What's the best thing you get through the post? It certainly isn't bank statements and takeaway pizza menus, but a little box of beauty treats curated by you might just hit the spot.
I'm back on the Latest In Beauty bandwagon, after they overhauled their offering and started bringing in some big hitters.
They still operate the same model - you pay monthly for three, six or nine items, which you select yourself to create a custom box.
Only now, the brands they are offering have dramatically improved to include a lot more high-end and niche brand items, which they package into a monthly hot list - like a menu for you to choose from. It's all a lot more exciting than the last time I was signed up, and I found a huge amount to choose from this time.
Here's what made the cut…
There’s something about summer that makes me want my beauty essentials to work even harder.
Perhaps it’s the feeling of being more on show or even the boosted social life that lighter evenings bring, but it’s a time where new product launches always seem especially attractive, in the hope of these hazy warm days that we’ve been sadly missing so far this season.
I demand a lot more of the products I choose to use at the moment, and there’s a mix of new discoveries and old favourites which come into play.
From anti-aging toners to multi-tasking hero creams, gradual tanners and terrific tools, here’s a little round up of the items I’m having a summer beauty fling with...
While wedding guest outfits for day to night and - even worse - pregnant wedding guest outfits are a notorious summer minefield, christenings have a lot of the same problems.
There can be quite a bit of uncertainty about how to balance your own style with feeling appropriate for church - never more so than when the child who is getting christened is your own! Christening outfits for mum can be a minefield of body image and situation that its hard to navigate.
The day is about the little one and welcoming them into the world but it's also about celebrating family and the journey you've taken with motherhood.
It’s something that every working mother faces, but none of us can prepare for – the return to work after maternity leave can be quite a rocky road.
You certainly aren’t alone in finding it a struggle to navigate a changed work place, trying to think professionally for the first time in a year or more and also coping with leaving your child. There’s a whole cocktail of emotions – intimidation, detachment, excitement, heartbreak – which you’re facing all at the same time.
I should know. I’m facing them too.
I returned to work in my marketing job at a university a couple of weeks ago, after a year away with my lovely daughter, Romilly Hero. It’s my second return to work experience (I also took a year out after having my son, Theo) and I like to think I’ve learned a few things the second time around.
Beauty Pie is one of those brands that are low-key changing the world - and certainly my makeup and skincare regimes. If you’ve been living on Mars for the past couple of years and haven’t come across the brand, it’s the product of famed beauty guru Marcia Kilgore, the woman behind Bliss Spa, FitFlop, Soap & Glory and Soaper Duper.
It operates a subscription model – you pay a monthly fee and in return get access to top formulation luxury products for the price of a Starbucks order. If you’re not a member, you can still order the products, but at very over-the-top prices.
There are various pros and cons to this approach, but I was intrigued enough to give it a go, and over time I’ve been impressed enough with a critical mass of their products – most especially the skincare – that my subscription was one I couldn’t consider cancelling, even during the lean months of unpaid maternity leave!
There's a very fine line between knowing your personal style, and getting stuck in a rut.
And when it comes to jeans, I've begun to start fearing I'm trapped in a time warp. I'm old enough to remember when skinny jeans became a 'thing' (if that doesn't carbon date me, I'm not sure what does). I thought they looked weird and there was no way I was swapping my trusty bootcut denims out for those drainpipe legs.
Until I did, of course, not least because that was all you could actually buy in the shops. The last few years have seen the 'mom jean' become the more on-point option - but only on people who aren't actually moms.
It's the kind of style that looks amazing on some people, but with my childbearing hips… Not so much.
So I've always swerved the style until now.
OK, so I WAS supposed to be on a bit of a break from beauty boxes. After all, I have more mini body lotions and eyeliner pencils than I know what to do with. And while I have in subscribed from a regular one, Tili came along and caught me off guard.
Launching at random times through the year, Try It Love It is a selection of products curated by the UK's biggest beauty retailer, QVC. Like any edit, it can be a hit and miss affair, but on the most part it's more hit.
You can see what you're getting before you buy, and I've found it to be a great box for trying out brands with lots of buzz. I was sort of on the fence with this 'Abstract' box, but in the end it was just too good to miss out on.
The selection of products here is loosely themed around helping you to mix up your makeup bag and rewrite your own beauty rules. Containing £89.77 worth of products for just £20, it was a must try.
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