Category Archives: beauty news

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…

Something of a momentous post, this one, because today is the day that my dry shampoo range, COLAB, launches. What dry shampoo range? I hear you cry. This is the first I’ve bloody heard about it! Apologies, my dearest readers, but I’ve been under a bit of a gagging order and haven’t been able to talk about the range until today, the official launch date. And it’s kind of weird talking about it all full stop – a product, with my name on, in the shops…it’s not something I ever really imagined happening. I mean I’ve had my face on products and brands before, many times, but this is something very new. Very new, very exciting, and something I’m incredibly proud to be a part of. It’s a bit weird, talking about my own product, but I’m so pleased with it, so…here we go!

Dry shampoo has become big news in recent years, and I am the first to admit that I’m addicted to the stuff – for fluffing up my layers, for adding a bit of texture and volume, for taking away that little bit of grease at the roots in-between washes. But my main gripe with dry shampoo has always been the “chalky residue” issue; piles of talcum-powder-like particles that either stick to your hair and make it grey and dull, or fall off onto your shoulders making you look as though you have dandruff. And yes, you can brush the stuff out – I think that’s usually what the directions say on cans of traditional dry shampoo – but if you want to use the product for anything other than root-degreasing, it kind of defeats the object to have to take a brush to your newly plumped-up locks!

The COLAB dry shampoo has none of that chalky, powdery residue; the formula – Sheer Invisible – is so fine and clever that it leaves no whiteness in the hair at all. No manky residue, no greyness at the roots that makes you look as though you’re going to a halloween party, it just leaves everything feeling clean and refreshed and adds an instant bit of boost if you’re hair is feeling flat or lifeless. It’s the perfect in-between-washes product and because it’s sheer, you can apply it as much as you like. I tend to spray it liberally when I’ve let my hair down from being tightly scraped back into a bun; it just seems to pump everything back up and make it all a bit more “done”.

In a nutshell, this is just the easiest hair refresher ever (if I may say so myself, ha!) – shake the can well (VERY important), spray it onto your roots and throughout the layers, massage in with fingertips and you’re done. No need to brush through, if you don’t want to. There are five versions of the Sheer Invisible formula, each with a lovely grown-up fragrance – no “strawberries ‘n cream” or “blueberry muffin” smells here! I wanted to have a product that was for grown-ups, that solved a proper beauty dilemma and that could be used in a hurry with no chance of crapping things up just before you go out of the door. Because there’s nothing worse than using a dud product moments before you leave the house; foundation that goes patchy, mascara that flakes off, dry shampoo that turns you into the living embodiment of Miss Havisham. (A level English reference there, anyone who did Great Expectations.)

You can find COLAB at FeelUnique.com, Superdrug and BeautyMart, it’s £3.50 for a big can, but you can also find little travel sized ones which are great for chucking in your handbag or taking on your hols. You’ll be hearing more about CoLab very soon – I’m planning a little (very scientific) no-residue demonstration video and I’ll also be showing some behind-the-scenes footage from the campaign shoot and a film of me getting ready for the launch party. (Clothed, obviously! I’m not showing the whole process!)

And as I’m feeling very emotional on this important day, I would like to take the opportunity to thank you all for your support over the years; you have truly made it a joy to write A Model Recommends, and I wouldn’t be sat here typing about my own new product launch if you hadn’t all kept on reading and commenting and sharing my posts. So thank you, all of you: and now enough of this soppy stuff. I must go and find my all-in-one body control suit, as I’m planning to wear something quite tight and sexy later!

Take a look at the CoLab Website for more info…

The post Monumental News: I’ve launched my own Dry Shampoo! appeared first on A Model Recommends.

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →