Now, when it comes to facials I’m not easily impressed. My teenage years are evoked by the peppery aroma of tea-tree and eucalyptus. And holiday visits to Azeri skin care clinics with dubious hygiene standards but stellar results. East of the Iron Curtain, they know a thing or two about decontaminating faces and popping comedones … Continue Reading
By nature, I am massively prone to generalisations. Maybe it’s a child of immigrant’s thing. Or maybe I’m just wired wrong. But as a kid, in a new country with a new language and Post-Soviet parents who were so foreign they may as well have been aliens, stereotypes helped me navigate life. Several decades on … Continue Reading
Somehow we’ve ended up beyond the lights and the slot machines. On a side street in the desolate district of Naked City. The low-rent apartments this side of town were once populated by showgirls. They sunbathed naked in the courtyards, before fluttering to the Strip and their fleeting existence of rhinestones, feathers and wealthy patrons. … Continue Reading
I’ve already done an intro on the Alex Steinherr skincare range for Primark so you’ll already know the basics. However, I was keen to get down to the nitty gritty of the range. Which is how I ended up at the Oxford Street Primark at 8am on a Monday, baby in tow, and ready to empty … Continue Reading
Take one look at my shelfie and you’d be forgiven for taking me for a beauty influencer. Indeed, I bear all the classic hallmarks. For starters, I spend copious amounts of time zooming into my pores in the magnifying mirror. I double cleanse, own a jade roller and gua-sha my face with a rose quartz … Continue Reading
When it comes to beauty, smother me in snails, bee venom or the ol’ snake oil. Put the words “beauty product” and “buzz” in the same sentence and I’m there, offering up my emollient-weary complexion, radiant with expectation. I can only think of one exception – the colostrum cream gifted to me by a kind … Continue Reading
I am knee deep in Lavandula x intermedia as chubby bumble bees buzz around my ankles. Not one to OM and namaste, I shriek at my photographer to hurry up. An expletive is uttered and the cherubesque family down the field shoot me a look of opprobrium before continuing with their own Sylvanian-families style photoshoot. … Continue Reading
If you’re sensible, sensitive or particularly frugal, you should never agree to a dinner with me. This is especially the case if you’re imagined lactose intolerant, a pescatarian or fastidiously discard the anchovies from your Ceaser (live a little), because whilst I can’t guarantee the food, I can guarantee you a miserable time. I am … Continue Reading
John Ruskin is known around the world for his lengthy essays, treaties and manuals covering everything from geology to ornithology. Yet one of the best-loved works by this infamous Victorian critic was in fact a fairy tale, which was never meant to be published at all. The King of the Golden River tells the story … Continue Reading
Venice is best seen from the water, in the half-light of an early morning or a fading day. There’s nothing quite like sailing the silence, past Gothic palazzos of shadowy rooms and magnificent chandeliers. As far as cities go, it’s a fly trapped in resin, with virtually no architectural development in modern times. A fourteenth … Continue Reading
