** The product **

Liz Earle Energising Hip and Thigh Gel is a product designed to tone, firm and smooth the hip and thigh area and improve its general appearance. It's a rather runny in consistency and pale yellow in colour. Its active ingredients include butcher's broom, which is supposed to combat cellulite, among other things.


** Packaging **

The gel comes packaged in an understated pastel-blue coloured tube (which is recyclable) bearing the Liz Earle Naturally Active Skincare logo and a silver-coloured band with a product description. The tube is sturdy and doesn't leak.


** Application **

According to the packaging instructions the gel should be used daily, massaged into the skin using circular movements "concentrating on the hips, thighs, legs, stomach and upper arms". The blurb continues, "We also recommend Energising Body Scrub and regular dry body brushing". This final sentence may be well-meant advice but made me a bit suspicious when I first read it - does the gel really have that noticeable an effect or does it only work in conjunction with these extra measures? And if you're using body scrubs and dry body-brushing surely this gel is redundant anyway?

The gel is fairly thin and easy to smooth onto the skin. When massaging it in I have found it to be quite sticky and it took a very long time to sink into my skin. I usually had to wait at least 20 minutes until I could get dressed. Even then, my skin still felt a little tacky. You also have to be careful not to massage it in too much, as it will then go bitty and start to peel off.

The smell on opening the gel is quite overpowering. Considering it is supposed to be a fairly natural product, it is very heavily scented and has actually made me sneeze on occasion. It's difficult to describe the smell accurately - it's a kind of botanical smell that I associate with Liz Earle products. It contains 10 essential oils, though these are not listed by name on the packaging. As far as I can see there is no point applying any body spray or perfume when wearing this as the smell of the gel drowns out all other scents.


** My experience **

Did my hips and thighs look or feel softer, former and more toned after I had used this gel for a few weeks? Well, funnily enough, they did, but I mainly put this down to my new gym programme rather than the gel. Let's face it, no gel can strengthen your thigh muscles (at least not one I could ever afford to buy)! I've used several products in the past which made similar claims about firming the thighs but none of them ever made any difference, so I wasn't expecting this gel to work. What it did do, though, was give me very smooth skin on my thighs. It's not the kind of moist smoothness you get with a cream, but a kind of drier, silky smoothness. And I didn't experience any skin irritation at all, despite the overpowering smell.


** Conclusion **

Like most thigh-toning/slimming lotions this is not a miracle-worker, but it does leave the skin of your thighs/hips feeling a lot smoother than a body lotion would. If this is the effect you're after then there's no harm in using this product, but be aware that you'll have to allow a lot of time for it to dry and you'll have to put up with the smell, which is borderline unpleasant. In my opinion it's not worth the hassle, but it does at least fulfill some of its claims, so it's not completely useless either.

You can buy products from this range via Liz Earle's website, from the shop on Duke of York Square in London in or from some John Lewis branches. This product costs £21 for 200ml, £16.67 for 150ml or £4.50 for 30ml.