l’Occitane have launched their winter fragrance, Arlésienne, and I have to tell you that I know more backstory on this fragrance than on pretty much any other beauty product I’ve ever tried. (Apart from CoLab, of course.) Earlier in the year I visited Arles in the South of France to learn about the mysterious Woman of…
Wah! Sorry to be a total beauty enabler this week, but Narciso Eau de Parfum by Narciso Rodriguez is just an absolute show-stopper. Look at that bottle! So understated and chic with its smooth, square lid and simple bottle design. And how many white perfumes have you seen? It’s like a measure of the most perfectly pure milk,…
Oh ho ho, I am so ready for deep and sexy wintertime perfumes and Yves Saint Laurent’s Black Opium is just about as sexy as they come. I mentioned Chanel’s Coco Noir Parfum last week – it’s a very concentrated, sexed-up version of the popular eau de toilette – but I must say that Black Opium has knocked my socks off. (I’d use ruder…
Earlier in the year I wrote about Chanel’s amazing Les Exclusifs; highly concentrated perfumes in teeny, beautifully-crafted glass flacons with perfectly formed stoppers and chic, minimalist labelling. Just a few drops of these special perfumes and you’re scented for days; Beige stayed on, if I remember rightly, through two baths and quite a few nights! Read more about Les Exclusifs……
Beauty products that remind me of my first few years as a model: Elnett hairspray (I have been fumigated with this stuff to within an inch of my life); Eight Hour Cream from Elizabeth Arden (makeup artists used to use this sticky concoction for everything, including glossing eyelids and adding sheen to arms and legs) and Benefit’s Bathina Body…
I know that I’ve covered summer scents already, but I was sorting through my Cabinet of many Beauty Secrets and putting fragrances into groups (as you do) and this was the collection I nicknamed “hot and heady”. I also have a group called “naughty rose” (I kid you not) and one called “figgy pudding”. I’ll share those with…
Last week I wrote about Aurelia’s amazing Firm and Revitalise dry oil; this week it’s Roger & Gallet’s Huile Gourmande that’s taking centre stage. Or I should say that it’s the scent of it, the Fleur de Figuier that’s taking centre stage; it’s quite a loud and colourful summer smell that lingers on the skin and it has that kind of…
Oh hello August, you sizzling-hot little git! Where did you spring from? I’m still answering emails with “hope you had a good New Year”! I’m not going on holiday until September (too much to do, too much to do) and so for now, I am making do with scents that remind me of my summer holidays. Orange-blossom,…
Sorry about this one folks: it’s a post about an amazing product that I can’t find a proper stockist for. I’m well aware of how annoying that is, but bear with me and I’ll try to add some stockist information by the end of the day. I’m currently away from Mission Control (again) and Google…
I don’t usually post about things before they’re released but this perfume has stolen my heart. It’s the Classique Intense from Jean Paul Gaultier and it’s due to be launched next month, just in time for those hot, sultry evenings when you want a fragrance that’s heady and exotic and sexy. I don’t actually like the original Classique (though a…
Well here’s something rather special from Chanel; tiny, perfectly-formed glass flacons containing Les Exclusifs fragrances in their very purest form. Not only are the bottles themselves absolutely beautiful, with their little glass stoppers tied on with thread and dainty black seals decorating the necks, the concentrated contents of the bottles are the kind of fragrance nectar that make…
Here’s a warm, uplifting little fragrance to see you through to the summer; Connock London’s Kukui. If you haven’t had the pleasure of smelling the Kukui range then you’ve just found another thing to add to your list – it’s a beautifully soft and comforting scent that has a slightly woody, masculine base. My first introduction to the range…
Sorry for that quite horrid bit of alliteration in the post title; I’m writing this at just before one in the morning and, after a certain time, my brain switches into Standby Mode. I start thinking in clichés and overusing semicolons; I have to fight my own fingers in order to produce sentences with less…
My latest Hush order has arrived: just look at those colours! I bought a cotton printed maxi-dress, the cut and style identical to the snake-print one that I had last year, and I also purchased a snazzy pair of lobster-print pyjama bottoms. Both items I had intended to keep until the warmer months but I…
I’m not quite sure how this fragrance has managed to pass me by. I thought that I was fully versed in the delights that Jo Malone has to offer, but apparently not! This Wild Fig & Cassis is, on paper, totally up my street – I adore fig fragrances and especially those that have a bit of…
Yves Saint Laurent have super-swished two of their most iconic products; the Touche Éclat pen and their fragrance classic that for many of us is perfume “marmite”: Opium. For me, Opium has incredibly warming associations; my Mum wore it from when I was very little and I remember clearly the palm-leaf packaging on her dressing table. It’s a strong,…
If you’re searching for the perfect Winter fragrance then I’d like to be so bold as to say: stop. I have found it. You need look no further, tread the halls of Selfridges no more. Begone with the paper tester sticks that litter your handbag, cast out those plastic-lidded vials that clutter your bathroom cabinet…
Some lovely summer scents for you, though we are now heading on into the autumn. Or will I be strung up for saying that? I’m just being realistic. We’ve had the best summer for years, and this is Britain, so something bad is bound to happen to the weather soon. Just saying. Anyway: fragrances. I have some…