Glossy box July 2013 review - Seaside Splash

Before we start, I have to confess I am not a GlossyBox virgin. I first subscribed to the beauty samples monthly delivery service about two years ago but abandoned it after a few months - I felt the product selection was slipping a bit and my bathroom cabinet was literally overflowing with stuff I was never going to use.
But I still thought that the idea, in essence, was a good one. GlossyBox is probably the best known of the fashion and beauty subscription services out there and it's pretty slick. For a monthly fee of £10 (plus P+P which takes it up to about £12 ish), you get a beautifully presented box of goodies delivered to your door or desk. Part of the fun is not knowing exactly what's inside.
In theory, the boxes are tailored to your requirements and wants - you create an online beauty profile by answering a few basic questions about your skin type, colouring, product preferences and fragrance preferences. So when the product selection is good and everything works for you, it feels like a real treat. There were a few products I discovered through GlossyBox that I loved enough to buy again - especially this moisturiser by Monu.
But when it's a bit off mark it's pretty disappointing. Which is why I left. After a few lack lustre boxes, the final straw for me was, I think, a box sponsored by Harrods which had namby pamby little samples of products so expensive I could never afford them in a million years, none of which suited me.
But recently, a colleague in my office and a good friend have been using products they got from GlossyBox deliveries so I thought I'd give it another whirl.
This is the first box of my new subscription and I'm happy to report it's a good one!
With great timing, GlossyBox have delivered a package filled with goodies that are perfect for the almost-heatwave we're having in London right now.
My Seaside Splash box came in pretty themed packaging - I'm in the middle of a big wardrobe clear out so the box is being put to good use as a sock organiser in one of my drawers.

The products:

Anatomicals: Spray Misty For Me facial spritz

This is my favourite of the lot - I had a facial spritz revelation in Paris (more on Paris on the blog soon) and my tiny Avene face spray has just run out so it's arrival is perfectly timed. And it feels and smells quite fresh, perfect to shake off that horrible muggy tube feeling that always leaves me craving a shower. Me and this spritz could develop a really meaningful relationship. If only the packaging was just a tiny bit more tasteful and expensive looking. I know looks aren't everything, and being lilac does make it easy to find in my bag and the plastic bottle helps make it cheap (£6). But I do like some quality packaging.
It's got rose, lavender, peppermint and witch hazel in it so should stave off some of the greasiness and spottiness I'm occasionally prone to when it gets hot in the city and pollution gets all clingy like a dog with a deep fear of abandonment. I've been spraying it on myself all day, I can't stop - I think maybe they put some kind of crack in it.

Ciate: paint pot (nail varnish for those who don't speak marketing) in Island Hopping

I don't normally go in for this sort of thing to be honest - nail varnishes just chip and my nails are nearly always different lengths because they break or get bitten so painting them seems a bit silly. Plus glittery  nail varnish is a bugger to remove. But this one is really pretty and summery and goes on much, much easier than most glittery nail varnishes do. The pigment is really good too - I only put on one (quite thick) coat. I'm not entirely sure how to take a nice picture of my hands, but I've tried so you can sort of see the effect...

The bow on the front of the bottle is a tiny bit twee, but we can let that slide.

Nip + Fab: Shine Fix

I was a real fan of Nip + Fab's Spot Fix when I got it in a previous GlossyBox delivery. But their moisturiser was a disaster. The Shine Fix makes lot of claims, as these things are wont to do. Apparently it contains 'microsponges' which target and prevent shine. It also has something called Seboclear (tm) to 'target visible pores'. Both of these sound like those pseudo scientific things they attach to beauty products to make you believe in magic (this does occasionally work because despite all evidence to the contrary I am a sucker for magic).
Shine and visible pores do not bother me overtly, although I do suffer from both occasionally as I have skin and skin does get shiny and it does have pores... but I'm trying it out anyway. Thus far the difference isn't hugely noticeable. My nose might be a bit less oily if I really pay attention. But it hasn't brought me out in instant spots so I'll persist. If it does anything significant I'll let you know.

Alterna: Bamboo Style Boho Waves

This is one of those 'beachy hair' effect sprays that's supposed to make you look like you've just spent the day surfing and your hair has dried in the sun. Like bed-head hair, this is an ideal that is hard to achieve if your hair is quite fine like mine. This spray doesn't work miracles, but I like it. I applied it on partly damp hair this morning, and even after being smushed with a cycle helmet before it had completely dried my hair does seem a bit more oomphy. I like tiny bottles of hair product - I'm more likely to use them because I can carry them around with me. And this one smells nice.

Coola Suncare: mineral sunscreen tinted moisturiser

This was the only real miss for me. It has a decent texture for a tinted moisturiser, but I'm actually not a fan of them usually. Laura Mercier is possibly the exception. I did like the idea of a tinted moisturiser with a mineral suncream included so was willing to give it a go but the colour was a bit off. I didn't even fully apply it before pulling out the Bioderma for a quick removal job.

I'm looking forward to getting the next delivery, but I do need to be vigilant about keeping the bathroom cabinet under control... I'll be giving away any unused products every now and then so stay tuned!

Letter from India

It is hot and sultry and beautiful. But after reading my emails, I am a little bit homesick and very heartsick for JFK (who is currently giving Japan a good shake on the design front).
What can I tell you about the way westerners dress in Goa, other than it is almost always either awful or nothing special.
Of course there are some beautiful fabrics here and the local women look amazing, especially when they dress up, but the westerners just look like old hippies. Even the young ones. I'll try and take some photos when no-one is looking to illustrate my point, if I can bring myself to inflict such a visual on you.
For someone who isn't really into wearing colour, there isn't a huge amount of choice but there is a lot of beautiful buttery linen which I might get made into something if I have any money left (unlikely).
For the moment I am attempting to hide away in my books - I'm swotting up to write something a bit meaty so am immersing myself in some serious female diarists with Nancy Mitford and Anita Loos for when it all just gets a bit too much. Reading Nancy Mitford does something funny to my vocabulary though.
I am still recovering from my rotten cold, so I can't smell much, but I think the way holidays smell, and therefore the perfume you wear while on them, is very important. My cold city perfume of choice, Stella, simply doesn't cut it and I don't want to smell like London.
Being unable to smell anything and also being in a bit of a rush to catch the plane made sniffing around in duty free a little out of the question.
But having recently finished consuming Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez's Perfumes, The A-Z Guide (recommended to me by writer, wit and perfume conoisseur Michael Bywater), I decided to trust them and buy something I have never smelt before but is apparantly a timeless classic of the kind they don't really make anymore.
Which is how I now come to be in a marble floored internet cafe in Goa surrounded by an aura of Guerlain's Mitsouko. Which, it turns out, is a better perfume for a hot and sultry holiday than I could possibly have hoped for.
It also doesn't blend too badly with the mosquito repellent.

A few last words

So the packing panic is over, the bags are full to bursting and I, with my effortless sense of timing, have lost my voice. My chest feels like it is full of tiny little burny things that get excited when I breathe in. On the plus side, this time on Friday I will be in Goa.
I'm afraid I have no idea what my access to the internet will be like, so cannot promise to be a regular blogger until my return at the end of December. Please bear with me.
In the meantime there are three things you need to know.

1 - The Sonia Rykiel for H&M lingerie is actually as good as it looks in the ads. I loved it, which marks a first for me and highstreet/designer collaborations. Just wish I'd got there earlier when they still had my size left in the things I wanted. I bought two lovely translucent loose-fitting silk chiffon vests, one in a pinky shade of nude and the other in black, which I will layer over each other or wear over my bikini.

2 - This is good;

(Tra Tutti Coco Chanel-O-Mouse, $39.99, via LibertyLondonGirl)

3 - My favourite blogger Belgian Waffle will be selling rude biscuits at the Bust craftacular this weekend. I am beyond sad that I won't be able to attend and purchase baked goods that insult me, but not sad enough to miss out on Goa I am afraid. However, if you are in London, please go and say hello from me.

Christmas wish list entry number 3 - via India Knight's Posterous

Where The Wild Things Are Carol and Max silver pendants by etsy seller Roadkill.

$150 each plus postage.

Found via one of my favourite blogs, India Knight's Posterous.

Inside the Prada party

So, last night I found myself in the Prada shop on Old Bond Street standing at the side and pretending to look very interested in the book they were launching  because I didn't know anyone and hadn't had enough champagne to talk to the scary people.
Of course, after a couple of glasses of champagne it transpired that some of the scary people were actually nice people who would talk to me like a human being even though I was ostensibly there representing an architecture newspaper (my day job) and not technically a fashion person.

However I was very pleased to be the one who recognised Christopher Kane before the very nice girl from Grazia did, even though she managed to identify a Jagger spawnling that I wouldn't have recognised in a million years.

People I saw/recognised that might mean something to you but I didn't speak to because the pan fried scallops on a bed of black rice seemed like a more sensible option;
- Bianca Jagger (the other Jagger spawn I didn't recognise was a daughter of Jade Jagger - surely too young to be partying already?)
- Various fashion editors and writers
- Christopher Kane
- The doyenne of west London vintage shops Virginia Bates
- Brett from Suede (what does he even do these days that means he gets invited to nice parties?)
- Tolula Adeyemi, model du jour and possesor of the amazing two and a half thousand pounds fur shorts - so expensive it needed words instead of numerals - plus some incredible legs...

People I spoke to;
- Amy Molyneaux and her date Alistair who claimed to also be a non-fashion person but, being a dj, was rather taken with the music selection provided by a girl in a deep blue velvet dress and perfect inky black bob behind the shiny black decks upstairs. Amy was nice even though she didn't have to be because I was patently not anyone of any importance at all, but quickly moved off to talk to someone who was.
- Joanna from Purple PR who was really lovely and friendly and normal.
- Jess from Vogue.com who was wearing an amazing shade of lipstick by Mac which I'm fairly sure was called Impassioned. Or something like that.
- Ashleigh from Grazia who was pretty awesome.

What we drank;
Champagne
Pear cocktails in short tumblers

What we ate;
Pan fried scallops on black rice in a small matt black bowl (black is still the new black)
Smoked Salmon arranged in elegant rounds on tiny squares of bread
Medium rare grilled beef with horseradish dip
Chicken on a stick. No really, it was a bit of chicken on a little bamboo stick.
Little edible chocolate bowls with chocolate and orange mousse
Large profiteroles with a crunchy caramel disc on the top

Here's some general pics;

So there you go. It was actually really fun. I had three glasses of champagne, which as anyone who knows me will attest, is far more than enough to make me tipsy.

Trundling off to the very unglamorous tube home, I passed by the window dresser for Dolce & Gabbana putting the finsihing touches to their Chirstmas displays for the New Bond Street store...

Suffice to say the entire tube journey home was spent thinking about those shoes, the second entry on this year's pointless Christmas wish list. Got home in a merry haze and ate a rather large amount of these before hitting the hay...

And so it begins with a Bittersweets NY ring

We don't celebrate Christmas in our family. You have absolutely no idea how much resentment this has bred among us children, even though the reason why we don't celebrate it is an exceedingly valid one (we are Jewish).
For me Christmas had become, until relatively recently, a time I dreaded. Stuck at home feeling lonely, watching the same movies that are always on, eating our traditional egg and chip lunch, while friends received many extravagant presents, covered their houses in glitter and gorged on yummy stuff. I'm sure it would be different without my other-side-of-the-fence rose-tinted glasses, but I was particularly envious of the decorating and the cranberry sauce.
Despite all this, every year I assemble a rather motley Christmas wish list of things I know I will not receive as a minor form of self flagellation.

Here is the first entry for this year;

Bittersweets NY Baby Vamp rings. In silver please.

The past few Christmases have actually been lovely. I have been spending the dreaded day in Yorkshire with my lovely friend B and her lovely family and it has all been log fires and foggy walks in the woods with the dogs, stockings for everyone, excellent food and drink and, most importantly, Very Good Times.
Very Good Times make Very Good Memories, which are more meaningful than extravagant presents. Unless those presents are Chanel.
This year B is doing something amazingly altruistic in Cambodia, and I am very sad to be missing out on the Yorkshire Christmas. But I will be on a beach in Goa having a massage. So it's not that bad...