Smell is a big thing for me. I’m the opposite of a fragrance-free kinda girl. I’m here for the full-fat geranium and lavender self-care experience and like many others, scent has become a sort of olfactory comfort blanket in recent months. Unsurprisingly, it’s also led to a few new product launches. Here are some of my latest aroma-therapy discoveries… (more…)
I just noticed that the Urban Outfitters Gourmand fragrances* that I raved about a couple of years ago (below) are back in stock. I assumed they had been discontinued. I get a lot of traffic from searches on this fragrance line, which isn’t that surprising; it’s £14 and very good. Sweet and marzipan-y if you like that ‘brunch-at-the-patisserie’ kind of smell, and the bottles are good looking too. (more…)
There was a Very Important Player missing from the round of Christmas press days this summer. The Jo Malone Christmas gift offer was noticeable by its absence, so I was very happy to finally see it at the press day earlier this week.
Jo Malone’s Christmas gift items are something of a cult. The advent calendars famously have customers who place their names on the waiting list a year in advance. And the beauty cracker is the stuff of legend, one of the first on the market in what has now become a huge industry of mini-sized items disguised as crackers and tree ornaments. This year’s advent calendar (£300, below, crammed with colognes and candles) will be available exclusively at Harrods on 1st October and then rolled out nationwide on 1st November. (more…)
It’s all about the women this week, with International Women’s Day tomorrow and Mother’s Day this Sunday. Despite my inner cynic, I still love Mother’s Day – it’s a good excuse to properly spoil our mums and there’s no shortage of great gift options around at the moment.
Beauty brands tend to highlight the twee-est stuff for Mother’s Day, but all the mums I know are super-cool and don’t want floral soaps and Cath Kidston wash bags. They like Liberty and Space NK or small batch organic oils. They love trying new fragrances (Amanda Carr’s We Wear Perfume site is great for discovery) and are just as swayed by chic packaging as the rest of us. (more…)
