Monthly Archives: February 2018

It’s only the beginning of October – the leaves are barely dropping from the trees – and already the beauty advent calendars have begun to creep onto the internet. I sort of feel that you need to be a serious beauty enthusiast to snap up anything Christmas-related this early, but on the other hand, these calendars sell out so quickly that if you’ve got your heart set on opening cardboard doors to reveal mini luxuries rather than a Cadbury’s chocolate shape every day this December then you need to get moving.

The l’Occitane Advent Calendar (£42 here) is a whopper – jam-packed with travel-sized shower gels and body lotions and miniature perfume and dainty tubes of hand cream.

The total equivalent product value is over £80, so you can feel happy that you’re not paying for the novelty factor – last year there were a few doors with duds behind them (paper decorations and so on), but this time it’s all very, very good.

A highlight for me is the inclusion of the Amande range, my favourite from l’Occitane – there’s even a little tube of the Milk Concentrate, one of the best body creams ever invented. Usually it’s in a big heavy glass jar, so quite nice to finally have a travel version!

The Cherry Blossom range is just delicious and you get a shower gel, shimmering body lotion and miniature glass bottled eau de toilette.

I want to leave a few surprises (though you can always zoom into the bigger overview picture) so I’ll finish with the selection of Verbena products, including a “refreshing cloth”. Possibly the only low point of the whole box, if you forced me to even pick a low point. Overall, it’s just a brilliant, lovely Christmas buy, whether you’re a die-hard l’Occitane fan or just want to spend 2017 sampling all of their wares in miniature form!

Find the l’Occitane calendar online here…

The Clarins Advent Calendar is another beauty-fest; everything from primers and blushers to whopping great tubes of Beauty Flash Balm and the famous Hand and Nail Treatment Cream.

It’s £95 (free shipping, tote and four samples worth up to £43 here) so you’ll want to be a proper Clarins devotee, but everything inside has been well-chosen and I love the inclusion of sell-out products such as the lip oil.

There’s a load of skincare to try out – or, if you’re already familiar, stock up your travel bag with. There are a few charm/decoration typed things, which personally I wouldn’t be overjoyed to find behind my door…

…but the rest of the product selection is so good that all is forgiven. I’m afraid I don’t know the equivalent product value on this one (will try to find out) but I can’t imagine it’s far behind the retail price what with the inclusion of quite hefty skincare samples…

My most-requested review of the year; not from readers, but from friends and family. Which is unusual, because most of my friends and family couldn’t really give two hoots about beauty things! I suppose, though, that the Supersonic hair dryer from Dyson is far more than a “beauty thing”: this is cutting-edge technology, precision engineering and a tool that promises faster and more efficient drying. Everyone wants faster and more efficient drying – especially people who have unruly hair or have to wash and dry it more frequently than most.

Read: 5 Best Time-Saving Things For Your Hair…

Dyson’s Supersonic has been lauded as some sort of hair-drying dream machine; quiet, incredibly fast and with intelligent temperature controls that keep the heat to a level that won’t damage your hair. The catch? It’s £299. See what I think of it (and how it compares to the Parlux 385, an incredibly powerful and lightweight dryer) in my video below. If you’re loathe to watch the video then I’ve summarised my thoughts on the Supersonic below the screen – just scroll down to spoil all the fun. (Joke. I know lots of you read this on the tube or bus and it’s not convenient to have my sweet voice ringing out for everyone to hear.)

You can find the Supersonic at Selfridges here – more technical info on the Dyson website. Please note that my sample came in a leather case, this does not come with the consumer model. The dryer is also available in silver and white, I’ve just discovered!

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I realised last week that I didn’t ever properly finish my round-up of the best pregnancy and new-Mum beauty products. I did some quite extensive testing of various stretch-mark oils and creams and the results can be found here (best budget) and here (best of the rest) but I must do a summary of my favourite pregnancy skincare and makeup when I get a chance. Perhaps after Christmas when I’m not knee-deep in cinnamon-orange candles and sparkly tree decorations!

But the Neal’s Yard Remedies Mother Organic Collection (here) gets bumped up the list because I think that it’s a brilliant present for Mums-to-be. This was one of my favourite body sets when I was pregnant – I found the bath oil truly relaxing, the body balm great for when I wanted something to do a bit of a lengthier massage with and the massage oil – oh, the massage oil! It contains neroli essential oil, which takes me to my happy place, and has a beautiful texture that keeps skin soft and supple. I’d use it still if I hadn’t ploughed through the bottle so quickly – there’s no reason to stop using it post-partum, I just had loads of other bits and pieces to write about.

My pregnancy posts on The Uphill…

The products in the Mother Organic Collection have been very carefully formulated to be suitable for pregnant women. I avoided many of my usual pampering products as I tend to go for some quite full-on aromatherapy stuff; the Neal’s Yard Remedies products are gentle, non-nauseating but still manage to do the trick on the “calming and relaxing” front. If you’re looking for a box-set to buy a Mum-to-be this Christmas then you can’t go far wrong with this one…

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