Queen Liz comes to Leeds

Ok, ok, maybe not the actual Queen Liz, but the Beauty Industry's next best thing:

(Top L-R Sinead, Nicoletta, Charlotte, Sarah

Bottom L-R Ellie The Actual Real Life Liz Earle and me)

As you may remember from my post last week, I was fortunate enough to be invited to the opening of the new Leeds store and meet the gorgeous Liz Earle for a wee natter and a glass of champers.

(Credit: Nicoletta)

As you can see, the store itself is beautiful and located in the very swish Victoria Quarter of Leeds. They've split the store over two levels, with the bottom level being aimed at your "grab it and go" shoppers and the top level aimed at those who want to take their time browsing, maybe have a skin care consultation and even have a sit down and a bit of a read in the library area. Also, a little birdy might have mentioned the possibility of treatment rooms at some point in the near future - how exciting! The whole store in inspired by the Isle of Wight where Liz Earle's head office is based, so it has a very serene and peaceful feel.

Upon arrival (and after a few sneaky glasses of Rose with the girlies and a bit of a shop), we were greeted the the lovely Louise and also the utterly stunning Jennifer (she's the botanical research manager). Now obviously the main question on everyone's lips at this point (other than can I go play with the treats) was "What do we do with our bags?" - the shop was absolutely teaming with other shoppers and we didn't fancy lugging our big winter coats around. We were presented with the perfect solution - security guards of course! Yup, that's right... my £3 H&M bag was given its own security guards - look:

The second question was "Please can we much one of those beautiful cakes?" and the answer was of course yes - look at them - they were so small and glittery. I actually felt bad for destroying such tiny works of art.

After making sure our bags were adequately guarded and the cakes thoroughly enjoyed, we were let loose in the shop and very much treated - we were allowed to choose 5 full size goodies from the shelves to give a try.

I chose:

• Instant Boost Skin Tonic Spritzer
• Skin Repair Moisturiser in Normal/Combination
• Superskin Concentrate
• Daily Eye Repair
• Brightening Treatment Mask

And rest assured I'm putting them through their paces and will be bringing you some reviews over the next few months. Eventually, Jennifer and Louise managed to pull us away from the shelves for our natter with Liz. She really is an incredible woman - I felt a little bit in awe of her to be honest. I loved finding out more about the company and what its roots are. I try my hardest to support ethical companies and I really do feel the Liz Earle hit the spot. One this that I found out quite a lot about is that Jennifer sources ingredients that are being used as traditional skin remedies/hair treatments etc and then works with the women of that particular village/tribe to provide sustainable income from the plants they grow. Liz Earle are very pro supporting woman in 3rd world countries, and from what I can hear, they seem to be fairly good at keeping things sustainable.

Another interesting fact is that the Shampoo and Conditioner came about from the fact that Liz herself has never managed to find a Shampoo/Conditioner combo that's truly worked for her and her extremely sensitive scalp, and the fact that she personally visits and approves all the supplies and ingredients. To say what a big multi-national company they are, Liz Earle still manges to maintain a homegrown feel.

After a nice relaxing chat with Liz came my personal moment of humiliation... somehow the other ladies felt that I was best to the the face and the voice of the bloggers, so I took part in an interview which will be appearing on the Liz Earle website soon. Rest assured that for hilarities sake I'll be posting it for you to witness my wittering and wonder about what the other ladies behind me are doing (I'll give you a clue - mainly nodding and sipping champagne - lucky!)

Finally, we were given one final treat - a very exclusive tube of the new Energising Body Lotion which launches in January. I've been using it over the past few days, and will be doing so for the next couple of weeks to see if it lives up to its claim to smooth, firm and tone.

All in all, it was an utterly fab evening and such a treat and privilege. I loved meeting all the girlies and had such a giggle with them. This was my first "proper" blogger event, and it really did live up to all my expectations and more! So a big thank you to the gorgeous Liz Earle team for spoiling us rotten and a big thank you to the 5 other beautiful bloggers that I got to spend an afternoon with!