This post has been lurking around in my archive for a while. Basically I figured I’d wait for the sun to shine before I did a post on sunscreen. The wait has been long my friends. I wrote about my favourite sunscreen brands a while ago and although they work…
CF Beauty
Musings from a red-lippie wearing, skincare obsessed, French pharmacy brand addict, ex-Beauty editor. Posh candle habit currently out of control.
Self tan saviour: The buffing mitt from St. Tropez
As a beauty editor, my self-tan mantra, that I trotted out every time the sun shone, was “exfoliate, moisturise, barrier (apply vaseline to cuticles/hairline/eyebrows to stop them turning orange), tan.” Although I was personally never a full convert of the self tan in London (I had a whiter than white…
CF review: Astalift
Fujifilm have made the no. 1 skincare product in Japan. Say what? If I’d told you Hunter wellies were doing a line in mascara or Mr. Kipling was launching a handbag collection you’d scoff right? These brands, trying to get their fingers in all the pies… tut. Well, it’s not…
Beauty travel essentials: a CF edit
In the last few months we have been between London, Somerset and Cornwall, with half a house to pack up each time (highchair, travel cot, baby monitors, toys etc) my own packing has had to become super quick, efficient and minimal. To that end I have edited my travel toiletries…
A round-up of sunscreens
As a beauty editor, every spring would herald a deluge of new sunscreens to roadtest. Every time I headed off to exotic climes I would grab a couple from the stash and dutifully put them through their paces. Over the years there are some that have impressed me so much…
Snapshot: the dressing table
It’s taking a while to get our heads around the space that living in the country brings. A bit like battery chickens we’ve been trying to cram all our stuff into one room/cupboard/shelf, but slowly we’re spreading out and creating nooks and crannies we couldn’t have dreamed of in London.…
The big chop
My mother cut my hair. This may be in the past tense but I’m not talking 30 years ago, it was last week. For an ex-beauty editor this is like a chef saying: “I just scoffed a Tesco Value ready-meal”; or a sommelier admitting to; “quaffing a bottle of Lambrusco.”…
A post-natal hair funk
So, it turns out early motherhood is a bitch in the vanity stakes. I guess I should have figured out that round the clock childcare isn’t *that* conducive to maintaining your beauty regime. Who knew? And oh how the mighty have fallen. From the dizzy heights of a head of…
DIY Beauty: making my own shampoo
So, as per my last post, I’ve decided to try my hand at making my own beauty products. I figured that, after six years of slathing myself in all manner of lotions and potions in the name of beauty journalism, I should be able to concoct a few of my…
Things that other people do: DIY beauty
So, I’m not ashamed to say it. I used the last of my Bamford Geranium body oil this morning and almost shed a tear; the added lavender and peppermint make it the perfect balance – herby, floral but modern and light. None of this sweet, flowery nonsense. And it’s thick,…
TESTED: Tinted moisturisers – the face of summer
As a paid beauty junkie, writing about the virtues of a cabinet full of lotions and potions for six years at various magazines, I’m often asked what makes it into my own make-up bag (read various overstuffed trunks). Well, my answer varies vastly depending on a/ the time of year…