There's probably only one thing that could have persuaded Liz Earle to cut short her maternity leave (after giving birth to a gorgeous son a couple of months ago): the launch of her haircare, which has been a work-in-progress for six (yes, six!) years. Casually, Liz sent out an e-mail back then asking what her customers would like the brand to create next. 20,000 responses later, haircare was on the Naturally Active project list - and it's taken this long. Beauty Bible says: it's so worth the wait. The four-product range is packed with botanicals (no surprises there) and the one suits-all-hairtypes shampoo ('think of it as the hair equivalent to Cleanse & Polish - we know it works for everyone', says Liz) features a new ultra-gentle but gorgeously-foaming natural ingredient road-tested by Liz herself, who's famously sensitive to SLS and SLES. There are three Botanical Shine Conditioners - for Oily, Normal and Dry/Damaged hair - which is where you can customise the right regime for your hairtype. A key ingredient is Kenyan yangu oil (you can see Cape chestnuts which the oil's derived from being harvested here), used by the women of Kenya to tame and gloss their notoriously challenging hair. Used alongside shea butter, it means the formulation could be created without silicones (which build up on the hair, gradually diminishing shine). We just ADORE (please note big, shouty capitals) the fragrance: light, citrussy, fresh - just darned perfect, actually: at one point, Liz and her business partner Kim locked themselves away in a hotel and washed and conditioned their hair over 20 times in quick succession, in order to pin-point the perfect fragrance. (It worked!) We - and our hair - are very happy to be in possession of the range right now; the rest of you will have to wait till 6th September, when it launches at www.lizearle.com. So: when you've hung around for six years to try this, we rather hope you can hold off for another 10 weeks without breaking into our bathrooms...!
