Re-Begin

The last time I was writing here, Inika and I were just about to move home. Just over two months later, we are all settled into our new home and new life. I love how simple that makes it sound. Like we clicked our fingers and here we are! It wasn’t as traumatic as I thought it would be, in fact it was pretty smooth! The movers who packed and moved us were just brilliant. They packed everything with care, nothing was broken and they were so kind and helpful moving us into our new house. There were boxes everywhere and yet it started to feel like home almost straightaway.

The picture below is Inika and I on our first night, cuddling on the sofa, exhausted with an Indian takeaway!

Three days after we moved in was my 43rd birthday, and Inika and I celebrated together  in the garden me with pink fizz and Inika with her non-alcoholic version! It was a very happy day.

I feel ready to start this blog again, but not too quickly or like it was before. I just wanted to touch base, say hi and let you all know we are doing great!

This house is incredible, light and full of hope…I am so in love with it. We have spent the past 2 months re-decorating. It is entirely my taste and I have just taken it as far as I wanted to, sod conservative!

I can’t wait to see the seasons here, so far summer has been a revelation!

I will leave it here for today, but I will be back, gradually…it feels good to re-begin!

Intermission

So I didn’t know if I was going to just carry on with this blog and try and make things work during this period of my life but then I decided that it didn’t feel right so I am going to be honest and fair to myself and just say I can’t do it all!

Intermission – that’s what I am doing here. Taking a break, giving myself breathing space and trying not to feel guilty about it!

“So what’s going on?” I hear you ask! Well here it is. After 18 years of marriage and one beautiful 10 year old daughter I am getting a divorce. It’s been six months since the whole thing properly started and we have now reached the point at which we will physically go our separate ways.

Our house is sold, my daughter and I have found a new place that we love just down the road that we are moving into as we speak!

So, with all this going on, plus my full time job and getting myself and my daughter through this as unscathed as possible, the blog is the thing that I am going to have to put on pause.

I love my blog, but lately it’s felt disconnected from my real life and that has made me love it a little less. It’s time for a new start and a fresh perspective.

This blog will be back but maybe focus on other stuff too, like life and home and new beginnings. Fashion and beauty will always be my passions but I think I am going to be finding joy in so many different things that I want to share here.

So if you can bear with me while I take some time, hit refresh and come back with some new stuff that gets my juices going then I would be very grateful. I will be honest I don’t know how long I will be gone but hopefully not too long…

So wish me me luck and meanwhile I will be on Instagram cause I just love Instagram – who doesn’t?!

Thank you

xx

Hourglass Girl Lip Stylo

I got myself the Hourglass Femme Nude Lip Stylo a while back and absolutely loved it, so when Hourglass brought out new colours I had to get one! I went for Visionary (£26) which is a lovely brick brown red.

As always the packaging is to die for! The formula is exactly as described – silky, smooth and hydrating. The colour is intense but can be worn subtly too.

This is a perfect everyday colour for me. I vey impressed as always!

Rediscovering Lush

I go through phases with Lush, sometimes I love their products and sometimes I am just not that bothered! Well I am back to loving. This has mainly been triggered by their new range of bath oils. These are available online from the Lush Kitchen and are little packages of joy! I love my baths and am not a bubble fan (we will return to this in a minute). I am more of a aromatherapy bath oil or milk. So when I saw the bath oil range on the Lush website I had to give them a try. They are all about £2 for 20g (i.e. 1-2 baths). They come beautifully wrapped in pretty paper packages!

The ones I decided to try were

• Dreamtime bath oil with chamomile blue and lavender oils
• Floating Island bath oil with sandalwood and lemon oils
• Monsieur Gustav bath oil with lavender and rose oils
• Oil on Troubled Waters with oakwood absolute and peppermint oil.
• Flowers Barrow bath oil with roman chamomile oil and rose absolute

All of these bath oils are incredible. They smell amazing and leave my skin so soft. It is definitely worth using a whole one if you are going to stay in for an hour but otherwise I use half at a time!

I also picked up some bubble bars (about £4-5 each) – yes I did say I don’t like bubbles, but I worked out that if I crumble these after I have run my bath I get all the benefits of the smell and luxuriousness without the annoying bubbles! I got

• Rose Jam with lemon, rose and geranium
• Blue Skies and Fluffy Clouds with patchouli and frankincense
• Supertramp with patchouli, sandalwood and ginger
• Unicorn Horn (for my daughter) with lavender and neroli

I have to say these bubble bars are so lovely. Again the smells are amazing but my skin isn’t left dried out by bubbles but moisturised and soft. The bigger bars last for at least 4-5 baths.

I then decided to venture into the skincare section and remembered how much I used to love Angels on Bare Skin (£7.25). This is a lovely exfoliating cleanser with lavender, rose, kaolin and ground almonds. I use this mainly in the morning as my exfoliant as its so gentle and smells so good!

I have most definitely got the Lush bug again and can feel more purchases coming soon!

Elemental Herbology Bath & Shower Oil Collection

As we get into the winter months my baths taken on a whole new level of relaxation and pampering! I love a good bath oil and although nothing ever seems to top Aromatherapy Associates I keep searching! This Five Element Aromatherapy Bath and Shower Oil Collection from Elemental Herbology has been a very lovely discovery (£35).

The oils are 100% natural and based on the Five Elements – wood, fire, earth, metal and water. You can use them alone or create your own “aroma-therapeutic infusion” by mixing them.

I love the way they look but more importantly they smell divine. Each oil has a different function to soothe, revive or relieve tension. It is a lovely collection that would make a great gift for bath lovers!

Brush Cleansing Palette

I really wanted a brush cleansing glove but they are so expensive (about £30) I decided too get the Real Techniques Brush Cleansing Palette (£12.99) and I am so impressed! I hate washing my brushes but this just makes it so easy and almost fun!

One side has all these different sized nodules to clean your brushes and the other side is a strap to keep it in place while you are washing your brushes.

So I generally lather up my brushes using a gentle cleanser (I am using a Dr Bronner cleanser here). I then swish the brush on the palette a few times until the bubbles are clean and clear. Then I rinse them off (always making sure the brush is facing down so water doesn’t run up into the handle).

I then lay them on a towel to dry usually slightly elevated again to stop water entering the handle which can ruin the brush.

 

 

Toilet Humour

Yes this is a post about the infamous Aesop Post Poo Drops (£22).

I had heard so much about these I decided I needed this in my toilet! Its not the most glamorous topic but I have to say it is a very chic looking product for what it is! Most importantly IT WORKS! I don’t how but it does and it doesn’t just add lots of smell on top of the nasty smell you want rid of, it just gets rid of the nasty smell..magic!

Totally worth the money and I think a very elegant addition to any toilet!

The Luxe Bar Table

I dont do too much on homeware on this blog but every now and then I get a special piece that is really worth mentioning. This is the Gold Luxe Bar Table from Oliver Bonas (£280).

This is such an elegant marble-topped round table with a rough-luxe gold finish. It even has three racks for hanging your champagne or wine glasses!

It is just such a stunning piece and looks amazing in my living room – a birthday present from my husband!

The Game Changer Lashlift

I hate eyelash curlers and I hate using them! But I have to. My eyelashes although thick and pretty long are very straight so curlers are a must. That is until I discovered the lash lift! I read about this on Vivianna Does Makeup and was immediately hooked on the idea. So I booked myself into my local beautician to get it done.

Just so you are aware you have to have a allergy test at least 24 hours ahead. So the lash lift itself cost me £25 and took about an hour to do. They start by protecting your lower lashes with a shield and then place a “mold” on your eyelids over which your lashes will be set to give it a curl. Then they apply the perm solution (and yes this stinks) and leave that on for 15 minutes. It didn’t sting and to be honest was quite relaxing! Then they apply the setting lotion (less smelly) and leave that for a further 15 minutes.

That’s it, once you have cleaned everything off there’s nothing more to do but enjoy your beautifully lifted lashes! I think you can get an eyelash curl which is different to the lift and sounded like you could end up with lashes that a literally curled back onto your lids which clearly didn’t appeal!

The lift is meant to last between 4-8 weeks. I am in week 2 and I am loving it. Not only do my lashes looked curled I also seem to have loads more lashes. I don’t have to apply mascara (picture above with no mascara) but I do (picture below with mascara) because it makes them look super thick and amazing!!

I would highly recommend this and to be honest this may well become a regular beauty treatment for me!

 

The men’s perfume that gets you noticed

Although I do occasional posts about fragrances, this is a men’s fragrance – its the Chanel Egoiste Platinum. That’s not entirely unusual – I have a quite a few men’s perfumes and love the musky, masculine scent on me. This was a recommendation from a friend and I am really glad I tried it.

This is the only perfume I have EVER worn that has got me so many compliments – friends, family, work colleagues, beauticians, hair dressers, strangers! I am not exaggerating! I love the fresh male scent of this perfume but now I love it even more because it obviously works well on me!

Maybe its time we all switch to men’s fragrances?!