Author Archives: marc

I think that the new collection from Jo Malone is just lovely; it’s called My Wanderlust and the scent combinations have been inspired by the travels of the brand’s style director, fashion stylist Charlotte Stockdale. There’s a Night Jasmine & Oregano linen spray that evokes memories of summer nights in Corfu, a Lime Basil & Mandarin “scent surround diffuser” (jar of twigs, as I like to call it) that’s distinctly Caribbean in flavour and Acacia & Honey soaps that “have the hazy, golden warmth” of the Australian Outback. In all honesty, I don’t really mind what the smells represent as long as they’re nice, but I do really like the whole travel-inspiration idea. And the word Wanderlust is just so romantic and evocative…

I have the Cardamom & Moroccan Rose candle which has a beautifully soft and delicate fragrance. It’s actually far more subtle than I was expecting – the colourful jar made me think that the scent was going to be a big, loud number – but it’s incredibly relaxing and, as I said, soft. I’ve had my fill with overpowering candles, thanks to the spice and pine and oranges of the Christmas period, and the Cardamom & Moroccan Rose makes me look forward to balmy summer evenings.

Ooh – as I was finding the range online I saw a product I had previously missed – the Box Hedge square scent. It’s a portable little fragrance square that you can pop into your suitcase or hand luggage and it smells – apparently – just like an English garden on a summer’s day. It’s like a Wanderlust in reverse; a piece of home wherever you go. Nice idea. It’s started me thinking about which scents would be my “wanderlust” choices. Something representing Greece would definitely be on the agenda, as that’s my most frequent holiday destination, but I’d have to have a proper think about the rest. You?

You can find the whole My Wanderlust range online at Selfridges.com

The post Jo Malone: My Wanderlust Collection appeared first on A Model Recommends.

Continue reading →

I’m not a great believer in face wipes, but these are face swipes, not face wipes, and that makes them a-ok. I jest of course; but there’s far more to this little packet of beauty tissues than just a jazzed-up name. For a start, they’re nothing like your run-of-the-mill wipe; some of the versions out there are just hideous. Quite handy for when you run out of loo-roll, or if you need to clean your makeup brushes on-the-go, or if you want to make it look as though you’ve cleaned the bathroom when unexpected guests come over, but for face care? Nah. Not on a regular basis, anyway.

Mama Mio’s new Gorgeous Glow Balancing Facial Swipes are nothing like your usual wipe, though; not laden with harsh, drying ingredients or stripping cleansing agents. They’ve been formulated for delicate, temperamental pregnancy skin and are infused with aloe to soothe, antioxidants to protect and a blend of oils to help moisturise and nourish the skin. What I find interesting about these swipes is that they’re not all namby-pamby; they’ve been designed to give the skin a really deep and thorough cleanse (as much as a wipe can do that) and they have lactic acid to gently exfoliate and keep blemishes in check. A nice emergency option, then, for anyone with hormonal or temperamental skin. Breakouts with sensitivity, breakouts with dryness, grubby PMT skin, grubby festival skin, grubby mid-flight temperamental PMT skin… You get the picture.

I decided to do a bit of a test with these last week; I wiped my face all day with Gorgeous Glow swipes and didn’t follow up with any moisturiser. (Crazy! I know!) With pretty much any wipe I’ve tried previously, my face would have been almost inside-out with dryness – these? A great feeling of freshness and cleanliness but with absolutely no dryness. Wonderful. I’d never recommend a wipe as your main cleanse, just because I think that it’s a good habit to be going in there with something more substantial and then rinsing all of the residue and crap away with water, but when it comes to emergency cleansing these are brilliant. The packet says to avoid the eye area; I didn’t, because I’m a daredevil like that. My eyes didn’t fall out or anything but you’d probably want something different to take your mascara off with.

Mama Mio Gorgeous Glow Balancing Facial Swipes are £14 for 30 wipes with free delivery here.

Continue reading →

For those of you crawling out of hibernation, having a good old stretch, wanting something fresh and light or sunny and new to scent yourselves with: my pick of the Spring Fragrances 2015. Although I have my year-round perfume favourites (Jo Malone’s Oud & Bergamot, Lancome’s La Vie Est Belle, anything dark and rosey) I do quite like a little change when the days start to get brighter and the trees begin to blossom. I also think that since I’ve been pregnant, I’ve been gravitating towards fragrances that are a touch greener, a little sharper, perhaps somewhat sparklier than my usual choices. And there are plenty out there to choose from, this season, but I’ve narrowed them down to just the few that have really grabbed my interest: White Rose & Lemon Leaves from Jo Loves, Geranium & Verbena from Jo Malone, Ostara by Penhaligons and (actually this isn’t at all new, or even seasonal, but I have recently rediscovered it and it’s love at second sight) Flagrant Délice from Terry de Gunzburg.

Let’s start with the (relative) oldie; Terry de Gunzburg’s Flagrant Délice. As I said, this was a rediscovery – I was actually searching out figgy, greenish spring scents for a completely different post and this stood out as one of the most complex and lovely. Often figgy scents seem to disappear quite quickly on me, but this one has good staying power and the fig is slightly sweeter and softer than your run-of-the-mill version. It’s not by any means a sharp and fresh springtime scent, but it has a lovely gardeny feel to it that makes me think of new buds and warmer evenings. You can find it at House of Fraser online here.

If Flagrant Délice is a warm evening then Ostara, from Penhaligons, is pure sunshine in a bottle. It’s heady, with a real floral hit that’s at once pleasing and very unusual; it’s hard to know what to make of it at first, but it definitely gets your attention. Ostara has been inspired by daffodils and that in itself has to be pretty rare – it’s not a flower I’d have previously associated with perfume making! It’s a blend of loads of different floral, fruity and greener, woodier notes – it’s hard to untangle them to identify them separately, but you do get this wonderful feeling that the whole daffodil – leaves, bulbs and flower – is being described. Definitely an interesting one for fragrance enthusiasts, it’s £110 here.

From sunshine in a bottle to a breath of cool air: Jo Malone’s Geranium & Verbena Cologne (£42 here), which is part of the new Rock the Ages line-up. I’ve seen lots of raving about Tudor Rose & Amber (from me, included – see here) but not so much on the Geranium & Verbena and I must say that this little cologne is far more spring-like than the rose. It’s sharp, almost sparkly, reminds me (weirdly) of homemade lemonade, and though it does have some deeper and more serious notes, for me it’s the “light and frivolous” option. It won’t be to everyone’s taste, and it doesn’t have the lasting power of the Tudor Rose & Amber, but if you’re after something fizzy and fresh with an unusual twist (it’s the “Edwardian” representative in the Rock of Ages series) then do stop by and try it.

Read more fragrance posts…

Last in my little collection – and possibly my overall pick – is the White Rose & Lemon Leaves fragrance from Jo Loves. If you love pure, sweet, feminine rose then you’ll find this to be absolutely exquisite. The lemon peel note just makes the rose sing: it freshens it and keeps it beautifully light and delicate. You know how a squeeze of lemon juice over a salad can just bring everything alive? That’s how I feel about White Rose & Lemon Leaves – the lemon is the perfect sidekick for the rose, sharpening it but at the same time making it seem all the sweeter. If you love White Rose by Floris then you’ll love this even more. You can find it at Jo Loves here, from £45.

More rose-scented reviews…

**UPDATE: this little number from Radley (above) almost slipped through the fragrance net. I only have a sample bottle, the real deal looks a lot more appealing, but the perfume itself has really hit a note with me (if you’ll excuse the pun) because it reminds me of a body spray I had when I was a teenager. There’s a real peachiness to it – though the guide says no peach, so it must be a combination of the bergamot and the florals – and it has the kind of musky, woody undertone that will never cease to woo me. It’s like my teenage body spray, but all grown up. You can get the eau de parfum as a set with body lotion included, it’s £37 at JohnLewis.com here.

The post Scents for the End of Hibernation: Spring Fragrances 2015 appeared first on A Model Recommends.

Continue reading →

I’ve been really procrastinating over this skincare post: on the one hand, the Omorovicza Hydra Melting Cleanser is  the most beautiful new cleanser I’ve tried in ages – and I try a lot of cleansers. On the other hand, this is a cleanser that costs £65. (Update: see bottom of page.) And even though it’s a cleanser that feels so luxurious and dreamy that it’s almost a travesty to rinse it off, the fact that you do need to rinse it off puts it in an odd position. When you’re buying a serum or a moisturiser or even a mask, it’s easier – somehow – to justify a bigger spend. When it’s a cleanser you are – quite literally – washing your pennies (or pounds) down the plughole. For the minutes that the cleanser is going to spend on your face, it needs to deliver some kind of sublime, spa-like experience.

Luckily this does. It’s the bounciest, plumpiest cleanser I’ve ever used. Think OSKIA Renaissance Cleanser and multiply the cushiony feeling by ten. It has the cleansing abilities of an oil, the freshness of a gel, the comfort of a cream and the massageability (not a word but I’m taking it) of a balm. It is, I think, the cleansing balm for those who don’t like the oily feel of a balm – it’s cooler and smoother but whereas you’d think it would be lighter in texture than a balm, it feels incredibly dense and robust.

I just find it a total joy to use; there’s no tightness after removal (since my skin has been drier I get a little bit of tightness even after using a lush, oily balm like Emma Hardie’s!) and there’s no overpowering smell, just a faint sea-like scent. The Hydra Melting Cleanser is slippery enough to withstand whole minutes of massage yet rinses away easily – handy if you find yourself without a washcloth. (It happens. Especially when you have a dog who likes to run off with any scrap of fabric he can find – knickers, socks, flannels, muslin baby cloths…)

Omorovicza say that the Mallow flower in the cleanser helps to hydrate and reduce inflammation and that the sage, geranium and chamomile have an astringent and antiseptic effect. It certainly feels comforting and soothing – it’s a gorgeous gel-balm for dry skin but equally perfect for an oilier complexion with its effective cleansing abilities and non-stripping, easily-rinsed formula.

Nobody needs to spend £65 on a cleanser, but if you wanted to then this would be the one. It’s only very slightly more expensive than the ever-popular Eve Lom cleanser, which has mineral oil as its main ingredient. When you look at it like that, it’s kind of a no-brainer, if you’re looking to splash some cash.

Omorovicza Hydra Melting Cleanser is £65 online here.

*UPDATE: Omorovicza are offering readers 20% off any purchase at Omorovicza.com! The code is MODEL20 and will be valid until 23.59 on the 26th February 2016. It can’t be used in conjunction with any other discount codes. I know that this is a post about their cleanser but if you want to treat yourself to what I personally think is one of the most beautiful face spritzes ever invented then take a look at the Queen of Hungary mist. It’s like a portable luxury spa.

The post Cash Splash: Omorovicza Hydra Melting Cleanser appeared first on A Model Recommends.

Continue reading →