Liz Earle, whose line of Naturally Active Skincare has garnered a cult British following since it launched in 1995, is turning her hand to color.
Earle, who founded the label with her business partner Kim Buckland, will introduce Sheer Skin Tint, a base that delivers a light veil of color to the skin, in the U.K. in September. The product is the first chapter of a full Liz Earle Colour cosmetics line, which will launch in stages over the next year.
“For us it is a bridge, a step into color,” said Earle of the Sheer Skin Tint launch during an interview. And as befits the color line’s skin care origins, Earle noted that the collection will “always be about luminosity and getting a lovely glow…[letting] the skin’s natural beauty shine through.”
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The Sheer Skin Tint has been in development for the past three-and-a-half years, as the label’s customers — most of whom buy the brand via its Web site, mail-order catalog or via QVC — had long clamored for Liz Earle to launch makeup. Earle and Buckland worked with cosmetics formulators to develop the product, which includes some botanical and natural ingredients such as vitamin E, avocado oil and borage oil.
“We’re naturally based, but I think when you work with color it’s impossible to be completely natural,” said Earle, noting that’s why the color line doesn’t share the skin care’s Naturally Active name. “We push it as much as we can…and say, ‘We’d like to work with botanicals, we’d like to include the natural form of vitamin E’…we had a lot of parameters that are very unusual.”
The entire color line is also free of all animal extracts including carmine, a color extracted from beetles, and is approved by BUAV, Britain’s antivivisection authority. “[That’s] very unusual for a premium makeup brand,” said Earle. The Liz Earle Colour Collection comes in a deep, inky blue packaging that’s distinct from the skin care line, which is packaged in pale pastel colors. The dark, iridescent blue is inspired by the Solent, a channel of water that runs between England’s Isle of Wight, where Liz Earle is based, and the mainland.
Sheer Skin Tint will retail for 21 pounds, or $34 at current exchange for a 40-ml. tube and comes in three shades: Bare, Beige and Beach. In addition, the formulation offers SPF 15 mineral-based UV protection and is designed for all skin types. “It’s incredibly balanced. It’s a very clever combination — we spent three-and-a-half years fine tuning it,” said Earle.
And while Avon Products Inc. acquired the Liz Earle brand last year, Earle underlined that the color collection has been developed separately from Avon’s operations, and that Liz Earle continues to operate as “a stand-alone company.”
The company predicts that the entire color collection will achieve sales of $15 million during its first year, after it has launched in its entirety next year. The Sheer Skin Tint will launch via Liz Earle’s Web site and the brand’s three U.K. stores Sept. 8, and then on QVC and at John Lewis department stores in the U.K. in mid-September. The label’s Web site also ships to 93 countries around the world. “We’re quietly excited about it, and we hope that it’s the first step on a really long and successful journey into color,” said Earle.