I have spent the weekend trying to imagine that I’m somewhere far hotter and dryer than I actually am. Spritzing myself with l’Occitane’s ‘Calanques’ fragrance (last year’s but I treasure it as it smells like the beach) and wallowing in a bath that was 80% dead sea salts and 20% water.

(Whilst on the subject of baths; the most terribly scary thing happened to me. There I was in my huge bath with opaque water (due to salts and various other unguents I had tipped in) and something started touching my feet. I couldn’t move – I was paralysed with fear! It moved up my leg, gently gently, and then as it got near my you-know-what, I thought “I’m jolly well not having this!” and I grabbed the ghoulish ‘thing’…which turned out to be an exfoliating glove.)

Paul & Joe’s Blue Horizon collection is so beachy and summery that it had to be a part of my weekend. I had everything blue; blue nail polish (shade 015, a sparkly pale blue that’s not dead looking on the slightest), blue lip-gloss (made my teeth look whiter and didn’t turn my lips a ghastly shade as I expected it to!) and blue body gel. The body gel is great – light, cooling and very fragranced. If you were on hols, you could use this as an aftersun and skip the heavy perfume for the evening!

Because they’re so beautifully presented, any of the Paul & Joe products would be great as gifts – the boxes prettier than any wrapping paper you can buy! Talking of gifts, you have been on over to my newly launched luxury gift guide, haven’t you? NO? What are you waiting for? KEEP CALM AND SHOP!

Paul & Joe’s Blue Horizon Collection is available at BeautyBay here: http://tinyurl.com/3q5o8dz