Sniff out this new fragrance boutique

Ormonde Jayne is the nom de parfum of Linda Pilkington.  Who's she...?  Well, you need to know that Linda is a mega-talented British 'nose' whose scents are favourites of the serious fragranceophiles who make pilgrimages to her Bond Street boutique-ette (hidden away in The Royal Arcade, a violet cream's throw away from Charbonnel & Walker), and the spiffy counter in the Black Hall at Harrods.  (Where - no surprises here! - her 24-carat-gold-infused blingtastic body cream is a bestseller.)  But we just visited Linda's new mirror-and-black-glass jewel of a boutique - off Sloane Square.  (Turn right into the pedestrian zone, just before The White Company - relevant info because it's seriously fiendish to find).  And we think there couldn't be a lovelier place to sniff and spray your way through the Ormonde Jayne collection, to discover your favourite.  In fact, we suggest you sign up for a 'fragrance consultation', to help you take a short-cut to the one you love the most - from deliciously, resinous Tolu to dark, spicy Orris Noir, via divinely rosy Ta'if.  There are men's scents, bath oils and some seriously luxurious candles, too, which should put a few more ticks against that scary Christmas list.  (Er, if you can bear to give them away, that is...)

Ormonde Jayne, 192 Pavilion Road, Sloane Square, London SW3 2BF/020-7730 1381
www.ormondejayne.com

Sparkle alert!

We're not generally big on bling, at Beauty Bible.  More dewy, muted girls.  But we do know that it's the party season, and we do also know that just about anyone under twenty-five (including goddaughters/
granddaughters) is obsessed with sheeny, gleamy things like these ultra-metallic shadows and polishes.  So, we bring you this stunning visual for Blingtones, from MyFace Cosmetics - actually rather a grown-up brand, with the range cleverly complexion-coded to make goof-proof shade selection easy as A, B, C (whether you're Fair/Medium/Med-Dark-complexioned).  Fact is, we're rather taken with the make-up artist who created this look - a charming and talented chap called Kabuki (born in the north of England, now based in Manhattan).  Which puts us right up there with Madonna and Kylie, who barely move before Kabuki's made them up.  With Kabuki's input, we think MyFace is about to get even more interesting.  Meanwhile, we think you should know that there's a really good way to discover this range for yourself - because the brand has now installed in-store make-up artist 'Saturday girls' at the following Boots stores (sorry, it's a long list - but it is alphabetical).  So why not grab yourself a bit of Bling this weekend...?

www.myfacecosmetics.co.uk

Aberdeen

Belfast

Birmingham

Birmingham Fort Dunlop

Bournemouth

Brent Cross

Brighton

Bristol

Cardiff

Cheltenham

Chester

Dartford Bluewater Park

Derby

Dudley Merry Hill Centre

Edinburgh

Gateshead Metro Centre

Glasgow

Glasgow Braehead

Glasgow Fort

Glasgow Silverburn (oh, they must love their bling in Glasgow!)

Leeds

Leicester (city centre)

Leicester Fosse Park

Liverpool

London Kensington

London Liverpool Street Station

London Piccadilly

Manchester Market Street

Manchester Trafford Centre

Newcastle upon Tyne

Nottingham

Sedley Place

Sheffield Meadowhall

Swansea

Wolverhampton

It's nail files at dawn, girls...

... Because Chanel just unveiled the latest must-have nail colour - baby blue Riva - which goes on sale today (25th).  Following hot on the heels of Rouge Noir (a true classic), Jade (the only nail polish we've ever been stopped by admiring strangers while wearing) and putty-ish Particulière, this is actually very pretty.  With grey skies and winds blasting straight in from Siberia, it's a welcome reminder that one day it will be warm enough to take off our thermals and bask in the sunshine again.  Find it at Chanel Boutiques and Selfridges.  And better be quick.

A day for sitting down with a nice cuppa

We don't need much of an excuse to put the kettle on, frankly.  Beauty Bible is pretty much fuelled by tea.  But as temperatures plummet, we have a new, warming-in-every-way favourite that we just have to share with you - from the Rare Tea Co., founded by 'Tea Lady' Henrietta Lovell.  (Who we met last week at a very exclusive tea party for some hush-hush upcoming Jo Malone fragrances).   The packaging's great.  The teas are divine, the very best quality and bought at fair prices from tea-farmers - everything from antioxidant-packed Silver Tip White Tea through to this one:  a serious black tea, of the kind that helped Britain win two World Wars, basically.  As Henrietta puts it, Royal Air Force Tea is 'Calming in times of national peril, and fortifying when courage is required.'  (Not bad, either, when you're hurtling towards a book deadline.)   RAF Tea can be found at Sainsbury's right now (you'll have to look on the top shelf where it's inexplicably been stacked), as well as The Rare Tea Co.'s own website, and makes a wonderful gift for anyone who lived through World War II - or who simply loves a good cuppa.  Which definitely includes us.  (The cuppa bit, not the Battle of Britain/Blitz bit.)

PS  10% of the sale of each tin - £5 for 50 g on Henrietta's website (slightly less at Sainsbury's as is their wont) - is divvied up between the RAF Association Wings Appeal and the RAF Museum.

www.rareteacompany.com

Liz Earle heads north

On Thursday (25th November), the ladies of Leeds will be able to find out what this Top Secret store really looks like - because Liz Earle is opening her very first store in the north.  Based in the Victoria Quarter, the new shop it recreates the atmosphere of our favourite Liz Earle shop - on the Isle of Wight - with pebbles, stone flooring, aged cedar walls and (as ever) botanicals a-go-go.  There are opportunities through the day to meet Liz, enjoy one-to-one skincare consultations, relax with a pampering hand and arm massage (first come, first served of course) - and find out about how this skincare empire sources the plant ingredients that are so key to the formulations.  Liz will be there at 9.30 to cut the ribbon, from 3 - 4 p.m. and again from 6 - 6.45 p.m.

If you're planning a day off for Christmas shopping, you might want to pick Thursday.  After all, we wouldn't want anyone throwing a sickie just so they could be first through the door of Liz's Leeds store.  Would we...?

www.lizearle.com

Davinia's divine make-up school

You may not know the name Davinia Fermi (lovely and unusual as it is) - but we think you should.  For a time, Davinia was based near Jo in Hastings, where she not only did our make-up FAH-BU-LOUSLY for shoots (and we are very, very picky - been known to scrub it off again, in fact).  Davinia also taught make-up skills to small groups there at her Make-up Masterclasses - but she's now moved on to much grander things, and we're delighted to tell you about her new Make-up Academy for professionals, based in a sensational Georgian house - Stanmer House - near Brighton.  She's a super-experienced make-up pro who's worked on films, magazine shoots (think:  Tatler, Vogue, Harpers Bazaar etc.), music tours and more - and she's now represented by uberagent Joy Goodman, which tells you everything.  These courses really are for professionals and those who are looking to make-up as a career - for instance, Fashion, Media and TV Make-up and Hair (a 5-week course), or Evening High Fashion Make-up - for full info, we suggest you visit Davinia's website, below.  (That's her in the middle, above, by the way.)

The only annoying thing?  Now Davinia's so successful, we're not sure she'll have time to do our faces, any more...!

PS  If you'd be interested in a Beauty Bible Make-up Masterclass with Davinia, click here and send us an e-mail.  If enough of you think this is a good idea, we'll look at setting one up with her.

www.makeupacademy.co.uk
www.joygoodman.com

Feast your beady eyes on this

At Beauty Bible we're a bit of a family.  We're enormously proud of what our Beauty Bible 'alumni' have gone on to achieve, after they've left us:  lovely Liz Hancock (now Beauty Editor of Above, the eco-style magazine), Cluny Brown (graphic designer) and Rhian Hepple, who for years toiled away sending out parcels to testers, and helping us collate results for our books - and is now a jeweller, something she can juggle at home with bringing up Kai and Dylan.  So:  with Christmas approaching, we need to tell you about Rhian's Rhi-Vive beaded creations.  Rhian takes old and vintage beads to create new necklaces, bracelets, rings, even watchstraps.  Her website gives an example of them (not every photo does the jewels justice, trust us!), but Rhian can also create 'custom' pieces, commissioned in specific shades or finishes.  (She can also rework items to order - for instance if you have an allergy to a specific metal in a clasp).

All pretty and twinkly and sparkly and not expensive at all.  And almost as lovely as Rhian...

www.rhivive.co.uk   
 

A golden (flower) moment

We are always keen that beauty companies give back, while they're making us more lovely.  So we're very happy about Chanel's initiative, working with their ethnobotanist Xavier Ormancey, to catalogue all the native plants in a far-flung region of Ladakh (in Northern India).  It's part of Chanel's involvement in an active programme to ensure that the traditional 'Amchi' medicines (which this community has relied on for centuries) is maintained for future generations.  Why Ladakh?  Well, it just so happens the region is also a source for a VIP 'golden flower' - a key ingredient in their new exquisitely-scented Sublimage Serum, which makes their support of the Ladakh Society for Traditional Medicine a rather good 'fit'.  Chanel asked Jo - who's got a bit of an interest in Corporate Social Responsibility (having launched the UK's first Fairtrade-marked chocolate, Green & Black's), if she'd comment on their initiative for a wee movie they've made about Ladakh, the golden flower, and Sublimage Serum.

And we thought you might like to see the vodcast here.  (You even get a glimpse of Jo's greenhouse!)

Two minutes of instant peace - not just today, but anytime

We think this is a wonderful way to access a bit of peace in your life - anytime, not just on Armistice Day (traditionally the moment for a 2-minute silence, at 11 a.m. today on the 11/11).  It's an MP3 track of - well, silence.  Anytime you're feeling overwrought or over-stressed, you can click on this and it's like an instant meditation:  two minutes of silence, not only to remember the fallen (as you might today), but to count your blessings and simply step off the carousel of life to tune into 120 seconds of tranquility. There's also a moving video to accompany it, in which famous faces - think:  Bryan Ferry, Andy Murray, David Cameron - are interspersed with those who've been helped by the Royal British Legion, including a proud Chelsea Pensioner.  (It was shot by fashion photographer Matthew Donaldson - model Lily Donaldson's dad, who happens to be an old beau of Jo's...!)  For a YouTube preview, click here.  If enough people download this it could even get into the charts for Remembrance Sunday.  Take that, Take That.

Find the Royal British Legion 2 Minute silence track in iTunes, with the donation going to The Royal British Legion, or click here to buy it from the Legion's own site.

PS  Do observe the #notweet11AM with Twitter, which asks for two minutes of non-tweeting at 11 a.m.  We promise to.

Dejunk your make-up...

Beauty Bible loves Trish McEvoy.  Love her, love her make-up, love the really genius tips she's shared with us for our upcoming book The Anti-Ageing Beauty Bible - and love her super-organised kits (the Filofaxes of beauty), too.  Yup, it's a love thing.  And right now there is a better-than-ever reason to sit down for a one-on-one session with a Trish McEvoy make-up artist (at Selfridges or Harvey Nichols Knightsbridge).  As well as invaluable how-to advice, tips to enhance your natural beauty and the low-down on how to free yourself from make-up clutter once and for all, for a limited time you can take home a free deluxe-size Beauty Booster lipgloss, when you have a consultation with one of the Trish McEvoy consultants.  (Trish has rather cleverly cloned herself many times over, and they're all true pros.)  So:  say farewell to unsharpened pencils, cracked powders, grubby lipstick stubs - an say hello to a streamlined, flawless, totally organised new you.

Concerned about chemicals?

You are what you eat.  So:  do you really want to be made of monoammonium L-glutamate, or oxidised polyethylene...?  And of course, to a certain extent (even if the specifics are up for debate) you are what you put on your body, too.  So iPhone-lovers who are concerned ingredients-watchers will want to download this so-useful App from iTunes - based on the bestselling book The Chemical Maze - which looks at what preservatives and additives are in your food - and how they affect you.  Even more relevant to all you beauty-hounds is that it also does the same for the ingredients in cosmetics you're wearing or shopping for, too.  Now, we love Apps because you have all the info right at your fingertips when you need it most - in the supermarket or the beauty hall.  And we really love this App (recommended to us by Inika's Miranda Bond) because it's is so quick and easy to use:  simply enter the E number or ingredient name to get the instant feedback - good, bad or ugly...

www.chemicalmaze.com

Lyn Harris goes up the wall

Lyn Harris is a British perfumer known for her glorious creations.  But having made your interior - and yourself - smell gorgeous, you can now decorate your home with wallpapers inspired by the botanical prints that are a feature of Miller Harris's spot-it-at-100-paces distinctive packaging, which have been created in tandem with Karen Beauchamp.  Of course, at £75 a roll, you may want to reserve these for adornment of your 'smallest room' (be sure to accessorise with Miller Harris soaps and body lotions) - or create a single feature wall, somewhere in your home.  But we can thoroughly recommend enjoying the full impact of the papers -over a delicious tea (we're loving sweet-scented Thé Violette, accompanied by a rose cupcake) - in the Miller Harris Mayfair Tea Room and lifestyle store.

Scrumptious, in every way.

Miller Harris, 21 Bruton Street, London W1J 6QD/020-629 7750
www.millerharris.com

PS  You still have until 12th November to enter the competition on our Beauty Bible website to win the Miller Harris candles that Samantha Cameron picked out as a hostess gift for Michelle Obama.

Remember it's World Vegan Day

Do we ever really need an excuse to feature a cute white rabbit on this site...?  But today (1st November) does happen to be World Vegan Day - the first day of World Vegan Month - which certainly justifies a mention (and aaaah-worthy photo).  We doubt there's a Beauty Bible follower out there who doesn't have strong feelings against animal testing, but vegan cosmetics take that to the next level, avoiding totally the use of animal-derived ingredients in products (even beeswax or honey).  Our tip for tracking these down is to look for the Vegan Society logo, or use the Animal Free Shopper Search on their website (you key in a product category and it comes up with a list of approved brands that fit the bill).  Meanwhile, you might also like to know that 75% of Lush's range is vegan, as are many of Green People's products - and Lavera's too.  A brand that's 100% vegan is the new high-performing haircare brand Pureology, which is available from an increasing number of salons.

And no, we're certainly not ashamed to be bunny-lovers.

www.vegansociety.com