Eau de Fashionista

I have a girl crush on Stella McCartney. She hangs out with the cool crowd.  She has a sense of humour – did anyone catch her on the Olympic sofa talking to Gary Linekar about designing Tom Daley’s micro swimming trunks? She designs great clothes and effortlessly works her brand without looking like a walking clothes horse. Her designs are out of my budget I’m afraid, although I do own a pair of her knickers! So, the next best thing for me has to be her fashionista Eau de Parfums.

Stella's Print Collection really does put the fashion into fragrance - lets call it the FFROW (fragrance front row!) The vintage inspired designs consist of three very collectable 30ml bottles that fit snugly into the palm of your hand. Each one wears a striking geometric print from the Stella McCartney 2012 Summer Collection. In fact, it’s hard to single one out as a favourite, they’re all so lovely.

The juice is just as captivating as the designs. Stella is a lover of rose, so each scent bottles its delicate essence along with mandarin, peony and amber. I love the fact you can just throw them in your handbag, much like a lipstick and spritz when you feel in need of a beauty bounce back!

Stella Print Collection available nationwide at £38 each for 30ml  

Anna Sui's Fairy Dance

Although Anna Sui’s Fairy Dance  launched in August, I think it’s a great fragrance to earmark as a gift for the Christmas build-up. Yes, it may only be September, but as mince pies are already in my supermarket, my guess is that festivity lists are being made!

Anna Sui has a strong hold in the fragrance market, this American fashion designer who has been named as one of the top 5 fashion icons of the decade, first launched her fragrance and cosmetic line in 1999. Since then she’s been building a solid reputation for her collectable off-beat packaging and design. 

In keeping with her adorable kookiness, Fairy Dance whisks your senses off into a fantasy garden with sparkling and sweet notes of tangerine, mango and pink pepper. At its heart is the rose, one of Anna’s favourite blooms which is balanced by peony and bamboo. The whole experience is one of scented joy from the all-shades-of-pink pretty packaging to the fairy perching on the bottle’s stopper. A real dressing table desirable, it just begs you to find your inner Tinkerbell.

Fairy Dance Eau de Toilette start from £26 for 30ml available exclusively from Debenhams.    

Clinique's new Chubby Sticks

CHUBBY STICKS NEW EDITIONS

Just thought I’d give all you Chubby Stick Chasers – of which there are many, the heads up on their new Intense Moisturizing Lip Colour Balms.  Chubby Sticks have become the make-up bag must-have since  launching, but to make lips ever more licious, Clinique have created a fuller coverage formula. Clever them!

These all-performing lip crayons now offer the benefits of a moisturising lip balm using a blend of decadent butters, oils and antioxidants. Shea butter, mango seed butter and jojoba seed oil all party together to deliver your best ever slick to lips. With on-the-hop quick application, stay-true colour and strong, buildable coverage, the formulation conspires to make eyes focus on full and kissable lips. What’s not to love?

THE NEW COLOURS ARE AS TEMPTING AS MACAROONS!

The newest lip recruits come in eight new shades too including Curviest Caramel, Plushest Punch and Grandest Grape.  Oh, and I love the names – just too tempting to scoop them all!

Clinique’s Chubby Stick Intense Moisturizing Lip Colour Balms are £16 each and launch nationwide from mid November.

www.clinique.co.uk

Bourjois flirt with falsies

Can false lashes get any funkier? Going out without your falsies these days is equivalent to to wearing no knickers. You just feel naked! Eyes feel anything but naked with the new high-rolling Faux & Fabulous range from Bourjois.

Aligned with the new season’s trends, their first wave of lash-licious styles are suitably called Rock Chic, Smoky Eyes, Lady in Black, More Volume and Miss Couture. Idiot proof to apply and reusable, precise and quick application turns you into a lash professional with their Faux and Fabulous 2-in-1 Tweezers. The wide and curved shape at the end offers a strong grip to securely hold the lash, and at the opposite end it’s a soft angled tip so you can gently press the lash along your lash line.

2-IN-1 TWEEZERS

My favourite lash – as fittingly fluttered by Rachael is Miss Couture.  For this style Bourjois have collaborated with Paperself – the world’s leading wearable paper art lashes brand to create a fashionista lace design.  Surely the term eye opener must have been made for this striking effect.

MISS RACHAEL MEETS MISS COUTURE!

Faux & Fabulous lashes start from £5.99 with Miss Couture retailing at £10.99.

2-in-1 Tweezers are £3.49.

Available from Boots, Superdrug and ASOS.com

Skin's vital saviour

WOULDN'T IT BE GREAT IF SKIN HAD THAT BLOOM?

Short nights + busy days = fatigued skin. Does the math sound familiar? Much like your body, when skin is tired it looks pooped before the party has even started. In otherwords it lacks energy levels, meaning your glow factor is sufficiently dimmed. To up your skin wattage, Darphin have introduced Vitalskin. Much like sending your complexion to bootcamp, it helps combat the skin’s recovery rate and maintain a high level of skin energy.

The Darphin skin boffin have been busy in their R&D department, harnessing botanical complexes that act as veritable energy activators to support that much eluded skin state called vitality. There are two products in the range – an Anti-fatigue and Hydrating Serum and an Energizing and Hydrating Emulsion. I have only tried the emulsion and very pleasing it is too! Infused with notes of mandarin, rose and jasmine it peps up the senses before it even reaches the skin – always a good thing, and the texture is lightweight and easily absorbed. After regular and daily use, my skin definitely looked more pinky and perky.

Results speak for themselves too. Darphin recruited ‘very tired’ women between the ages of 25 to 45 with 81% of women saying their skin lacked vitality. After only seven days, with use of both products, 63% felt their skin was full of vitality. After 28 days, an impressive 96% felt their skin was full of vitality. Now, we just need that bottled top-to-toe!

Vitalskin Anti-fatigue and Hydrating Serum, £49

Vitalskin Energizing and Hydrating Emulsion, £39

www.darphin.co.uk

It's the braid-y bunch!

The plait or braid has grown-up. No longer just for the school yard, the braid is having a very big fashion moment. Celebrities such as Victoria Beckham, Cat Deeley and Scarlet Johansson are spearheading the trend, literally giving their hair a whole new twist.

FOUR London have caught onto this hair movement and opened up their brand new Braid Bar. Your style need never hang loose again! Whether it’s vintage twists or flared out plaits, Neha and Amy are your go-to girls at the salon for hair that wants to do a twirl. A youth inducing style without looking overly cute, there’s a braid style for all hair types, and if length dictates otherwise, then they can fake it for you. For visual inspiration you can view their image library on www.fourlondon.com before making an appointment.

The FOUR London Braid Bar offers two services:

Express Service for those who want a lunch time braid. You should come with clean hair and no conditioner or product applied. £35-£45.    

Full Braiding Service that incudes wash, blow-dry and braiding. £55-£70.

FOUR London, 62 Conduit Street, Mayfair, London W1S 3GBT

Tel: 020 7297 9600

Smash(box). Bang. Make-up wallop!

For those in the make-up know, the cult Californian brand Smashbox will be part of your beauty vocabulary. Now snapped up and living under the Estee Lauder umbrella, for those who don’t know, trust me, it will be a word mouthed on your glossy lips very soon thanks to its UK re-launch.

There’s nothing like a brand with a back story. One with an energetic thread and inspirational beginnings. This one kick-starts with Smashbox Studios being founded in 1990 by Dean and Davis Factor, the great grandsons of Hollywood make-up supremo Max Factor. Fast turning into a modern day image factory, it was a hub of creativity, spotlighting exciting new talent in both photographers and their starlet subjects. Riding on the coat-tails of the studio, in 1996 Smashbox Cosmetics was founded. The sell behind it was to create a range that solved the same problems at home that were solved in the studio. “If it works in the crazy demanding studio environment, it will work in the real word,” said Davis.

Smashbox Cosmetics was a success. Obviously! Professional make-up artists loved it – these ingenious products are now ever more relevant with high definition television and film picking up every misbehaved pore, and the fact we can apply this perfection at home makes them no-brainer beauty buys.

Hero products hailed by the good and the glamorous are their Photo Finish Foundation Primers (from £25) that work as your skin’s perfect canvas, the O-Glow Intuitive Cheek Colour (£21) – this is one of my personal favourites too. A clear gel, it reacts with your skin chemistry turning cheeks the colour you blush when you’ve been up to something naughty! And Photoset Finishing Powder (£29) – white in colour, this oil mopping powder goes on smooth to set a flawless complexion. Paps, train your lenses as we’re ready for our up-close photo moment!

Smashbox Cosmetics is now available on www.boots.com and www.smashbox.co.uk