Author Archives: marc

1) Just to fill you in on where I’m at with life: I’ve moved. Not through choice, necessarily, but because my house is being stripped out, renovated and extended. All at once. I petitioned to be left in residence, just my desk and computer left in situ like some kind of workspace island in a sea of debris and builders’ bums, but “everyone involved” thought it best that I enjoyed the remainder of my pregnancy in peace and without the risk of steelwork falling down on my head. So here we are – family AMR, minus Mr Bear the cat – in our little barn in the middle of absolute nowhere. No phone reception, shaky internet – it’s a wonder I haven’t lost my marbles and it’s only been a week!

This is the view from my spare bedroom window (picture of spare room above, it makes me think of the little house that Hansel and Gretel might have lived in!): I am literally on a farm! Keep an ear out for sounds of mooing in my upcoming videos..

2) I wanted to clarify that Mr Bear has not gone on his holidays because I’m pregnant: he’s had to be temporarily moved because we couldn’t find a single short-term let that allowed cats and that had availability. Actually, there was one, but it was 53 miles away. Not ideal. So Mr Bear is currently enjoying the undivided attention that my parents are no doubt giving him – apparently his favourite game is playing chase up and down the stairs and he shouts at them if they don’t join in! I’ve asked my Mum to send a weekly Mr Bear picture so that we can keep the Sunday Tittle Tattle tradition alive – the first one is above. Sleeping on the windowsill above the kitchen sink.

Read more Sunday Tittle Tattle posts… 

The post Missing Bear and the Hansel & Gretel House… appeared first on A Model Recommends.

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I have a strong and long-lasting love for Lanolips. It’s a high-powered lip-healer that stays put for hours and protects the skin from even the most bitter winter chills. If you’ve ever had cracked nipples, the bleeding sort of chapped nipples that are so painful you can’t even muster up the energy to cry, then you’ll know that lanolin – a waxy, waterproofing substance – is the one saving grace.

And if it can help with cracked nips then it sure as hell can do the trick on cracked lips – I regularly use the nips one (Lansinoh) on lips, though I’ve never used my lips one (Lano 101 Ointment) on nips. Mainly because I like the banana one the most, and I was never sure whether the newborn baby would take to banana flavoured nipples. I mean, I would, if I was a baby, but I still drink banana-flavoured Nesquik so my opinion shouldn’t really count for anything.

Also, the banana flavoured 101 Ointment isn’t pure lanolin – it’s got extra bits and pieces added in, like (obviously) banana flavouring and shea butter and beeswax and castor seed oil. If you wanted lips n’ nips covered, you’d need the original 101 Ointment (£10.99 online) and not one with “added extras”. I’d say, too, that the original is the best version if you do want to treat ragged cuticles and itchy skin and annoying insect bites and so on – there are apparently 101 uses for lanolin (hence the 101 in the name) so it’s much more than just a lip balm.

I digress! Lano have created an exclusive and especially fruity 101 Ointment package for high-end purveyors of fashion, Net-a-Porter. It’s a duo containing a Peach 101 Ointment and a Strawberry one, with the most gorgeous retro packaging. And actually, these Ointments are mostly lanolin with just Vitamin E added along with fruit extract, so fine to use on dry patches and as a nail treatment and so on, if you don’t mind being scented all over…

Last week I wrote about Aurelia’s amazing Firm and Revitalise dry oil; this week it’s Roger & Gallet’s Huile Gourmande that’s taking centre stage. Or I should say that it’s the scent of it, the Fleur de Figuier that’s taking centre stage; it’s quite a loud and colourful summer smell that lingers on the skin and it has that kind of warm headiness that’s so appealing when you’re away somewhere hot.

The nose behind Fleur de Figuier is super-perfumer Francis Kurkdjian (he created Jean-Paul Gaultier’s Le Male, Elie Saab’s Le Parfum, the amazing Narciso Rodriguez For Her) and interestingly, he hasn’t gone for that ever-popular green kind of fig scent. That leafy, almost woody fig that transports you straight to the med. It’s nothing at all like Philosykos from Diptque or even Jo Malone’s slightly fruitier Fig & Cassis; this is a full-on fruity floral with quite an obvious hit of mandarin. (I find the Eau Fraiche fragrance from the same range to be slightly greener and earthier, so that’s well worth a look if you love your fig scents.)

Other fig-scented things to browse…

But I’ve become distracted with smells; it was actually the oil’s beautiful texture that I wanted to talk about. It’s really quite gorgeously sumptuous; the effects are long-lasting and the spray bottle makes it so easy to apply. The oil is rich and silky on the skin without leaving too much of a residue – you can feel it on the surface even after an hour or so, but it’s not a sticky or greasy finish. Just beautiful. There are quite a few plant oils blended into the Huile Gourmande; nourishing grape seed, Pomegranate seed, blackcurrant seed and also olive, avocado and sweet almond oils. Between them all they have pretty much everything covered; soothing, anti-inflammatory, nourishing, moisturising, regenerating…

I think that this is a great summer oil. Light enough to use in hot weather but with enough clout to really help soften and nourish the skin, keeping it supple and stopping it from drying out when you’ve spent all day on the beach. It’s usually £25.50 but Escentual.com have a third off their Roger & Gallet supplies this month, so it’s down to a much more purse-friendly £16.83 here. And if oil’s not your thing then I seriously can’t recommend the Bois d’Orange cream enough. It’s just amazing. That’s a tenner here.

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