Bank holidays rock

In the style of one of my very favourite bloggers, loveaudrey I feel a lovely bank holiday weekend is best summed up in list form:

- cooking polenta for the first time. And not the last!
- strolling through Green Park - still lovely even amid the gathering storm clouds (and feeling smug for missing the rain!)
- sweet smelling freshly ironed bed sheets
- making peanut butter swirl chocolate brownies (courtesy of the Barefoot Contessa - someone I fell in culinary love with while living in the US)
- spending time with one of my oldest, best friends and her family - this includes 3 gorgeous children. Broody? Who, moi?
- too many G+Ts
- hoovering, washing, tidying - worth the hard work to finish the weekend with a lovely tidy home
- having three lie-ins. What a treat.
- dancing like an idiot on friday night and then..
- ...having my saturday hungover somewhat softened by being brought breakfast and a trashy newspaper in bed (Mr C really is a diamond)
- booking a trip to Paris for my birthday. How has it been 2 years since I last went to Paris!

Claus Porto soap

I'm a sucker for an expensive soap. If it's genuinely good quality then I don't mind paying. I thought I'd found one with the Iris soap from the Farmacia Santa Maria Novella, however shortly down the line I found that it really didn't have much oomph and it's beautiful just didn't last longer than a week or so.

Latest discovery? Claus Porto.

I lobbed this in the shopping basket on our final sweep of duty-free on our way home from Lisbon. Mr C gasped at the price but it's proven to be money so well spent:


Violet soap. Violet has to be one of my favourite fragrances of all time (I've considered trying to track down a Violet perfume) and this soap smells very strongly. And what about that beautiful packaging.

The first day I reverently unwrapped it I admired it, of cousre, but then when I came home from work and found the whole house smelling of it I was thrilled. And, weeks later I can report that it still smells lovely and is in turn making me smell lovely. I'm using it all over, and it's not drying at all.

The website for Claus Porto tells me it's been around since 1887 and has many more lovely looking products to discover, and I intend to find out a little bit more.

Nails Inc - what a pleasant surprise

I've been incommunicado on the blog front so I'm sure this freebie has been done to death but I felt it was worth a mention.

The prospect of a long train ride home + the promise of a freebie saw me picking up a magazine on Friday. Something I never do these days. Anyway, as you'll know In Style is giving away one of 3 shades of Nails Inc nail polish at the moment.

I picked up Mink


Très Chanel Particulière, non?

So I tried to take a photo on my way home
..with the Eye in the background....but as you can see without much success. So here's another more successful one:


I thought I'd hate it as much as the grey one, but I actually love it. It's strangely flattering on my skintone, which is a surprise as I thought it'd be one for the tanned ladies only.

I'm also impressed with the formulation - just thick enough and it's lasting very well chip-wise. Nails Inc are onto a good wheeze with this (and the Coke give away they did recently) as it's a brand I would never have considered buying before - probably if I'm honest because I think the packing is so naff and cheap looking - but now I'm definitely going ot investigate the range further.

Do you have any Nails Inc favourites?

Clarins Everlasting foundation - HG?

So bumbling round the duty free on my way to Lisbon I was browsing foundations. For some reason I find the staff in airport makeup counters are incredibly snooty and unfriendly but the girl at the Clarins counter was a sweetheart. And so I ended up buying something - their Everlasting Foundation (SPF 15)


My initial thoughts about this:
1. I can't believe they have a shade that matches my pale skintone
2. This smells lovely!

I'm now a good few weeks into useage and feel reasonably comfortable with saying that I truly love this foundation.

Things I like:
- I have shade 103 - Ivory and as you can see it blends into my skin really well.

- It gives quite full coverage, which I like, but it does depend a little on your method of application.

- It has a strong fragrance -very similar to Bulgari's eponymous perfume, which incidentally I have, and like - but this might put some people off.

- Price - I believe it was around the £20ish mark which I think is fine for a foundation if it's a good one

- ..and finally its name! Silly I know, but 'Everlasting' - very fairytale!

The only slightly critical thing I have to say is concerning one of its big selling points - the supposed everlasting-ness of it. I find unless I finish it with powder, I do end up a little shiny faced in the afternoon, but perhaps that's just my skin. Otherwise, a big smiley thumbs up from me