Top 5 Summer Holiday Beauty Essentials

It's all too easy to get carried away choosing the shoes, the bags, the bikinis, day wear, evening clothes, beach-to-bar fashion and forget until the last minute that your beauty regime will need a bit of a boost while you're soaking up the sunshine.

Of course, by the time you've packed all those must-have fashion essentials, there's barely a wrinkle of space left in which to pack your bathroom booty...so here's my top five summer holiday beauty essentials, all of which have been tried, tested and re-purchased by moi!

# 1 - Creme de la Mer SPF 30 Protecting Fluid.  40ml £65

You're right, it's not cheap, but if there was ever a time to splash out on skin care, just prior to offering your face to the sun gods is it! I love this stuff with a passion; it feels incredible when smoothed on each morning and not only does it protect you against UVA (aging) and UVB (burning), but it also contains their Miracle Broth^™ formula, which was originally created to help fix burn scars.  As a cosmetic application, it seeks to heal and repair the skin - just what you want!


# 2 - Jo Malone Vitamin E Gel 30ml £62

I've written about this stuff before.  I'm a big fan! One small pot lasts ages and ages and it's just perfect for smoothing onto the skin at bedtime.  Pop it on any sore spots, mix it into your usual moisturiser - the Vitamin E will boost your skin's healing ability.

It's ideal for chapped lips and I've even used it around my son's nose when he had hay fever earlier this year; soft and soothing, it took away the soreness of a constant trickle.

 

# 3 - Ojon dry recovery revitalising mist 175ml £20.50

Sunshine, seawater, swimming pools - all designed it seems to wreck my otherwise very well behaved hair.  This stuff is lovely.  Spray it into wet hair straight after washing and it helps smooth and detangle but is so light you'd never know it was there.  It was a godsend last summer when combing out my daughter's endless locks!

It's a good sized bottle too, so will last WAY longer than your tan!



# 4 - Soap & Glory Butter Yourself Body Cream 300ml £10.50
 
Forget After Sun lotion!  This stuff is not only deeply moisturising and soothing, but smells heavenly!  It's thick and rich but not greasy or heavy, so won't sit on your skin and stick your skirts to your legs! 

The fragrance is fruity and light, the sensation cool and luxurious - why spend a fortune on after sun that you then dump in a cupboard when you get home? 

This one will last you for months...and remind you of those glorious summer days every time you scoop it up!

# 5 - Bobbi Brown Nail Polish 11ml £11

Deep rich colour in one stroke!  Nail varnish and me haven't been a great mix over the years - it soon looks chipped as a brickie's mug, and I end up looking like a scruffy teen!

This stuff lasts ages without chipping or flaking and glides on really easily.  The fewer coats I need the apply, the happier I am - so this is a real treat.

OK, so the colour might not be to everybody's taste...it's a very deep blue, but it looks amazing on my tootsies, so it gets my vote!

We all have our summer favourites, and these are a few of mine!

Harmony Balm @Home

OK, I admit it - this isn't actually me in the picture, and my massage took place in my sitting room, not the garden (which would be weird) ...but the important thing is that IT WAS AT HOME...IN MY HOUSE!

Oh the deep, deep, delight of being able to work right up till the doorbell rang, and then spend the next two hours in serious pamper heaven!

Karen, owner of Harmony Balm Spa in Sale, is perhaps one of the lovliest people I know, which makes any pamper session even more special - and this time she's come up with a corker of an idea!


I've probably confessed this before, but I'm a strange combination of always busy but naturally lazy.  I work from home and there's always a last email to send, or a deadline to meet, and this usually results in me either cancelling or rearranging what I have come to term 'all about me' appointments.  To the point, in fact, where the last time I had my nails done was early 2012!  It's all just too much hassle!

So, when I learned that Karen had decided to introduce a mobile service, my fingers fell over themselves in their haste to make an appointment. And what an appointment!  Cashing in a voucher my dear hubby had bought me for Christmas (he knows what I like) I booked a full body massage AND a mani-pedi!

Karen arrived on the dot and was soon set up in my sitting room; delicious spa fragrances filled the air as we picked through the range of nail colours she'd brough along for my choice.

There's not much to say about mani-pedis, but Karen is very good!  I usually avoid pedicures - my tootsies are delicate flowers that don't take well to being filed and prodded and rasped and whatevered, but this was wholly painless, plus I could see afterwards that it really does make a difference!

But the massage...oh the massage!  Karen mixes her own essential oils for massage, and also works with Spieza Organics, a wonderful business based in Cornwall, whose ethical and innovative approach to creating truly effective skin care products means you can trust them with your skin, no matter how sensitive.

In addition to delightfully fragranced oils, Karen uses hot shells.  These very pretty palm-sized tiger clam shells come from villages in the Philippines where their contents form part of the daily diet.  A teabag-like sachet is placed inside each shell; this is the 'LavaGel' (a mix including algae and sea kelp) which, when combined with salt water, generates enough heat for an hour-long massage.

The heat produced is consistent and controlled, unlike a hot stone massage, and the shells fit snugly into the palm of the hand, but curve outwards too, allowing a really deep tissue massage without any digging in or poking about!

Karen is a truly skilled masseur.  I have endured several lectures in my life from physios trying to fix neck and shoulder issues (I'm a WRITER, of course I'm online all day!) and Karen's smart fingers went straight to the source of the problem...but unlike physios she resisted any attempt to 'cure' and simply went for 'ease'.  Bliss.  Pure, unadulterated bliss.

I can't recommend Karen and Harmony Balm enough, whether you want an excuse to escape daily life and visit the Spa itself, or want it to come to you - you're in for a premium treat.

www.harmonybalm.com/about/

Carluccio's Spinningfields #2

It seems that we Brits are getting awfully good at standing up for ourselves when we're dissatisfied by service or quality; according to The Guardian last year, we've become positively professional - and with our new ability to make a fuss, has come an equal and opposite reaction from those businesses we complain about.

I recently had a very disappointing experience at Carluccio's in Spinningfields.  This beautifully designed restaurant is set in Manchester's stylish urban interior, where diners (both inside and out) find themselves surrounded by tall buildings and the bold and beautiful of this most fabulous of Northern cities.

I did inform the manager at the time of my disappointment, and she dealt with it exactly as you'd expect - no charge for the dodgy dishes and a free glass of wine (translated into chocolate pudding in my case!)  However, I felt that this wasn't enough.  A restaurant chain of this size, and with a reputation for good food well served, shouldn't be allowed to quieten down one customer at a time...so I blogged it here.  And they responded.

In addition to a personal email from the Operations Director seeking more information, I was invited back, with my family this time, to see if they could do better.

They could, and did.

A venue like Carluccio's is not there to offer fine dining, extraordinary taste experiences and innovative approaches to antipasti.  No, they are there to provide people who like to eat out at a reasonable cost with reliably good food at a price generally considered to be value for money.  The menu should remain fairly fixed, a daily specials list should provide inspiration and excitement, and diners should be able to expect, and get, a 'safe' dining experience EVERY TIME.

Our meal was great.  On arrival the children were immediately provided with entertainment packs and drinks orders were taken straight away.

The menu is pretty huge, with a marvellous choice of starters.  I chose Bruschetta, which was lovely, but I wished I'd gone with my step-daughter's choice of Antipasti di Verdure.  Described by her as: "The best meal I've ever eaten" (No offense taken), it was a cornucopia of Italian delights, from fresh mozarella to foccacia to artichokes to aubergine.  But then, my 10 year old's GINORMOUS pile of Calamari was also a delight, and I risked a fork in the hand on several occasions reaching for a golden ring!  Mike went for the Arincini again - and I don't blame him.  Delicious last time and delicious this.

Main courses were just as you'd hope.  My Chicken in Lemon and Capers (from the Specials menu) was fresh, zingy and delicious.  Hubbie's steak was all polished off.  Amy and Zac chose the Ravioli.  My six year old is not renowned for his culinary experimentation, so to see him polish off a child's portion of ravioli with ricotta and spinach almost silenced me. (Only almost).  Amber's lasagne was a success too; two fussy eaters, full to the brim...!

One more thing definitely worth mentioning is the wine list.  It's pretty extensive and almost everything on there comes by the glass.  I chose the Nero D'Avola.  I've yet to be disappointed by this Sicilan red and at just £4.50 a glass it hits every spot!

A big thank you to Carluccio's for their effort to set the record straight.  I had a lovely chat with the restaurant manager who told me all about the new chef, his experience and his commitment to bringing on his team.  Consistency is all here, and she assures me that anybody choosing Carluccio's Spinningfields WON'T be disappointed.