Working as Technical Information Manager at Liz Earle is a dual role. When I first joined the company 3 years ago I was very much concentrating on creating a state of the art database with our IT team to house all of our technical information. This ensures that we have all the latest information on our ingredients and they fit in with our philosophy. My primary role now is working within our technical team where we take the best high quality ingredients, combining and blending them to create effective, safe and hardworking formulations that deliver real benefit and are a joy to use.
I’ve worked in the cosmetic and toiletry industry for 12 years and before that I studied for a Chemistry degree and then once I joined the industry, I completed a Diploma in Cosmetic Science. As well as having a strong scientific background, working at Liz Earle requires passion, drive and an element of perfectionism. I need to have an eye for fine detail while still being creative. Some accuse me of paying too much attention to the detail but that’s just me and definitely a bonus when working here at Liz Earle. I can spend hours in the lab making up different concoctions, combining my chosen ingredients at different levels and trying out many combinations until I have a serious contender for the final product. This is then carefully tested by Liz, Kim and the team. Everything is perfected and fine-tuned so you receive the best possible product.
I work very closely with our Botanical Research Manager Jennifer, especially when we are looking at the next new product. We spend a lot of time searching for new botanical ingredients; although she concentrates on the botanicals, I look at all elements of the ingredients, including botanicals. We approach it from quite different angles. I concentrate on the science and what the botanical will give us in the product, while Jennifer looks more at where we can get the botanical from, how it is farmed and processed and whether we can work with the farmers and processors. We have sourced some great botanicals, but we always have to remember we need the right ingredients in the formulation to allow the botanicals to perform at their best. It’s this part of formulating a product that really interests me, as it’s these ingredients and their combinations that give us the required textures and guide us to formulating a gel, cream, lotion or spray.
If I had to choose a favourite botanical it would be steered by t
he science behind how it works, as I am a scientist at heart. My favourite would be the blue seakale extract used in our Botanical Shine Conditioners. When we first looked at blue seakale extract there was some interesting science that suggested it would help colour-treated hair retain its colour while being washed and conditioned. I had to prove this to myself and spent days dyeing, washing, conditioning and blow drying hair swatches to be sure this really was the case.
Ever since I‘ve been working for Liz Earle I have worked on the development of the hair care range and this has provided many challenges. Surprisingly one of the biggest challenges was choosing a fragrance for the shampoo and conditioners. It took us at least 12 months, many samples and a visit to Grasse in the south of France (the heart of the French fragrance industry) to find our haircare fragrance.
We had a great shampoo and three wonderful conditioners, so I thought it was going to be relatively easy to get the right fragrance blend. How wrong was I? We tried so many blends, but each time we put our volunteers’ noses to the test we got the same answer: ‘We don’t like the fragrance’.
So rather than continu
e to get rejected we thought we would ask our panel to tell us what they did like. Then, using our best ‘perfume noses’ we assessed the fragrances our panel loved and Liz, Kim, our Product Manager who’s also called Claire (and probably one of our best noses) and I travelled to Grasse and began a hair washing marathon.
We were told we weren’t allowed to come back until we picked the perfect scent. So we took the results of our earlier research and worked alongside some truly talented perfumers to create a fragrance blend that did everything our customers wanted.
We all ran back and forth between our bathrooms and the hotel foyer trying the latest version and comparing notes on it. I think we each washed our hair at least 10 times a day while we were there. You can see we’re always using ourselves as guinea pigs! Finally, we could all head home knowing we had found the perfect fragrance.
Home for me isn’t on the Isle of Wight, where Liz Earle is based. I’m one of a few ‘mainlanders’ who travel across to the island on the Hovercraft. Even though I’ve been doing this for a number of years I still love it. How many people can say ‘I travel to work on a Hovercraft’?
As you can see I don’t have a typical routine day-in day-out. My role takes me to many and varied places. Whether it is peering into a manufacturing vessel to make sure we have covered every detail of a manufacture process, debating ingredient selections, formulating in the laboratory, exploring the latest developments in database technology or travelling to France to work with world class perfumers. All these tasks are to ensure we get the perfect product to you!
