My Picks of 2010

Needless to say, you'll have seen a million of these posts already, and I was in two minds whether or not to post my selections too, but some of these products have been life-changing for me, and I thought I'd share them anyway ...

Bath Products of The Year:


Aromatherapy Associates

Early on in the year, I was sent an Aromatherapy Associates Miniature Bath and Shower oil selection, which I adored, and since then, I've been through two - count them! - full-size bottles of the Deep Relax bath oil.  Both heady and relaxing, this stuff has seen me through an operation, a change of job, and moving house, I can't recommend it highly enough.  A capful (or two, in my mega-bath's case) is more than enough to soothe my aching bones, and ease my weary head.  You can also use it as a shower oil, or, in extreme cases, you can dab it on your pulse points and sniff as required. They do great candles too.


Lipstick of the Year

Guerlain Rouge G in Georgia

Adore the packaging, love (love!) the colour, and the fact that it's both £10 cheaper than Tom Ford's Pure Pink, alongside being slightly easier to wear makes this glorious shade my pick of the year.   The Tom Ford Private Collection lipsticks did grow on me throughout the year (to the extent that I now own three of them), however, this is the shade I'll be buying  back up of very soon.

Shampoo/Conditioner of the Year:

Andrew Collinge Smooth & Shine

An oldie, admittedly, but a damn good one.  I found this moisturising, and made my hair behave beautifully.  Easy to rinse, and it left my hair with an amazing shine, and at a bargainous £4.99 for a 500ml bottle, it lasted forever too!  If it were SLS-free, I'd be using it still (I had a keratin treatment at the end of year, so am using SLS-free formulations right now), but I had no issues with colour-stripping whilst I was using this on my dry, colour-processed hair.

Blusher of the Year

Daniel Sandler Watercolour Blush

2010 was the year I really started to get into blusher, it started with Estee Lauder's Bronzed Goddess bronzer, and ended with Nars Douceur, but in between were these little gems. I love them still, and now own three, in Truth, Cherub and Dare (plus I intend to get my hands on Flush and Gentle at some point too), as they're practically perfect.  Long-lasting, buildable and perfectly tinted, after I learned to handle them, I fell in love.

Eyeshadow of the year

Le Metier de Beaute Kaleidoscope in Le Cirque

To be fair, everything I've tried from Le Metier this year has been great, but the Le Cirque Kaleidoscope blew me away a little bit. Beautiful and endlessly versatile, this is practically the only eyeshadow palette I've reached for since I bought it a couple of months ago. Alas, it's limited edition, so I'm glad I arranged a backup when I could.

Foundation of the Year

A tough one, this, so there are two winners (and a runner up ...):

 Guerlain Lingerie De Peau and Bourjois Healthy Mix

Both great for a glowing finish (even though the Bourjois is technically only a "satin" or semi-matte finish), I genuinely couldn't choose between the two.  The Guerlain is a lighter-than-air, dewy finish that I find works best when set with just the tiniest bit of powder, whereas the Bourjois doesn't need setting, but I find the coverage is a little heavier.

Just want to give a mention to a distinguished runner up, which is Armani Face Fabric.  Amazing mousse texture, but for me, I need to be having a really good face day to do it justice.  But this is great stuff:

Nail Varnish of the Year

Deborah Lippmann: Hit Me With Your Best Shot. 

A glimmering steel-grey shade with hints of multi-coloured micro-shimmer, I've reached for this polish again and again since it arrived in my stick little paws, I love it, and it just edged out Dolce & Gabanna's Perfection (which it very nearly is) as my pick of the year.  Unfair as I still don't think House of Fraser have it in stock yet, but when they do, snap this one up!

Candle of the Year

Jonathan Ward Idina's Locket

No competition - unless you count the rest of the candles in this superbly-scented Amber range from Jonathan Ward, of which I bought the entire range of the day it was released!  And I know I wasn't the only person to have done the same, either. Warm and evocative, this candle smells like it was stolen straight from the boudoir of  Coco Chanel herself.  I now have more candles from Jonathan on my "Candle Wall" than I do from any other maker, and the reason for that is because they are wonderful, not to mention very clean burning.


Perfume of the Year

Untitled by Maison Martin Margiela

A possibly controversial choice,  but my blog, my rules, so ... I have to say that out of all the mass perfume releases I smelled this year, this was by far the most interesting, and it's definitely the scent that's responsible for getting me interested in perfume at all during 2010, so for that, it was a very important discovery for me.  Not every perfume in store smells like sweeties, and thank goodness for that.  You're going to be hearing a lot from me about perfume in the coming months, so you can all blame the 'Martin.

Skincare Range of the Year:

 Much like Le Metier above, where I haven't had a duff product from them all year, Alpha H has been the same for skincare.  I've tried practically every product from the range now, and (one exploding eyecream aside) I've liked (at worst) all of them, and loved some of them.  Start with Liquid Gold, try the facial oil, then move onto the masks, you can't really go wrong.  I'll have some more in-depth reviews of a couple of things coming up soon, but this is a great, no-frills brand, and I highly recommend them.

You might also want to have a look at Mir Skincare, which is formulated for sensitive skin, and is a bit of a marvel, in particular I loved the (vegan-friendly) Argan Oil, which I'll shortly be placing a replacement order for.

And finally - if you're still reading!

Overall Product of the Year

Clarisonic

Quite simply, it's a life (and skin) changing bit of kit.  I've banged on about it at relentless length several times before now, so I shan't go on, but suffice to say, I can't imagine life without this now.  Even if it is, essentially, a giant toothbrush for your face.

This has been one massive post, sorry!

100 Years Of Hairdressing - Andrew Collinge

Two thousand.  At the end of the 80's, that's how many perms that were processed by Andrew Collinge's salons every single week. When I point out that all the salons are based in (and around) Liverpool, you might understand why that particular little statistic brought a smile to my face when I heard it the other day.

I grew up in, and lived in, the north west up until around five years ago. When I was younger, (before the likes of Toni & Guy showed up), you had a choice in hairdressing, you either went to one of the local blue-rinse brigade of salons - usually called something like Bab's or Curl Up and Dye - or, you saved your pennies and went to an Andrew Collinge salon, usually in either Chester or Liverpool.  Having long been a hair snob, I usually saved up, and went "fancy". I must have been to at least half of the 8 salons in the chain, over the years as well as spent quite a few hours in the graduate academy, sitting as a model for the trainees who were learning blow-drying!

I learned a lot about hair from those salons, how to do an easy zig-zag parting, about styling products, that blonde highlights are not my friend, that a "restyle" rather than a trim will cost you an extra tenner at the till, and that salon products are usually better - but not always - for your hair than Vosene.  In fact, the first ever "designer" hair product I bought was Andrew Collinge's Design and Shine.  Lo! An expensive hair habit was borne ...

So it was that I was beyond delighted to be invited to Andrew's house (along with some other lovely bloggers!) to have a chat with the great man himself recently.  Amongst some interesting snippets of gossip which I'm not at liberty to repeat here, Andrew gave us some great tips and hints about haircare, some of which I'll repeat here:

Hair needs to be nurtured, treat it gently!  A cool rinse will work wonders for shine and condition.
Hair doesn't need to be washed every day - every 2-3 days is optimum, he thinks, and I agree - in fact, washing every day can lead to your scalp becoming over-stimulated which will make greasy hair even greasier in the long run, as your scalp gets used to daily massage.
Semi-permanent colours work well on greying hair, used regularly, they can have a staining effect on the greys which will help them blend in better, whereas a permanent colour will just lead to a white-rooted "badger effect".  Not sexy, if you ask me.

Andrew also very kindly demonstrated some simple hairstyling tricks for us - which was amusing as he only had one hair-brush and one hairpin to create most of them with!  Still, the fishtail plait he created was beautiful, and really simple, and the updos he did for everyone else were likewise.  I got a hint of backcombing, and some tricks about how to deal with my "mental" hair.  Andrew actually used the phrase "look at the little baby curls!" when I was showing him why updos just don't work all that well for me.  Thanks, Andrew!

Andrew also reminded us that he still has a haircare range available in most supermarkets - you can have a look at it here at Superdrug - it's recently been repackaged to celebrate the Collinge family's 100th year in hairdressing, and, as I never feature a product without testing it first, I've been using it for the last couple of washes.  Now, I'll be honest, I genuinely can't remember the last time I bought shampoo in a supermarket, so this was a bit of a leap of faith for me. I tried the Smoothing range (pictured above) which is the same as is used in his salons, which promises smooth shiny hair without frizzies.  I've been amazed, my hair has never been so shiny, I was out with a few people yesterday, and I got lots of compliments, which almost never happens!

I'm not, however, a massive fan of the packaging, the bottles are big (500mls for £4.99), and can be tricky to handle with wet hands - a pump dispenser would be great, I'll have to dig a couple up from somewhere - and the range does contain SLS, so I'll have to alternate it with an SLS-free product to avoid the itchies, but this is some seriously good shampoo and conditioner right here, and at such a bargain price!  The range also includes A "Purity" collection alongside the salon range (pictured left) which features more natural products based around quinoa proteins which I'm looking forward to trying too.

Again, the products are available in most major supermarkets, and Superdrug sells it online, alongside the styling range, which still includes good old Design and Shine!

I just want to say a massive thanks to Andrew for being brave enough to invite a load of "nutters from the internet" (MY phrase, not his!) into his home, and for being such a gracious and charming host. Blogging has taken me to some wonderful, random, and unexpected places recently, but this has to be one of the most relaxed, and informative sessions I've been to!

Incidentally, the top picture in this post features me, circa 1990, modelling one of those very perms Andrew was referring to in the first paragraph ...