Conversations through the middle

Life from a (slightly) more mature perspective

Beauty round-up – Lee Stafford hair care, Steam Cream, Timotei

I love the new Chopstick styler from Lee Stafford. I was at an event a week or so ago where he demonstrated the look that can be created using this tool – cascades of pre-Raphaelite curls, the kind I so wanted in the late ‘80s but never had the courage to get (you had to have a perm to achieve that effect then). Beautiful.
It’s just one of a number of new hair care electricals from Lee that launch in September – all are finished in hot pink so are very girly. My other favourite is the Intelligent Crimper. Oh yes! I am going back to my early ‘80s roots and putting this on my most wanted list. www.leestaffordelectricals.com
 
  
These pretty tins are the latest from Steam Cream, a brand that stays fresh thanks to its playful packaging and lovely illustrations. This limited edition collection features make-up artists Jemma Kidd, Ruby Hammer and Wendy Rowe, and launches in September in time for London Fashion Week.
“I’ve always been a huge believer in natural skincare so it’s great to find a product that’s kind to skin and the environment, but that really works too,” says Jemma Kidd. Ruby Hammer adds: “I love the deep colour of the tin which echoes my name, and the paisley print which has a modern feel yet is also a reflection of my Asian background. Steam Cream is a staple in my kit so I was thrilled to be asked.”
With natural ingredients including lavender, jojoba and almond oils, cocoa butter and oat milk, the cream is light and easily absorbed, and can be used on face and body. It’s also suitable for vegetarians and vegans.
The latest designs are by Japanese fashion illustrator Yoco Nagamiya and also feature a beauty tip from each make-up artist.
Watch out for the Christmas designs coming later in the autumn also. I think my favourite is the snowman but they are all great stocking fillers. www.steamcream.co.uk

August sees two new additions to the Timotei range of shampoos and conditioners with the launch of Vivid Colour and Golden Highlights – the former for dyed hair and the latter for blonde or highlighted hair. Both are paraben-free and contain natural extracts of chamomile (Golden Highlights) and camelia (Vivid Colour).
It’s good to see Unilever is embracing the eco call by eliminating parabens from these products and by reducing the amount of packaging used – each bottle uses 35% less plastic in ml compared to the previous Timotei bottle, says the manufacturer.


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Beauty round-up – fragrance, skin, hair and homemade salt scrub

New from Marc Jacobs comes Dot, which is not only a delicious fragrance but an absolutely gorgeous bottle. With a base of warming vanilla and a coconut heart, Dot – inspired by the designer’s love of polka dots apparently – is topped with juicy red berries and dragon fruit.
This is a perfume that will appeal to the young – I can already see my Dot stealing it away – but also to the rest of us who are past trendy teen perfumes. In spite of the fruity overtones it is a more mature (ahem) fragrance, light and easy to wear for daytime. So if she does whisk it away I’ll just have to whisk it right back again. Available at The Perfume Shopnow.

The Keratin Therapy Pro straightener from Remington is part of a new hair care collection launching for autumn/winter that promises to care for your hair while you style it.
A protection sensor in the top plate gauges how much moisture is in the hair and automatically selects the best temperature to straighten without damaging. The ceramic plates themselves are infused with keratin, which the manufacturers say is released into the hair to condition and protect it – they claim it reduces damage and breakage by up to 57% when compared to a standard Remington ceramic straightener.
Impressive figures – I don’t know how they got them but leaving that aside, with a 15 second heat up, variable temperature from 160° – 230°C and floating plates that maintain constant contact with the hair, they do the job.
I haven’t tried the product myself yet but a stylist has used it on my hair and I was impressed at the performance, not to mention how soft and sleek my hair felt afterwards. www.remington.co.uk
Jasmine Protective Fluid from Docteur Renaud is a new skin care product that offers three in one protection against sun damage, environmental pollutants and free radicals. It contains shea butter polyphenols to help detox the skin and jasmine, which is rich in antioxidants, as well as an SPF of 30 to help protect the skin from damage and ageing.
Use it daily under your usual moisturiser; the fluid is light, so shouldn’t leave a residue on the skin and it has a subtle floral scent. www.doctor-renaud.co.uk.

Finally for today, I thought I’d share a simple beauty recipe with you. It’s for a sea salt scrub and it comes from Dr Lamees Hamdan, founder of luxury spa and skincare brand Shiffa Dubai.
You need:
½ cup fine sea salt
2tbsp almond or olive oil
Your choice of essential oils, such as lavender or geranium
Combine the fine sea salt with the almond or olive oil and add a few drops of essential oil, for example lavender or geranium;’ tea tree also works well.
Mix together and apply with your hands or a loofah on to damp skin. Then simply rinse away in the shower. Dr Hamdan says: “The recipe is very simple for the remarkable benefits it delivers.”
I haven’t tried it yet but will do soon. If you try it let me know how you get on.

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Beauty reviews – fragrance, sunscreen, hand cream

Verveine EDT, Fragonard 
This is something I’ve been searching for all summer, though I didn’t know it. When it’s hot and sticky outside (I know that hasn’t been the case very often with the weather so far this year), I don’t want to wear my regular fragrance, I want something light, refreshing and cold. Many, many moons ago No7 satisfied that need with its lemon fragrance, but still many moons ago, they stopped selling it and I’ve found nothing else that comes close. I did have a brief fling with a passion fruit perfume in the 1980s that I discovered in France while at Bordeaux Uni, but my love for that waned as quickly as my relationship with my then French boyfriend.

So I was overjoyed this week to find an eau de toilette that – I think – is what I’ve been looking for. It’s made in France (!), in Grasse, which is renowned for its fragrances, and contains lemon, verbena, petitgrain, benjoin and chamomile. Verveine EDT is by the parfumeur Fragonard and I found it nestled in the corner of Marks & Spencer’s new beauty hall at Marble Arch.
About the new beauty hall – it’s fab. The idea is to stock niche and little-known brands, introducing people to a cosmetic world outside the mass market. It’s a great idea but my only criticism is, the assistants did not have product samples for people to take away – and frankly who is going to spend a fortune on something they haven’t heard of if they haven’t tried it first? They didn’t even have information leaflets for the different products, which is ridiculous and surely defeats the object?
Back to the perfume. I’m wearing it now and I love it, but only time will tell whether or not it wins a long-term place in my heart. It’s £22 for 100ml, which is a big enough bottle for lots of liberal spritzing.
Rituals Sun Protection Face Cream is a bit of a revelation. It is factor 50, which according to everything I’ve ever been told about SPF creams, means it should be thick and sticky. It’s not. The consistency is light and non-greasy, and it sinks easily into the skin. The fragrance is pleasant, not overpowering, in fact it doesn’t smell of sun screen at all. I found it a pleasure to wear – usually when it’s hot I find facial sun screen melts and feel greasy on my skin, but not in this case.
Rituals is a brand I’ve been learning more about recently and I blogged about a couple of their products here. I love cosmetics with a story behind them and this company, with its ethos, natural ingredients and focus on traditional bathing rituals from around the world, is impressive.
A couple of months ago I subscribed to one of those beauty box services that deliver a selection of products to you each month. The one I chose is She Said Beauty because they had a great subscription offer on at the time, but there are other ones out there.
My first beauty box included a Balance Me Super Moisturising Hand Cream, which I’ve been using before going to bed at night. This was an award winner at the Beauty Insider’s Choice awards in 2010, taking the accolade for ‘Best New Certified Organic Skincare Product’. It contains 98.8% natural ingredients and is free of sulphates, parabens, mineral oils, DEA and petroleum oils.
The cream is thick and luxurious, which is why I use it at night (I find it too rich for day as it can leave my fingers feeling greasy). I’m not sure about the fragrance – it’s a herby smell but a little too medicinal for my tastes, however, it does make my hands feel soft so I’ll keep using it. Tip: one way to cope with a heavier hand cream is to wear cotton gloves over the cream, overnight. I do this when I’m using intensive products, especially in the winter when my hands tend to crack and age about 50 years. It’s too hot at nights to wear gloves at the minute though.

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Refreshing fragrances

For years, as long as I can remember, I have been a fan of The Body Shop. These days I don’t buy so many of my skincare or makeup products from there, but I do pop in from time to time for old favourites and my daughter shows all the signs of becoming their number one fan also. The sweet scents of strawberry, dewberry and pink grapefruit are still fresh in my mind from a couple of decades ago and it’s lovely to see Dot getting excited about the same things I did, though then it was bath bubbles (we didn’t have a shower) whereas for her it’s shower gels. I also greatly admire The Body Shop’s stand on animal testing, natural ingredients and fair trade, which despite now being owned by L’Oreal is still something that is very much at the forefront of its philosophy.

The latest launch takes those trademark fragrances and works them into a perfume spritz for summer, eight of them in fact, including strawberry, pink grapefruit, satsuma and mango. There’s also coconut, vanilla, shea and moringa (a floral fragrance). Spray them all over for a refreshing lift on a hot day. They contain alcohol and true to The Body Shop’s principles, this is fair trade from Ecuador and is produced from sugar cane. The Body Mists are £7 each and are in store from next month. I haven’t tried them yet but will go with Dot to town and sample them as soon as they are out.

Biodroga is a brand I’ve discovered relatively recently. It’s expensive but I was lucky enough to be sent a sample of the night cream and loved it – though it will have to remain on my lottery-winning wish list as I cannot justify spending so much on a skincare product at this time, unfortunately. However, a new shower gel launched last week, which at £23.40 is more in my price range. Express Refreshing Shower Gel is moisturising and has a fresh fragrance. Launched alongside it are Ready To Go Body Lotion (23.90), with macadamia nut oil and something called bisabolol, which comes from chamomile and is anti-inflammatory, and Rich & Tender Body Milk, with avocado and wheat germ oils, vitamins and unsaturated fatty acids. The milk is richer than the lotion and is a bit more expensive at £30. Check them out at www.bcidirect.com


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