So customers wanted a haircare range. Liz Earle launched a haircare range. But, I hear you ask, why would it take six years? Apparently making a shampoo with natural ingredients that performs the way your customers want is difficult, in all kinds of ways that as consumers we'd never think about.
Take for example the foamy lather that's created when you shampoo your hair. Most shampoos use SLS and SLES to create the lather, and most natural shampoos that didn't use either of those ingredients don't lather very well. However, due to customer feedback, Liz Earle wanted a natural shampoo that would lather, and thus the epic search for a wash active started. In the end they found a natural derivative of coconut, that was better for scalps that had sulphate sensitivity. And it really lathers very well too, and foams up as nicely as it's non-natural shampoo counterparts. Check this one out!
And just in case you're wondering, yes I did actually shampoo my hand at the Liz Earle event and take a photo of the lather for you guys to verify their claims of awesome lathering. So I totally embarrassed myself for a photo on my blog. Are you appreciative yet? :P
Liz Earle also had to search for a natural ingredient that would make hair smoother and shinier, and in the end they settled on apple and orange extracts. Hence the name Botanical Shine - because the range shines your hair using botanical ingredients! Then when the formulation was done, there was the fragrance, which also had to be created from natural ingredients. After trying out numerous fragrances, they finally settled on a blend of 8 essential oils, with carrot seed, vanilla and lemon oil among the components.
So what's in the shampoos and conditioners that Liz Earle are putting out? If you're like me, and you're interested in knowing what the raw ingredients look like, I have a few photos of some of the key ingredients.
The conditioners have yangu oil, which is derived from the yangu nut. I had no idea what yangu nuts looked like before, but now I do! And so do you!
The shampoo and conditioner for dry hair both have shea butter, derived from shea nuts. Despite hearing so much about shea butter (I mean, every other drugstore brand has something shea butter now), I've never actually seen a shea seed.
The conditioner for normal hair has meadowfoam seed oil. Okay, now I'm going to admit my ignorance, but I've never seen meadowfoam in real life before. Hey, I spent all my life in cities, I have an excuse! :P
What I really liked was that by tailoring the ingredients that went into each of the conditioners, they really created conditioners that suited each hair type. As you can see from the photo below, I have a small blob of both the conditioners for dry and oily hair types next to each other. I'm not sure how apparent it is from the photo, but the dry conditioner is a lot more creamy and thicker in formula, but the conditioner for oily hair is a lot more liquid, almost like a lotion in feel. (And yes, I did put blobs of conditioner on my hand and take photos of them - do you know how hard it is to photograph blobs of stuff? LOL)
Regardless of whether you actually end up liking the Liz Earle haircare range, you certainly can't deny that they do put a lot of thought into what goes into their shampoos, and there is much attention paid to ingredients and details here. I also was happy to know that ingredients like yangu oil and blue seakale are harvested in a socially responsible and sustainable manner. The yangu seeds are are collected by forest tribe community groups in Kenya, and the money goes back to them, which gives a source of income to the local people collecting them, most of whom are women, and in turn helps to preserve the trees and their ecosystem. That's pretty awesome, and I could really tell that they had a passion, not just for ingredients and formulating products, but also for the community from which these ingredients are sourced.
The shampoos come in plastic tubes with flip-tops at the bottom, and you get 200ml of product for a very reasonable £7.50. They are available from 2 September at Liz Earle stores, and will be available nationally at John Lewis from 6 September. If you're interested in finding out more, you can check out the Liz Earle Website, their Twitter page, or Facebook page.
(I was invited to a press event. I am not affiliated with or compensated by the company.)
