I’ve hung out with hairdressers for many years and whilst I’ve never actually taken a pair of scissors to anyone, apart from hacking off my daughter’s tangled mass when she was about 8, I could draw you a pretty good diagram of how to cut a “forward graduation” and I know what a “horse shoe section” implies………….
Which is why, I feel I can speak with some authority on hair care.

This time round let’s think about post-summer hair. Even if you’ve had a ‘staycation’, the chances are your hair is in need of a bit of TLC around this time of year. Almost everything about summer signifies grief to hair: sun, heat, chlorine, scraping it off your face, pulling it into knots and bands… on top of the holiday diet (or rather non-diet) and a cocktail or two.

So first things first, your ordinary conditioner isn’t going to do it. An in-salon treatment is the absolute and will get your hair on the return journey to its formal healthy existence in no time, followed up with recommended aftercare treatments you can do yourself at home. Alternatively, if you can’t get to a salon, treat yourself to a hair mask and indulge yourself to a few minutes of pampering once a week.

Coloured hair, especially blonde, brings a whole range of problems over summer from colour fade, to the dreaded green tinge, to just plain old “brassy”. But do you know lots of products specifically aimed at this problem? Speaking to a few people recently I’ve been surprised how little most people understand about caring for hair that’s coloured. Very briefly, violet tones take away those unwanted tinges and revive your colour. Coloured conditioners will brighten up your hair a shade, and colour protective shampoos, conditioners and protective sprays will maintain your colour vibrancy between salon visits.  And remember, when you’re in the sun, just like your skin, your hair needs UV protection.

Below I suggest some products for you to try, that I’ve used and liked.
However, my best advice is talk to your hairdresser. Ask for a consultation and get a bespoke recommendation for your own hair colour and type.

Happy Hair Day!

Bed Head Urban Antidotes Resurrection Shampoo, Conditioner & Mask

This trio will give your hair much needed intense repair .

Perfect for severely damaged hair, Bed Head Urban Antidotes Resurrection repairs, adds strength and smoothes.

Available from TIGI salons & from http://www.feelunique.com

 

Catwalk Fashionista Shampoo, Conditioner

 

For anyone with blonde or highlighted hair. Fashionista is perfect to remove any ‘brassy’ tones, and will keep your colour cool and leave your hair super-shiny. It’s also sulfate surfactant free. In addition, the conditioner keeps hair looking cool toned and protects it from heat, adding a healthy sheen.

Available from TIGI salons & from http://www.feelunique.com

 

 

TIGI Copyright Care Colour Shampoo & Conditioner (Only available from salons)

 

 

A new, salon only brand that has been especially created for hair needing TLC and hair that’s regularly coloured. The Colour Shampoo and Conditioner will be part of a bespoke haircare regime created for you by your hairdresser. Infused with Coconut Oil, Keratin & Lipids the shampoo and conditioner are colour safe and leave hair nourished, vibrant & healthy looking.

http://www.tigicopyright.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hair / summer / after summer / haircare /hair products / blonde hair / coloured hair / damaged hair / ageing hair / hair colour /hairdressers/ hairdresser / colourist /shampoo / conditioner /hair mask / summer holiday hair /post-holiday

How’s your stress management? I’m a natural redhead with a tendency to fire-off, but I can also dissipate the stress pretty quickly, accepting the inevitable, seeing the funny side of the situation or my behavior, or taking action to make a change.

Of course there are some stressful situations life throws at us from time to time, requiring external professional support. I’m not talking about these. I’m talking about stress that seems unbearable at the time, but in reality just needs living through, like missing flights, parcels not arriving, ‘losing’ something you’re sure you left in a safe place, forgetting to do something or just ‘flapping’ over a deadline. These situations can distress and worry people I know. But come on, we can overcome this!

The rolling eyeballs of my husband or daughter are often enough to shame me out of my stress. Equally I do remind myself to consider what will happen if I do or don’t do something. Accept you’re not perfect. Accept you might have to hang out in an airport for several hours. Enjoy the stress of the work deadline, knowing once completed, the task will have given you satisfaction and you can relax. Don’t worry if the food for your carefully planned dinner party isn’t as wonderful as you’d hoped. Do your dinner guests even care?

We go through our lives beating ourselves up. Yet often other people are looking at us with admiration. Youth brings with it both a lack of confidence and a youthful uncaring assurance, but as we age we often feel less confident in many ways. We’re lucky! We have experience to fall back on. So I say, mind your posture. Stand up and look proud. Tell yourself in one hour/one day/tomorrow, it will be better. Smile. Breathe deeply and remind yourself (in most cases) whatever is stressing you is merely an inconvenience.

 

 

Footnote: I am on a train, currently stationary in the middle of nowhere, with a train on-fire in front. I will miss my connection and my 5 hour journey may well be at least 7. Am I stressed? I was, but I’ve had a word with myself and I’m going to get myself a stiff drink.

 

 

 

 

 

stress /  humour / lifestyle / family /  posture  /  breathe   / middle age  / ageless / ageing  / confidence  / experience  /life

 

 

My jewellery tells stories and holds many memories of places I’ve visited, people who’ve come and gone, events I’ve attended and gifts I’ve been given. I’m not talking about jewels of monetary value particularly, though of course there are a few, such as my mother’s and my own engagement rings and a diamond on a pretty white gold chain, my husband bought me in memory of his mother. …..No, I’m thinking more about a turquoise necklace bought from a beach-seller in Mauritius over thirty years ago, but still worn today, and an amber necklace haggled over in the souk in Marrakech, (both bought when I was in those countries working.)

There’s a yellow bangle given to me to play with by a great-aunt when I was 7. A tiny bird-like woman, she had a photo of herself wearing it around the top of her arm. I’m not sure I could get it up my arm even then! And I have strings of long beads in every colour and ropes of (fake) pearls all formerly owned by various family members and still brought out to wear from time to time. In fact, unless something is broken beyond repair, I rarely throw anything away as colours and shapes come back into fashion and I often bring them out again.

It’s my habit to buy a piece of jewellery wherever I go in the world; a bracelet from a mysterious artist in Carmel, California, a silver ring from beautiful Monevassia in Greece, a dainty gold bracelet with a sea-urchin shape and seed pearls from a recent trip to Italy, silver earrings with coloured stones from a Native American shop in Old Sacramento, I could go on. All these pieces are treasured for the memories of the experiences they trigger.

                        

In a slightly OCD way I have a lot of my jewellery ‘colour coded’. 3 straw boxes sit on a wooden trunk in my bedroom, one contains beads and stones in reds, oranges and browns, another has blues and another greys and black. On my dressing table are glass jars, one with glittery bracelets and necklaces, another, chunky silver things. A few, more ‘special’ or delicate pieces, are in there own boxes and drawstring bags, including a much loved , Vivienne Westwood pendant and a diamanté collar from Zara, infamous to me as the Duchess of Cambridge was photographed wearing the same thing. (I couldn’t understand why she would choose to wear fake when she had access to the real thing!) Nevertheless she made a good choice as that collar has been worn over the last few years, to several ‘posh events’ not just by me, but several of my friends too.

In our throwaway world, jewellery can be a lovely way to make our history and I implore you to keep yours and help them make your own stories. A few months ago I visited the incredible Archeological Museum on Lipari, in the Aeolian Islands, off Sicily. The islands are volcanic and the preservation of artifacts found there is amazing. Amongst the many displays of pots and vases were some beautiful displays of jewellery, each piece over 3,000 years old. I’m not sure any of my “jewels” will still be around in 3,000 years time, but I like to think they can be part of my own personal history.

                                

And below is my latest purchase, these lovely earrings just stole my hear!

Heart earrings £12.99  from: www.zara.com/uk/

NECKLACES / BRACELETS / RINGS / EARRINGS / JEWELLRY / FASHION / HANDMADE / ACCESSORIES / PENDANT / BIJOUX / GEMS / BEADS / HISTORY / JEWELRY / STYLE

 

 

 

I can still see the bottle of Hourbigant, Chantilly perfume in its pink and white lace  box sitting on the shelf of the local chemist’s. I was about fifteen and it was the first bottle of perfume I ever owned. I remember feeling both grown-up and decadent, and as soon as I dabbed it on (it wasn’t a spray,) I felt instantly sophisticated.

 

 

At eighteen I moved to London, sadly, too late to join ‘Swinging London’, the pendulum had already swung, but Biba in all its glory was the crown of Kensington High Street and                                  

I began wearing Biba perfume in a beautiful black glass bottle with its iconic gold logo. It was the sort of bottle that should have remained on an art deco dressing table, not carried back and forth in an overnight bag. After it leaked onto my much-loved suede skirt, I decided a change was needed and started using St Laurent Rive Gauche, a modernistic spray can, which, at the time, seemed to fit my inner-bohemian. (It was the 70s). Sadly when I tried it recently, I found my ‘nose’ has definitely evolved!

Since those years I’ve dabbled with many designer fragrance brands as well as more classic fragrances.  I was forever disappointed to find Channel N0 5, just didn’t smell right on me, whilst every Boss perfume I’ve ever worn has resulted in people commenting I smell amazing. And it wasn’t long ago I went out to dinner wearing Narcisco Rodriguez ‘For Her’ and the waiter very apologetically asked the name of the perfume I was wearing, before telling me a story  that the moment he fell in love with his girlfriend, she was wearing the same beautiful fragrance.

And of course, fragrance is very evocative. It helps spark the brain to recall moments and memories of events, people and places and the moods of those captured moments.

Let’s face it though; it’s also about brilliant marketing. Put your hand up if you’ve bought a designer fragrance because you really hankered wearing that designer’s mostly unaffordable clothes? My hand is held high. Oh yes! My love of Armani fragrances definitely began in the 90s with a longing for a Giorgio Armani ‘power suit’. I’ve had most Armani fragrances over the ensuing years and have loved them all. Someone once said whoever they were with, if they happened to be wearing Armani ‘She’ I instantly came to mind.

                    

 

Hanging around an airport duty-free is of course, the most tempting and enticing way to buy perfume and it was Heathrow Terminal 5 I blame for an ongoing passion with Bulgari. I doubt I’ll ever own a piece of Bulgari jewellery, but ‘Au thé Blanc’ has long been a favourite for ‘day wear’ and my current evening favourite is Bulgari’s ‘Goldea’.

But,  if I’m honest, I’m not very faithful to a particular fragrance and I’m rather envious of people who say they’ve worn the same perfume for years.

Which brings me to Calvin Klein. Who didn’t love the concept of CK1 – a fragrance designed to work for women and men? Love the fragrance, but not the sharing bit. (I’m an only child.) But oh, it’s the names of Calvin Klein’s fragrances that get me: ‘Contradiction’, ‘Eternity’, ‘Obsessed’…. Wear these and you’ll feel like the heroine of a classic ‘film noir’…..

And now: ‘Woman’. What perfect timing! It’s the first fragrance, created by Raf Simons, since he took over the design ‘helm’ at Calvin Klein. It’s very ‘now’ with its blurb saying it ‘draws inspiration from the Spirit of Empowered Women, a celebration of women, by women’. The advertising campaign uses Lupita Nyong’o and Saoirse Ronan, as well as depicting Sissy Spacek, Eartha Kitt and Katherine Hepburn. “It’s a play of contrasts, as varied as the personas of modern women”. The main ingredients are orange flower petals, eucalyptus acorns and Alaskan cedarwood. It shouts modernity and creativity and guess who just ordered a bottle?

– Because, behind this woman is a desire to move forwards, not accepting the inevitable progress of ageing, but championing the fact that ‘age is just a number’ and being ‘the best I can be’ is about making change. My fragrances move forward with each era of my life and today I’m embracing the energy of life and the power I have and can give.

#IAMWOMAN

Buy it from: http://www.fragrancedirect.co.uk   30ml  £33.95

 

Luxury Perfumes / finest online cosmetic and fragrance / Beauty products /perfume cosmetics / Perfume shop / Bulgari perfume / Calvin Klein perfume / Giorgio Armani perfume /  Boss perfume / I am woman /

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I left home at eighteen I could just about open a packet, add water and make some kind of reconstituted goo. Then I started going out with a guy whose previous girlfriend had been a ‘Cordon Bleu’ cook, so I thought I’d better learn sharpish or he might finish with me! I bought myself ‘The Hamlyn All Colour Cookery Book’, worked my way through it, and at the end I was pretty capable. (We went out together for almost 3 years by the way, and food had nothing to do with the end of the relationship.) Then I started going out with an Italian and soon began hanging out with the crazy Neapolitans every Sunday. Pop, the ‘papa’, was a great cook and I learnt lots of traditional recipes from him. Then when I started going to Italy I couldn’t speak Italian, so I’d hang out in the kitchen and watch. Soon I was cooking like a native and speaking the language and my love and passion of all things Italian has continued over the years…. But that relationship ended too, though I’m still close to the wonderful family and have shared many meals with them over the ensuing years. In my heart I’m always part Italian and ‘il cibo italiano’ (Italian food,) is still my default. Whether it’s rustling up food for 20, or something quick when I’m short of time, it’s the rich and healthy food of southern Italy I turn to.

“Healthy eating” however, is what everyone goes for these days and I’m certainly on this wavelength. Especially when I’m on my own for a few days, I’ll happily become a temporary vegan and a lot of my meals are vegetarian. But I do love fresh fish and living on the coast, where you can buy fish caught overnight, it is hard not to resist. The source of my food is important to me and again living in Cornwall in the southwest of England, allows me to eat from locally sourced vegetables, fish, poultry and meat and we grow vegetables too, though we should do this a lot more as it’s so satisfying.

Behind The Woman is about being the best you can as you age, and food is part of the message I want to share. In my head, eating well and making your food look beautiful and colourful falls in the same category as looking after your skin, wearing stylish clothes and being happy internally. Even when I’m eating alone, and just having a salad, I’m very likely to go and grab some edible flowers from the garden, and take time creating a visual and tasty plate of food. I’ve shared my passion for food with my daughter, who from an early age has been experimental with her own cooking. So I’ll be sharing some of our ideas and recipes as my Blog grows and I hope you’ll be inspired to fight the desire to open a packet or buy a ready-made meal and create beautiful food, because it’s often as quick to make something from start to finish.

                       

 

shoes for women / style / lifestyle /middleage

*Shoe Shine Style

“HOW many pairs do you have?” ……Including flip-flops, trainers, Converses, Vans, Supergas, wellies, boots just to wear on skiing holidays, rubber shoes just for the beach. Eek! I really wouldn’t like to hazard a guess…….

The great thing about shoes is that they always fit. If you’ve got yourself all miserable because you’ve put on a few pounds and don’t want to buy any new clothes until you lose the weight, you can still buy a pair of new shoes to cheer yourself up! Yep! Been there, done that! Break up? New shoes rule! My daughter once had a cat that got run-over by the road sweeper – at SIX o’clock in the morning. We were devastated, but later that day, I found myself looking into a shoe shop and 2 pairs of new shoes later, I felt a lot better. (Please, don’t judge me, I’m not always that shallow!)

There is a catch here however. As we get older, even a lot of women with style seem to morph into the wearing of “comfy” shoes. These often look like adult versions of a kid’s school sandal, (though maybe in pastel Nubuck,) or worse, black, flat, square things that make your feet look cartoonish and seem to produce a waddle. I’ve had conversations with women who say, “Oh but I can’t wear heels anymore, they hurt my feet.” Well I’ve got news for you, they hurt younger women’s feet too! There’s a reason why you’ll often find a basket of white flip-flops at the side of the dance floor when you go to a wedding, and why even young girls at parties end up dancing bare-foot. High heels always hurt! They can successfully be worn when you go to dinner and need only walk from car to table. Obviously this dramatically helps your entrance. But, if it’s a long-winded affair then, be warned, they might hurt by the time you leave. Only sometimes, let’s face it, a bit of pain is worth it, heels look fabulous and give you a swagger. So please, don’t give them up altogether.

On a fashion note, the shape of heels change. Sometimes they’re straight, sometimes conical or curved. Wear the wrong shape and you’re out of fashion. You might be lucky, but the chances are, those classic black courts you bought ten years ago, will have the wrong shaped heel. And on that note, suede is usually more giving and forgiving and therefore more comfortable than leather. But if you have the kind of feet likely to swell in the heat of the moment, then you’ll probably find sling backs are more comfy and never buy tight shoes! But try boots…you can get fabulous, high-heeled boots that look good with the sexiest of evening dresses.

Still it’s not just about heels. There are boring flats that look as if they’ve been designed for people with the flattest feet ever, and there are stylish, fashionable flats that will tip your image from screaming: “I’m getting old!” to “I’m sassy and this is my style”. Chelsea boots, bright coloured or print loafers, silver brogues…..these will elevate your style without causing pain. And a pair of white “tennis shoes” can do wonders to elevate the style of many an outfit. Of course, there are some middle-aged women who defy this desire for comfy flats and stick to what they’ve always worn. A few weeks ago I walked up the volcano on the Italian island of Vulcano. It took nearly 2 hours and it was really hot and as I sat on a rock for a bit of a breather, a French lady of ‘a certain age’ breezed by, in high wedge sandals, a pink floaty dress and wide-brimmed straw hat, looking totally out of place, but also totally fabulous. I’m not advocating this look for mountain walking….but some people will never change.

In the end, it’s about the ‘total look’. Looking great, whatever your age, is a ‘top to toe’ effect. So move out of the aisles of boring shoes, starting looking for inspiration and make sure you’re striding into the next season with #SSS aka: Shoe Shine Style.

 

makeup / ageless / beauty

 

I have a friend who’s a great organizer and is always on the lookout for the next bargain, ‘girls away trip’ to somewhere warm and sunny. We six friends live in the Southwest and are all time-poor, so the challenge is to find destinations we can reach from our local airport in Newquay, Cornwall. It’s all about a few days of bonding, laughing sunbathing and generally relaxing with a glass of wine.

For some reason, security in Newquay Airport is tighter than any other airport I’ve flown from and part of our experience is that my friend likes to challenge us to ‘carry-on only’ bags. We’re all totally into our hair and makeup products, (not to mention shoes and clothes,) so getting what you want to take into a small bag is never easy. Once, the fastening of the airport plastic bag wouldn’t stay closed and I was forced to get rid of some of the contents. Without thinking I threw away my suntan lotion, only to find it cost three times as much in Spain! If you’re thinking we could stock up in “duty free”, forget it! This one doesn’t sell anything useful, unless you want to take Cornish biscuits with you. Planned packing is the way.

Imagine then, how excited I was to discover TRINNY LONDON. This is a makeup brand created by Trinny Woodall and comprises stackable pots of cream makeup. On the TRINNY LONDON website, you go to the MATCH2ME section and fill in your skin, eye and hair colouring to find the right shades for you, then choose the products you want from a recommended selection.

        

Trinny advises applying the creams with your fingertips and mainly that’s what I do, though I sometimes use a brush to define my lips or eyes. I’ve never thought cream products lasted well on your face, but these really do give a radiant glow and last well. The EYE2EYE colours can be applied to give a light coverage for the day, or built up for a more intense shade. The LIP2CHEEK colours are dual-function and are my favorites in the range. All these little creamy pots are so easy to use and just the right size to pop into the tiniest handbags for touchups.

The starter kit is £95, which I know is expensive, but gives you a good selection of colours as well as a Starlight highlighter and Face Finish and my little pots are lasting well. It’s also beautifully packaged, so would make a lovely present. Crucially you can get re-fills, which is something of which I totally approve! I’ve also got the BFF cream with SPF 30, a great, tinted day-cream for light coverage, which can be decanted into a small pot for my weekends away.

 

Today I used BFF Cream, followed by Freddie LIP2CHEEK, Emperor EYE2EYE, Starlight on my cheekbones, & Face Finish.

TRINNY LONDON came with me on my summer holiday as well as my recent ‘short break’ and was the perfect holiday companion!

It’s only available online. Shop at: https://trinnylondon.com/products/all