Monotheme Verbena Eau de Toilette

The press release for Monotheme Verbena Eau de Toilette arrived last week, and I was literally kicking myself for not having paid any attention to them earlier.  Verbena sounded right up my street, promising green notes of verbena with white flowers surrounded by a base (its a perfume, it can totally be "surrounded by a base".  Honestly*) of vetiver, amber and musk sounded intriguing, and at a price point of only £18 for 100mls, what a bargain!

Monotheme is an Italian fragrance house, founded by Lorenzo Vidal, and it is sold exclusively in the UK by M&S.   From what I can gather from the names on the M&S website, the fragrances seem to either be soliflores or simply-themed smells based around a single accord.  Not such a bad thing really, especially at this kind of price point.

Verbena is normally a green and fresh lemony kind of a fragrance, and so Verbena by Monotheme also proves to be, but instead of being lemon-sharp and sparkling, Verbena has a green and mineral-flinty aspect to it, which is reminscent of mint and crushed green leaves, almost a green tea note.  It's simple, but it's very appealing, I've been wearing it non-stop since it arrived a couple of days ago, and I love it.  Projection is low, and sillage stays close to the wearer, but it's surprisingly intriguing for such a simple "fresh" scent, and it's proved popular with MrLippie too.  You'll need to reapply regularly as it has the lasting power you'd expect from a citrus, but that's not really such a hardship!

And how cute is that darned bottle?  Too darn cute, that's how cute.  I'll be investigating more from the range ASAP, colour me hugely surprised and happy to have discovered these! 


 * I think.

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Rahua Shampoo, Conditioner and Omega 9 Mask

I've got backups, don't worry!

 I love this range.  And luckily for me, my hair loves it too.  My hair is coloured, porous and prone to frizziness, and Rahua hair products deal with it admirably.  Rahua nut oil is well-known for its hair care properties owing the small size of the molecules which help it penetrate the hair shaft, and the basic Rahua range (as opposed to the Voluminous - my hair does NOT need volumising!) is great for not stripping hair colour and leaves hair in fab condition after using.

Rahua products are organic, 100% natural, and free from synthetics, parabens and sulfates as well as being vegan.  Alongside all that, every sale benefits native tribes, who harvest the rahua nuts the range is named after, in the Amazon.

The shampoo and conditioner both have a gentle slightly nutty-woody scent that's partially derived from the palo santo oil that works alongside the rahua oil to protect and strengthen hair, and the Omega 9 Mask (which I use interchangably with the conditioner) has a sharper, slightly more citrus, but still subtle fragrance, and they're all a pleasure to use.  The shampoo lathers nicely, and the conditioner/mask both noticably nourish my hair without stripping the colour, and I like using them a lot.  My hair is better behaved because of them, even if I am not.  Also, none of them irritate my sensitive scalp, which is a huge bonus!

The price point is a little wince-inducing, starting at £30 for the shampoo, and creeping up to around £50 for the mask, but a little of each goes a long way (and I alternate using these with cheaper products such as Shea Moisture, and they last a very, very long time as a result. These bottles are actually products I've been using since last year.  It helps), and as your hair is the one accessory you take absolutely everywhere with you, I'm a firm believer in treating it well.

You can find Rahua products at Cult Beauty.  Try the shower gel too, it's lovely!

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Imperial Leather Foamburst Nourishing Shea Butter and Orange Blossom

My orange blossom obsession continues (it'll pass, don't worry.  Hopefully).  After a £35 shower gel yesterday, here's one for a tenth of the price.  I discovered the Imperial Leather Foamburst luxurious body wash back in June having discovered that I'd travelled to Cornwall without my usual toiletries bag, and so needed something to replace, but I didn't want to spend too much.  So, for £3 (give or take 20p or so), I picked one of these up, and was delightfully surprised at both the lather, and the scent!

 Naturally, I left it behind when we came back to London (d'oh!), and I'd not been able to find it in any Boots since - and it has been sold out online everywhere too! So, when I spotted it at Ocado this weekend, I stocked up. I've been a bit sniffy about the Foambursts in the past, not quite seeing the point, but they're actually really nice.  Basically resembling a shaving foam when squeezed from the can, it turns out you can, in fact, use them for shaving, but they do also give you a nice moisture-filled shower experience too.  And this particular scent is very nice indeed.  A  bit faint, all told, but rather nice - if you smelled it blind you wouldn't know it came from a product costing £3 at all!  Consider me a convert.

Oh, and they're on offer at Boots for £2 each at the moment, so snap a couple up.  You'll be glad you did.

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Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle Cologne Indelebile Body Wash and Milk

To my eternal shame, I do not own a bottle of Cologne Indelebile by Frederic Malle.  And I should, for it is a new classic fragrance in the cologne style (surprise!) of which I am a huge fan.  What sets Cologne Indelebile apart from other classic of the genre such as 4711 and Tom Ford's Neroli Portofino (and, I would argue, Mugler Cologne) is the innovative use of a new molecule which has finally made a long-lasting citrus note.  Typically, citrus molecules are incredibly volatile, which makes them inclined to "fly off" the skin very quickly (which is why they're used as top notes  regularly, they're usually the first notes in a fragrance to reach your olfactory nerve), but this means they don't last very long as a smell, simply because they essentially "evaporate" more quickly than note which is comprised of more stable molecules. Cologne Indelebile (literally: Permanent Cologne) is a citrus that lasts.  And lasts.  I need a bottle. 


In the meantime, however, I make do with the Cologne Indelebile body wash and body milk that arrived a little while ago, and it's keeping me happy enough until I can save up the pennies to splash out on the matching scent too.  Now, I'm not a huge user of body lotions generally (I'm mostly oily-skinned, and just don't need them, sorry!), but I do use them for layering scents quite regularly, and this lotion is brilliant for layering summery citrus scents over.  The shower gel lathers well, and it's perfect for waking you up on a somewhat sluggish morning.  Used together you'll smell clean and fresh all day.

All that said, what does Cologne Indelebile actually smell like? Well, up top it's a blend of neroli, orange blossom and bergamot, which manages to be both incredibly fresh and clean, and heady at the same time.  It's a slightly green take on citrus, rather than a simple lemony or orangey one, there's a leafy note below the juicy fruit, and it finishes with a set of clean laundry and skin musks. Projection is low, someone else would have to get very close to you to know you've showered in it, but it definitely lasts on the skin.

The Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle Cologne Indelebile body wash and body milk are available from Liberty in the UK, and cost £35 and £60 respectively.


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GOSH Cosmetics Foundation Plus+ 002, 004, and 006 Review

GOSH Cosmetics are probably my favourite mid-priced range, and lots of their recent releases have set my jaded old heart pulsing - their last, with the lip oils, the foundation drops and those beautiful eyeshadow palettes and matte eyeshadow sticks, was one of the best thought-through collections I've seen in quite a while.  I was lucky enough to be invited to dinner with the brand recently and have an introduction to the Autumn/Winter 2016 collection, and I'm happy to say it's really up to their recent standards.  Incidentally, did you know that GOSH were an almost entirely vegan brand?  I didn't, and I think it's brilliant.  They're not completely vegan, because they occasionally use beeswax in a couple of their lipsticks, but everything else is totally vegan-friendly.  Good news!

Anyhoo, my pick from this collection so far is this lovely new foundation formula: Foundation Plus+.  Designed to give full coverage (but is actually blendable down to a medium-coverage), but still look like skin and have a dewy finish - which is almost entirely unheard of in a full-coverage foundation! - it is layerable, and very blendable, and feels moisturising  in wear, thanks to a formula that contains both hyaluronic acid and algae, meaning it's also quite nourishing for a foundation product, and definitely hasn't lead to dryer skin.

l-r 002 Ivory, 004 Natural, and 006 Honey

It's highly concentrated in its squeezy bottle, and you'll need only the tiniest amount to cover a full face, even a gigantic melon-face like my own, but it spreads easily, and melds well with skin.  The amounts you can see on my hand there would probably have covered at least three faces.  You can build up coverage in parts where required (usually in my patches of high-colouring around my nose and cheeks in my case), and you can even apply with a brush to spot-conceal should it be required.  I find that it definitely does require setting with powder to avoid sliding, but it is a good, long-lasting formula once on skin and set.  I like it a lot.  Best of all, it doesn't look flat or overly matte once applied - there's very little more ageing than a thick layer of too-matte foundation on skin of any age, if you ask me.

Wearing shade 002 Natural here, with GOSH Cosmetics Velvet Touch Lipstick in Cranberry

I concentrated my application around my nose and cheeks here to cover up my redness, but sheered it out over my forehead, so you can still see (a hint of) my freckles.  I think it looks surprisingly natural for a full-coverage product, my skin looks like skin not vinyl, and I especially like the customisable nature of the product.  The only downside for me is that it can be very difficult to get the foundation out of the squeezy bottle, but at £9.99(!) for a full 30ml I can overlook that particular issue.

GOSH Cosmetics Foundation Plus+  comes in five shades: 002 Ivory, 004 Natural, 006 Honey, 008 Golden and 010 Tan, and is available in Superdrug stores now.


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Real Techniques Ultimate Base Kit - Limited Edition

I do love a Real Techniques face brush, or three (or four...).  For my money, there aren't many brands that make better brushes for base products, and their blush brushes are magnificent!  That said, I do not love their eye brushes at all - in fact, I've not met one of their eye brushes that I've used more than once before giving it up as a bad job, mainly down to their tendency to always be just that little bit too big and bendy for the job at hand, but that aside, Real Techniques are definitely hard to beat for a brush for practically any other purpose.  Their Ultimate Base Kit was therefore irresistible when the press release popped into my inbox recently.

Just released as a limited edition, the Ultimate Base Set contains an Expert Face Brush, which is the domed brush on the left there, which is perfect for blending and buffing foundaitons and other base products.  I have one from another kit, and it also makes a good blusher brush for any powder blushes you might have that are a little underpigmented.  Next to that is the Miracle Complexion Sponge - does anyone else not quite get how you're supposed to use these?   I prefer to wear as little foundation as I can possibly get away with these days, and I only really seem to see people wearing inch-thick bases using these for blending purposes.  Or do I not get it simply because I am just Really Old these days?

And finally there is a brand new and exclusive Deluxe Concealer Brush.  A bit wider than I would have expected for a concealer brush, this is actually great for buffing in under eye concealer, having nicely rounded bristles which are good for blending over larger areas (like around the nose) and being able to blend your concealer seamlessly into your foundation.  Not quite so great for spot-concealing things like thread veins (or even spots, come to that) where you'll need a brush that allows accuracy rather than diffusion.

It comes packaged with a cute white mirrored wallet, which you're meant to use to carry the kit around in, but it has two main problems; the first is that none of the elastic slots will allow the base of the Expert Base Brush through, and the second of which is how do you get a sponge into a flat wallet?  That said, it is a cute wallet with a good-size mirror, and if you stick to your smaller Real Techniques brushes, it'll be really handy for carrying those around with you.

For £20.99 at Superdrug right now, the Real Techniques Ultimate Base Kit is worth buying mostly for just the two brushes, and I'd treat the sponge (unless you love base sponges more than I do!) and wallet as freebies.

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Triple Dry Fresh Anti-Perspirant

I'm largely recovered from my parosmia now, which is a huge relief.  However, one of the few "joys" of a life-changing smell disorder was that not only couldn't I smell myself, I couldn't smell anyone else either, which made travelling on the tube during hot weather a more pleasant place for me than it did for ... "normal" smellers!  Ironically, even though I'm almost entirely recovered, I still can't smell mysel.  Or you.  Or that git on the tube who apparently hasn't washed his pits for the last three months.

Anyhoo, I've written about Triple Dry before, and I'm still a big fan, but I just noticed the roll-on version a couple of weeks ago, and I think I actually prefer it to the stick version that I reviewed previously.  The stick version is unscented, which was a huge requirement for me at the time, but the Fresh version is nice for just giving a gentle hint of "nice smell" to my pits (which I can actually detect, so know I've applied, if/when I do a smell-check) but still has the great protection benefits.  Essentially, you could (potentially) apply this just every three days, after a week of night-time applications and it would still keep you both dry and fresh even without daily applications!  I still use mine daily, but I don't worry so much now if I realise I've forgotten a day when I get to the office now.

For someone with parosmia-paranoia, Triple Dry is a lifesaver.  Even for someone who can smell normally it's still a damn good antiperspirant - my pits have stayed dry and fresh even in the current stupidly hot-spell, and for that, I am hugely grateful. And might you be if you came across me on the tube recently ...

 At £6.45 for 50mls at Boots, I'm not going to deny that it's on the pricey side for a deodorant/anti perspirant product, but for the security and peace of mind it gives, it's worth every single penny.

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