​DIANE Creane is not your average beautician. Thirty years of working as a therapist and on cosmetics counters made her realise how much she disliked using conventional skin and face products. So, deciding mainstream moisturisers were not to her taste, the 55-year-old decided to make her own.

Reporter Eleanor Jones and photographer Phil Medgett went to experience Shear Bliss in Hawkinge...

IF PLUMP cooks are proof of the quality of the food they make then Diane Creane’s skin must be the benchmark by which her beauty products can be measured.

And if that is the case, the mother-of-two is surely on to a winner. She could easily pass for more than a decade younger than her 55 years, a fact which must be to the credit of her Shear Bliss range.

Her products are made not with mineral oil, as many brand-name cleansers and moisturisers are, but simply from plant extracts and organic oils.

Diane explained: “There has been a lot of coverage recently about just how many chemicals are in conventional products and the harm they can do.

“And, having worked in different areas of the industry, I realised I didn’t want to use what’s available on my clients’ faces and bodies.

“I wanted something that would work with your skin, not against it,” she said.

Diane made that decision last summer.

Less than six months later, having attended a couple of training courses and researched her subject thoroughly, she rolled up her sleeves and went to work in the kitchen of her Hawkinge home.

Blending aloe vera and shea butter, peach kernel oil and jojoba, Diane hoped to create a range of “skin-friendly” products.

She said: “When you put a normal cream on your face, it appears to have moisturised it but, in a lot of cases, it’s actually just lying in a film on your skin.

“So all it’s doing is forming a coating, which can lead to blocked pores and spots.

“I mix three different types of oil, which the skin absorbs at different speeds so they keep moisturising it for a longer time.

“If people knew the truth about some products they use, they’d be horrified – some use horses’ hoofs, which they get from slaughterhouses, some even use the same oils you’d put in the engine of your car.

“You just don’t know what toxins you’re putting on your skin,” she added. So Diane’s approach is the opposite.

She buys from ethical, Fairtrade suppliers and tries to be as environmentally friendly as possible, an approach reflected in her latest technique, massage using hot lava shells.

The shells of tiger-striped clams come from South Seas beaches, where they are discarded as useless by the locals. Filled with herbs and a saline solution, the shells become smooth and self-heating massage tools, which are readily available and for which traders pay the locals, so everyone, as they say, is a winner.

Diane said: “It’s such a good, pampering treatment and, because of the eco-friendly aspect of it, it’s a lovely thing to be part of – but that’s exactly what I wanted.

“As far as my own range goes, I’d like people to realise there are better products out there, available for a lot less money.

“I do it all from my kitchen and everything I make is natural, simple and basic, which is what I’m all about,” she added.

Diane offers a variety of treatments and also holds workshops, at which people can compare her products with standard, brand-name creams and cleansers. For more information, call 01303 893622 or visit www.shearbliss.co.uk