Fancy a quick blast through the beauty things that have wowed me recently? Well buckle up, team, this is going to be quite the ride! I’m exaggerating, obviously, because it’s just a post about beauty favourites so there are never going to be any significant potholes or humpbacked bridges to throw you out of your…
Not since Molton Brown’s Geranium Nefertum have I spritzed a scent and really really liked it. I think that my nose has gone on strike, to a certain extent – it’s not that it can’t smell things, it just doesn’t really get that excited anymore. Not much tickles my olfactory fancy. It started when I was pregnant with…
Well, Molton Brown’s new Geranium Nefertum range is a bit of a surprise. I can’t remember the last time I needed to try a fragrance on Mr AMR with such immediacy – I actually sprinted down the stairs to spritz him. He thought I’d won the lottery such was the hysterical, breathless enthusiasm with which…
I’m going to do a bit more of a written accompaniment than usual to this month’s “most used” video; I filmed the video at my Mum’s whilst enduring a minor hangover (two glasses of prosecco, rock and roll) and there were some important things I forgot to talk about. Like the fact that Philosykos Eau…
I’m really in the mood for a bit of high-summer fragrance, at the moment. I think it’s because we keep getting these little pockets of surprise hot weather; one day it’s drizzly and grim and then the next it’s absolutely baking and you have to pop inside to put sunscreen on. Glorious. The hot bits,…
I appear to have developed a penchant for the sort of beauty packaging that looks as though it’s come straight from the set of an Alice in Wonderland film. I’ve become a real sucker for vintage-style perfume bottles, interesting pots, dainty tins, jars with fancy lids and anything that might look fabulous on my fantasy dressing table….
I’m about to be a total tease because Narciso Musc Oil isn’t really available online, it’s more of a “try and find it instore” sort of job. But wearing this for the past few weeks has reminded me how much I absolutely adore the Eau de Parfum version of Narciso and – luckily – that one is widely…
Atkinsons’ Love In Idleness is such a romantic, beautifully feminine fragrance – I mentioned this in my Valentine’s Day post as a springtime alternative to the more predictable rose scents, but it’s good for all-year-round-wearing, really, so long as you like your perfumes light and pretty. I don’t know too much about Atkinsons as a brand, other…
Mr AMR would rather repeatedly stick a screwdriver into his eye sockets than do anything for Valentine’s, but I, for one, think that it’s the perfect excuse to receive a little treat. Something beautifully scented, something flirty and pink, or pale and expensive and understated. Here are my own picks for Valentine’s Day presents –…
I made a cheeky little Space NK purchase just before Christmas; the Philosykos eau de toilette from Diptyque. This makes it – by far – my most-repurchased luxury beauty item. I can’t think of any other product I race through so quickly and so religiously keep “in stock”. I thought that my love of Philosykos pre-dated this…
Here it is: the women’s Christmas Gift Guide. I find that women are much, much easier to buy for than men. My friends like almost anything that smells or looks or feels nice. I like almost everything that smells or looks or feels nice. I honestly don’t know how people get it so wrong, with unfunny novelty mugs and candles that…
Well this is just extraordinary. It has to be the most un-seasonal seasonal beauty release I’ve ever happened upon: a winter launch of a fragrance product that is so summery, so reminiscent of tropical islands and hot holidays and steamy evenings, it’s virtually growing legs and wandering off to find a warm cupboard to hibernate…
Those still searching for their signature summer scent might like to give Tom Ford’s Orchid Soleil a try. It’s heady but not cloying, exotic but in the “steamy, sexy nights” way instead of the “I’ve got a lovely bunch of coconuts” sort of way. You know the exotic scents I’m talking about: Pina Colada crossed with a blowsy white floral. Perfectly…
Last week I went to the launch of the new Chanel No5 fragrance, No5 L’Eau, and for the past three days I have been doing a bit of a “compare and contrast”, walking around wearing the original No5 on one wrist and the new No5 on the other. Chanel No5 is one of the world’s most…
Thrifty Scent. I know what you’re all thinking: has she really gone to the effort of compiling a whole feature based around an incredibly bad pun? The answer to that question is yes. Yes I have. And it’s not even my own bad pun, I nicked it from Mr AMR. If you’re at a loss to know what the…
Some utterly delectable perfumes, if you’re stuck for a mother’s day present this year. The card in the background, by the way, is from Thortful – you can get 50% off your first card order using the code WEB50. Or so it says on my computer when I go to their site – let me know…
Something as dark and decadent as this new fragrance launch could only have come from Alexander McQueen. McQueen Parfum is just brilliant; everything about it has been executed with absolute precision, from the theatrical black glass flacon to the way the perfume changes and fades upon the skin. It’s mysterious, powerful and completely unpredictable, with Sambac Jasmine, Tuberose…
You may have gathered, from seeing the odd flash of house in the backgrounds of my videos and photographs, that my taste in interiors is – what would be traditionally considered to be – rather masculine. I tend to favour warm woods and clean lines and darker colours over anything that could be considered pretty. Rosewood, leather,…