse & Polish with additional Jojoba beads for mechanical exfoliation. I liked the simplicity of that, and it seemed very logical to me to keep the formula the same and just add exfoliators rather than create a whole new product for skin to adjust to.



We also discussed eye treatments, and Jo taught me exactly how to apply eye cream (this had ALWAYS mystified me) and also how to use it as an eye mask. She answered my questions about the role of serums and oils in skincare (her verdict was that the format of a product matters much less than the ingredients it contains and the way it's used) and assessed the type and condition of my skin.

I could go on, but as my treatment was specific to me, it won't be relevant to most people reading. Suffice it to say that I found the service extremely thorough and professional, and I came away feeling that I had acquired some valuable new skills. It could so easily have been a Liz Earle sales pitch, but I didn't feel that was the agenda at all. I did get to know the products in the Liz Earle range better than I had previously, but I didn't feel Jo was trying to push them at me in any sense. Her approach was more about listening to my needs and concerns and tailoring the tools we had available to my particular skin and lifestyle. She provided me with as much useful information as she could within the 45 minutes, without swamping me with too much detail.

At the end of the session she wrote down all the products and  techniques for me, and we finished  up the session with a hand and arm massage. I left feeling very relaxed,  positive and happy.

Verdict - a pricey but very professional service with lots to offer, especially for those with specific skincare concerns.

Disclosure - this is a PR sample. We were sent a range of items from this line.


Gemma didn't get on with the Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser when she tried it in the past (due to breakouts). So it fell to me to assume testing duties for the Liz Earle range when we were sent a batch of goodies a month or two back.

My first impression was excellent, due to the care with which the items were packaged and the amount of information we were given to support our review. Obviously this is a marketing/PR rather than a retail experience, but if regular customer service is at a similar level, buyers can expect very lovingly-wrapped packages. (EDIT - I've been informed that the packages for customers and reviewers are made up by the same people, so you will get the same 5* treatment we did. )

Cleanse and Polish has been frequently compared to Eve Lom's famous balm-like cleanser. There are several botanical extracts common to both, including eucalyptus, chamomile and hops. But in terms of the finished products, they're pretty different. The fact that they both involve using a muslin cloth for removal is the main similarity. (And both are cleansers, but as we know, there's a world o' cleansing options out there from soap to scrubs.)

Instead, the product on my shelf I'd be most inclined to compare this to is Ponds Cold Cream (which I really like). Both are opaque, white creamy products that are applied liberally all over the face including the eyes, massaged on and then removed with a wet cloth/flannel.



Liz Earle's cleanser has a lighter texture than Ponds, and more botanical ingredients. It's also free of mineral oil, which a lot of people choose to avoid (and which is a major component of the Ponds). It's more expensive, but then so are the ingredients.

So far so good. The packaging of the Cleanse and Polish (and Liz Earle's brand in general) is dominated by a pale mint green colour, which is reflected in the colour on the edge of the muslin cloth (two are supplied with the 100ml C&P starter kit, £13). The tubular bottle has a great pump dispenser, which hygenically releases a suitable amount of product at the press of a button. Ergonomic packaging seems to be a strength for Liz Earle, e.g. the fantastic twist-top bottle of the accompanying toner (Instant Boost Skin Tonic).

Eucalyptus is definitely in the ascendancy with C&P. When I came to apply the product for the first time I was quite taken aback by how strongly mentholated it smelled. It's a testament to this brand's reputation that I was actually prepared to put something that smells like Tiger Balm or Olbas Oil on my EYELIDS.

Needless to say it has no negative mentholy effects on delicate tissues (otherwise you'd have heard about it much earlier in the review!) but it does smell quite strongly, which may affect the experience for some people.

As with Eve Lom's cleanser, the hot cloth removal process is very satisfying and leaves the skin with a very fresh, cleansed feeling. The additional step of the Instant Boost toner is a welcome one and makes the clean feeling even better, but I'd be happy to use the C&P alone as I think the muslin cloth step is enough if done thoroughly.

I had no trouble with breakouts using C&P over a few weeks, and it did remove makeup very effectively also. I wouldn't repurchase, however, as the scent of eucalyptus is way too strong for my taste, but if you like that kind of smell, I recommend trying this, especially as it won't break the bank at £11.50 for 100ml.

You can buy Liz Earle direct at lizearle.com or via QVC. It's also available in branches of John Lewis and at the Liz Earle London and Isle of Wight stores.

A few bits of news garnered from the online beautyscape today;

Liz Earle is to be sold to Avon in a bid to bring the brand international exposure. Founders Liz Earle and Kim Buckland will remain in the driving seat of the brand, which will operate as a "stand alone" line within Avon. This has to be one of the unlikeliest pairings I've ever heard of - independent UK niche brand joining up with multi-national conglomerate? I can only imagine the price must have been very very right! (Source - Evening Standard). Sparklz & Shine has provided this link to Liz Earle's blog, which gives us the skinny from her perspective.

Lime Crime lipsticks, which will be launched in Space NK next month, will be retailing at £14. This is still more expensive dollar-for-dollar than the US RRP of $16, but is less of a mark-up than most people seem to have been expecting. We in the UK are getting only the lipstick to start with, (not the eye colours) in 10 shades. (Source - press info from SpaceNK)

Muji skincare will be launching at the end of this month (so not long to wait!) - and will be available from muji.co.uk. We get two skincare regimes for different skin types, and three sorts of cleanser - oil, milk and gel. The oil looks particularly tempting. Source - Beauty Woo Me.