#MeetThe…Skincare Magnate

 

We are so excited to bring you our interview with Liz Warom, founder and MD of Temple Spa, one of our favourite skincare brands.

Liz and her husband Mark have a wealth of experience in the beauty industry, and set up Temple Spa ensuring it reflect their beliefs and values. Temple Spa do not test on animals or hire others to do so on their behalf. Their products are paraben free, with a focus on natural ingredients and essential oils and their aim is to improve the self esteem and wellbeing of everyone they come into contact with. We have to say, as massive devotees to the brand, everything we’ve seen, heard and bought so far from them, really does live up to this claim. So would speaking to Liz also live up to our expectations? We found out…..

 

 

Hi Liz, thank you for taking time out to talk to us so close to Christmas. We’re massive Temple Spa fans so really excited to talk to you! Can you tell us about your early career in the beauty industry?

I got married to Mark 36 years ago when I was just seventeen! I wasn’t prepared for how much it cost to have a mortgage and run a household, so I decided to become a direct sales consultant selling cosmetics to supplement my rather pathetic income as a dental nurse. I completely found my niche working with women and within two years of starting I had 2000 consultants working for me and left that company 8 years later as National Sales Director and still on 26 years old.

From there I joined a cosmetic manufacturer where my role was to create concepts for stores such as Marks & Spencer, Miss Selfridge and The Body Shop. It was here that I learned how to evolve product working with chemists, designers and manufacturers, a brilliant apprenticeship for the future. I eventually ended up working for one of my clients Anita Roddick and it was managing the Colourings brand at The Body Shop where my career really took off. Mark joined me as joint general manager and we took the brand into another dimension of growth and that taught us about managing a brand in over 50 countries and re-invention.

Wow, that is amazing! Anita Roddick was a very inspiring lady. How did you go from The Body Shop to setting up and running Temple Spa?

From The Body Shop, we came up with a concept for a lifestyle brand Vie, and after approaching Richard Branson with the idea, it became Virgin Vie and we took the brand from concept to launch in 18 months. It was only when the pull to truly manage our own business and brand with complete ownership became too strong, did we leave to pursue our dream for Temple Spa, which was our destiny.

To work with such successful brands and now be running your own award winning skincare company, you must have a real passion for beauty/skincare. Where does this stem from?

Yes, the creation of products is in my veins. I am a highly creative person and “see” things as well as “hear” things that give me constant inspiration to create, augment and perfect. I am blessed to work with some amazing ball catchers too, and its team work and having the right people around you, who look out for vision that makes it happen.

We bet running your own business can be stressful at times though. What does a typical day involve for you now?

Since I’ve got an I-Pad, keeping on top of emails has changed my life. I am able to check in early morning or last thing at night swiftly and efficiently, I deal with the States and Far East so quite a bit of communication starts or ends my day. As an MD, I oversee quite a few areas of the business and I find it works best if I have a ‘focus’ for the day which might be with my product development team or a supplier. I might meet an editor, journalist or Harrods buyer to take them through what’s happening a few months down the line, I definitely absorb myself in our fabulous Spa to Go business, we have over 1000 consultants and I LOVE any opportunity to meet with them, they look up to me and pull strength out of me. A lot of my job is future focused and I enjoy strategising to constantly see where the business and brand will be in years to come, we’re leaving a legacy and it’s a big responsibility.

Your passion and enthusiasm is very evident, but what for you, is the best thing about being MD of Temple Spa?

It probably sounds corny but I adore working with my husband, I respect him as a business partner and our careers have allowed us to work alongside one another for over 20 years. I also love the variety of my job. No day is the same and it keeps me buzzing.

We don’t think it’s corny, although we do admire both of you for being able to work together and remain married for so long! If others want to follow in your footsteps, setting up in the beauty industry, what would you advise them to do?

Have a clear picture of what you want to do, research it well and be prepared to work hard. Study, do extra training or work experience to push through. Mediocrity kills most businesses and when I find earnest, hard working people who have a great attitude, I will give them a lot of freedom to progress and fulfil their own ambitions. You have to be excellent not just OK to really get on, I am truly passionate about excellence and when I see it in other people, I am excited for them and know they’ll go places (hopefully with Temple Spa!).

You’re inspiring us for the new year! So, out of all the products that Temple Spa offer, which would be the one you couldn’t live without?

Gosh, I’m asked that all the time and it’s so hard to pick just one. My products are my children and I love all of them! Probably my desert island product would be IN THE BEGINNING the most awesome balm cleanser.

We know how you feel, we have rather a lot of your products in the bathroom cabinet, but have to agree we couldn’t be without In The Beginning! What’s your top beauty or skincare tip?

Smile with your whole face. If you look at yourself in the mirror with a frown or still expression, then brighten up your face with a wholehearted smile, the years drop away and you sparkle.

That is a great tip Liz! It just goes to show that anyone can be beautiful. Thank you so much for your time, we’ve loved talking to you and we can’t wait to see what 2013 holds for Temple Spa!

You can find out more about Temple Spa by visiting their website, where you can see purchase their full range of products, find out how to become part of their Spa To Go business or book a party. 

Night Night! Our daily skincare routine…

If you haven’t already read our post on our morning skincare routine, then you can do so here. As we’ve said we thought we’d share our current favourites, and like a lot of people we have a different products that we use before bed. On reflection, we’re quite surprised at how many products we’ve got on the go at the moment, but it doesn’t take as long as you might think to get through all of this – honest! 

Here’s what we’re using before our head hits the pillow:

• Taaj Himalaya Micellar Water – We’ve already reviewed this makeup remover here. We use it on a damp cotton wool to remove the first layer of our makeup, as a “precleanse”.

• Temple Spa – In The Beginning Deep Cleansing Melt We love this luxurious cleanser so much, especially during the cold winter months we’re having at the moment. Read our full review here. 

• Temple Spa Toning Essence & Skinetica We use these two morning and night, see our earlier Morning All post. 

• Dermalogica – Overnight Clearing Gel If we’ve got a nasty blemish coming up or one that has already made an appearance, applying a blob of this gel before bed means that it is very often gone by morning, or at least very substantially reduced. We couldn’t live without this! 

• RapidLash & Brow Boost We’re currently undertaking a challenge to get our sparse brows and short lashes to grow! You can read our intro here. At the moment we’re applying both of these every night as directed and then let them dry before we finish up with our favourite facial oil. 

• Beatitude – Skin Salvation Facial Oil We’ll be doing a full review of this soon. We’ve been using it for a few weeks and we really love how it gives a really concentrated moisture boost and means we wake up with plumper and glowing skin.

Once we’ve applied all of these, we can get off to sleep guilt free. If we’re really tired or a tad worse for wear, we always try to at least use the Taaj makeup remover but we feel guilty if we do that too often! We also see a big difference in our skin if we do, so we think the extra 10 minutes a night is worth it! What’s your bedtime skincare routine like? Do you think this is too extensive or is your routine even more intensive?

Morning All! Our daily skincare routine…

As you know, here at thebeautyobsession, we are skincare ADDICTS. We thought we’d bring you a post on our current regular skincare routine to show you what’s working for us. We’re lucky enough to get to try lots of different brands and products and we change our routine based on how our skin is behaving, the seasons and when new products need trialing, but these are what we’re using in the mornings at the moment!

Our morning routine needs to be quick as we’ll take an extra five minutes in bed over skincare any day. It also needs to prep our skin and give us a good base for makeup. Here’s what’s working for us:

• Temple Spa – Dual Act Wet & Dry Cleansing Lotion This cleanser is a cross between a gel and a lotion and we love to slap in on dry skip as soon as we wake up as it’s really cooling and refreshing. Once we’ve rubbed it in to make sure we’ve got rid of all traces of sleep, we wipe it off with a wet natural sponge and it leaves our skin feeling really clean. You can apply it to wet skin as well and it does foam slightly, but we feel a bit like we’re wasting it if we use it that way. This cleanser is great for our combination skin as it takes away any oily sheen on our T-zone, but doesn’t make our skin feel tight in other areas. We don’t get any irritation or redness, which is always good when you want to apply makeup soon after cleansing. 

• Temple Spa – Toning Essence We love the smell of this toner and use it every morning on a damp cotton pad to make sure we’ve removed all traces of our cleanser. It doesn’t contain any alcohol and doesn’t irritate or tighten our skin. 

• Skinetica – We reviewed this here and we’re still using it morning and night to keep any pimples at bay. It absorbs straight into the skin and just leaves our face feeling nice and soft. Once its been absorbed it doesn’t matter what you apply over it, so we can put moisturiser and makeup on almost straight away.

• Temple Spa – Skin Truffle We’ll be doing a full review on this amazing day cream soon. Needless to say that a cream that contains strawberries, champagne and diamond dust is a winner with us!

• VirginVie Necker Gel – We know it’s quite extravagant to have a cream just for your neck but as it’s one of the first places to show aging and is normally on show every day, we think it’s worth it. Virgin Vie is no longer around, but we were given this gel some time ago and didn’t get around to using it. However when we did, we were hooked from the first use. It’s a really luxurious gel that instantly smooths and tightens. We just need to find a good alternative when this finally runs out! 

• Avon – Anew Eye Lift Pro This eye cream has two separate creams for the under eye to reduce dark circles and a gel formula for the brow bone to tighten and lift. We like how it really smooths the eye area and we think it reduces some of the fine lines we have. We also love what a bargain it is! 

So these are the products that we’re using every morning at the moment. It probably seems like this takes ages to do as there are quite a few products here, however we’ve got it down to a fine art and can get through it in 5 – 10 minutes max! What are your morning must haves?

Check out the site later today for our evening skincare favourites!

Shine Your Light

We love Temple Spa for their luxurious skincare but we’d not tried their cosmetics range before. We thought the gorgeous Shine Your Light set would be a good place to start, containing two nail treats and two cream eyeshadows in complementary colours, we thought they’d be perfect for the Christmas party season. As with all the Temple Spa sets, it comes presented in a lovely gift box, so it would make a great Christmas present, but we’re not giving it away!

Browns are a great colour for autumn/winter, so we thought we’d start with the Terra twighlight nail treat.

As you can see, three coats give a sumptuous, shimmering colour, and it lasted well for 4/5 days without chipping.

Ice/frost colours are also particularly apt for the cold weather we’re having at the moment, so the Azzuro silver/blue nail treat is great for adding some on trend sparkle. 

We like it with one coat alone, it gives a lovely pearlescent shimmer, which would make a great alternative for when you normally quickly pop on a coat of clear varnish.

With two coats the colour really comes into its own, and would be ideal for Christmas parties!

The two eyeshadows come in very similar shades to the nail treats; Imbrunire and Oceano. They’re cream shadows with sponge applicators and we love them! The colours are beautiful, and the cream formula is easy to apply and very easy to blend. It’s not quite a cream to powder formula, as it doesn’t dry to a matt, powdery finish, but once set they stay put for hours and there is no creasing. We used Oceano in the inner corners of the eye, with the darker Imbrunire in a V shape on the outer corners of the lid – gorgeous! 

Shine Your Light is available from Temple Spa for £25 and your can buy online here, or through one of their Spa to Go consultants at a Temple Spa skin class. 

Christmas Gift Guide – Part 2!

*PAMPER*

The second of our Christmas gift guides, brings you all our favourite pampering gifts. It’s up to you if you choose to give them away! 

Getting your beauty sleep is so important when it comes to looking and feeling good. These gorgeous lavender scented eye masks from Holistic Silk will not only help you sleep the whole night through, but you’ll look stylish doing it! Backed with luxurious velvet, these masks would be a lovely treat for anyone who loves a good night’s sleep! You can purchase them for £41 at www.holisticsilk.com We also recommend checking out their silk massage slippers, they look beautiful!

We’re predicting that facial oils will become a cult product in 2013. Often people shy away from oils as they make your skin feel, well, oily! However, there are a new generation of facial oils that are being developed, which are changing all of that. Our ultimate favourite is Skin Saviour Facial Oil from luxury aromatherapy brand Beatitude. Made from pure essential oils and containing Immortelle, Rose & Neroli, applying this oil to your skin at night will ensure you wake up with smoother, plumper and more radiant looking skin. In its beautiful glass bottle and all natural packaging, this is a brilliant present for those lovers of luxury. Priced at £36, you can buy it from www.beatitudeproducts.co.uk

For those of you who are looking for natural skincare gifts, you can’t go wrong with the Ginvera Green Tea range from Janiro, based on traditional Asian beauty rituals and ingredients. One of their best sellers is the Ginvera Green Tea Marvel Gel, which you apply before a cleanser to exfoliate deep into the skin to rid you of pesky pimples and blackheads. At the moment you can buy one Marvel Gel for £22 and get one half price, which means you’ve got one for a friend and more importantly one for you! You’ll also get a free cleanser if you spend over £30! Take a look at www.janiro.co.uk

As you all know, we’re Temple Spa devotees, and we love their Star Performers collection. It contains 7 miniature 15ml pots of their bestsellers, including our favourite In the Beginning cleanser and the legendary Skin Truffle. An ideal present for any ladies who love pampering, and an excellent intro to Temple Spa. Priced at £75 from www.templespa.com

Give the gift of silky soft hands with this Nourishing Shea Butter Blends Hand Cream Trio from Arbonne. With three different scents, all enriched with shea butter, you’ll be in the good books with this gift. Purchase from www.arbonne.com for £22.

Got a friend who loves to party? They’ll love you forever if you give them these ingenious EyeSlices, cooling gel pads filled with botanic ingredients including aloe ferox, regu age, biodynes, pentavitin and peptamide 6. These magic little pads will with red eyes, dark circles under the eyes, tired eyes, puffy eyes and wrinkles.Find out more at www.calla-salon.co.uk

If you’re trying to find a gift for a hard-to-please teen or young woman, the Perfect Skincare Set from Amie is ideal. The set contains a gentle eye makeup remover, purifying face wash, exfoliator and matte-finish moisturiser. As with all Amie products, they’re created from 95% naturally derived ingredients and are completely free from parabens, sulphates, petrochemicals, mineral oil, GMO or animal extracts, perfect for young skins. Available from www.amieskincare.com priced £19.95

If you’d like to give to a charity as well as a loved one this Christmas, why not consider some of the charity beauty products available. We really like the National Trust range of Hand & Body Washes, Creams and Eau de Toilette’s. The collection is made in England using fragrance extracts from British fruits, flowers and plants, features four distinct fragrances inspired by the coast, countryside, gardens and woodland looked after by the National Trust. Giving these as gifts will make you feel very virtuous in more ways than one! Prices start from £9.50 and are available from www.boots.com or www.nationaltrust.org.uk.

Let us know which of these pampering products are you favourite, or if you have any other recommendations! 

Don’t let Winter have its wicked way with your skin!

One of our favourite beauty blogs is We Were Raised By Wolves, so we were delighted to be able to write a guest post whilst Evelyn is away. We hope you like it…..take a look at the blog here.

As most of us have probably noticed, it’s getting a lot darker, wetter and colder outside now we’re getting closer to December. We don’t know about you, but the change in temperature and biting British winds plays havoc with our skin, and we often end up with red and sore faces as this time of year.

We’ve put together our pick of our favourite winter skin wonders that we can’t live without, and thought we’d share them with you!

Preparation is key….

Using the right cleanser is essential in winter. Using an astringent, drying cleanser at this time of year is asking for sore skin. Our favourite product is In the Beginning Deep Cleansing Melt by Temple Spa. This waxy cleanser literally melts on the skin, removing all traces of makeup and grime and gives a super strong injection of moisturiser without being greasy. Lavender and Vitamin E helps to soothe and relieve any tightness.

Go the extra mile….

To give your skin a boost when the usual cleanse, tone and moisturise isn’t enough, we love Natio Ageless Hydrating mask. It is like an intensive conditioner for your face! Containing organic rosehip and sesame oils, as well as papaya and aloe vera, this mask really helps brighten and refresh your skin with intensive moisturisation. When applied it feels like double cream, and gives instant relief to skin battered by the elements!

When the going gets tough….

If you’re really suffering, for example with chapped or cracked skin around the nose, lips and eyelids which often happens to us during winter time, we recommend turning to Nurture’s Nourishing Rescue Balm. This extra softening balm is great on those areas which need some real TLC. It reminds us of Elizabeth Arden’s Eight Hour Cream but with a much smaller price tag. And we find the lavender scent really soothing and relaxing which is an added bonus.

Primetime for Primer…

We’re always extolling the benefits of primers here at thebeautyobsession, but it’s even more important during the winter months. As well as providing a nice base for makeup, they offer an extra barrier between your skin and the elements. Our favourite primer is Avon’s Magix Skin Perfector.

Cover it up….

Once you’ve full prepped and pampered your skin, if you’re still suffering from redness, don’t panic! The constant changing temperatures brought about by central heating and then stepping outside into the cold, mean that even those of us with usually flawless skin can suffer from some serious flushing! You can disguise the redness by using yellow or green toned concealers and foundations. We like Benefit’s Perk Up Artist for evening out skin tones.

Love your lips…

The most common part of your face to suffer during winter are your poor lips! We can’t stress enough how important it is to protect and moisturise – chapped lips really aren’t a good look! We don’t leave the house without our Balmi lipbalm attached to our keyring, and if we need some colour, we use one of our Clinique Chubby Sticks. They moisturise and have great colour!

What are your winter skin saviours? Have you tried any of our favourites?