Our latest bathroom swoon...

His 'n' her loos.  His 'n' her basins.  And a bath that's obviously big enough for two.  (And clearly needs its own 'mounting block'.)

     Today we bring you his high-ceilinged, wide-floorboarded, tiled temple to bathing.  Not sure of its location (we'd say Paris, probably).

     But something to inspire you to kick off your shoes, fill the tub and indulge, this weekend.

     Wallowing in blissful solitude.  Or à deux...  

     Whatever floats your boat.  (Or your rubber duck, more like...)

Free frozen yoghurt from YooMoo!

Yup, read that right.
     Now, we're big fans of frozen yoghurt.  Snack-of-choice, actually. And YooMoo's is sublime:  smooth, creamy, with that yoghurty tang that makes it somehow taste - well, less naughty than ice cream.
     This Saturday (1st October), YooMoo is celebrating their first birthday - and they're giving away free yoghurt to celebrate.
     This yoghurtfest is happening 10 locations, which you can check out on the YooMoo website.  They include Canary Wharf, Bluewater, Derby, Leeds, Milton Keynes (but not including Harrods).
     It's just for an hour - from 11 a.m. to noon.  On Saturday only.
     But let's not look a gift moo-cow in the face, eh?

www.yoomoo.com

Which are the coolest beauty brands...?

Well, it's official.  Today, the results of the latest CoolBrands survey are unveiled, as judged by an appropriately too-cool-for-school panel that includes Ben de Lisi, Sadie Frost, Kelly Hoppen, Gizzi Erskine, Lisa Snowdon and many, many influential art directors and designers.
     The criteria?  Style.  Innovation.  Originality.  Authenticity.  Desirability.  Uniqueness.
     So - cue drumroll! - the winners are...
     Dermalogica, voted the coolest skincare brand (beating Creme de la Mer and Eve Lom, no less.)
     And in haircare, ghd (that's the Good Hair Day people) were straight-up winners, pipping TiGi and John Frieda to the post.
     That's just the tip of the CoolBrands iceberg, of course:  in all, there are over 500 CoolBrands (whittled down from 10,000), many of them showcased in a luxurious hardback book.  If you've got a spare £50 knocking around.  And you're a brand junkie.
     What our Jo's also tickled by, meanwhile, is that the lil' ol' organic chocolate brand she started with her husband Craig Sams, in 1991, is for the fifth year running Britain's coolest food brand.
     And if all these wins aren't an excuse for a nibble on a bar of Butterscotch, we'd like to know what is.

www.coolbrands.uk.com
For more about Dermalogica click here
For more about ghd, click here

What's Spanish for 'blow-dry'...?

To be honest, we haven't a clue, either.
     But in one Spanish destination - Barcelona - a savvy hairdresser has carved a niche for himself with not one but four groovily-decorated Anthony Llobet salons, where the stylists all speak English. (Between them, they've 11 languages.)
     No need for hand signals for 'more volume on top, please'.  No being zooshed automatically with lacquer when you don't know how to refuse.  No getting 'lost in translation' at all, in fact - which is what generally puts the fear factor in getting your hair styled overseas.
     Jo sleuthed out these 'English hair salons' when in the Catalan capital at the weekend, needing to look zhooshy.  Got a fabulous blow-dry (Andreas at John Frieda, are you looking nervous yet?)  And can particularly recommend Fanny, at the Gotic location (in this very hip and happening area of town).
     So we say:  viva Anthony Llobet!
     (Which is about the extent of our Espanol, unfortunately...)

www.anthonyllobet.com

Sex And The Countryside

So, this is where SJP goes to kick off her Manolos, at the weekend.  A little bit of blue-and-white paradise, the latest in the Beauty Bible Blog's series of perfect pampering places.
     We're taken with the rolling vanity unit.
     Love the butterflies.  Can't quite tell from the photo - which appeared in the US's Elle Decor mag (you can find it here on spiffy newsstands)  if they're vintage, or Damien Hirst-esque.
     Adore the tongue-and-groove walls. (Genius for swiftly covering a multitude of sins, tongue-and-groove:  you can even batten it over the pig-ugliest tiles.)
     But the stroke of genius, for us, is the his 'n' her milking pails, in place of waste baskets.
     She always did have style, that Miss Parker.

www.elledecor.com


     

What does a year of make-up look like...?

Here's your answer, courtesy of directors Lernert & Sander and the brilliant Nowness website.
       Over nine hours, make-up artist Ferry van der Nat and his assistant Vanessa Chan applied 365 days' worth of Ellis Faas make-up to the (so-patient) model's face:  seven bottles of foundation, three lip pens, two bottles of blush - and more.  (Relax:  they condensed it into a couple of minutes of film.)
     They did allow model Hannelore Knuts to eat and drink.  Through a straw!
     Riveting.
     Though can we just add:  Don't.  Try.  This.  At.  Home.

To view the video, click here
Ellis Faas make-up (and we love this) is now on-line at Liberty, if you click here

Make yourself a cuppa and watch this (No. 2)

Yesterday, Chanel.
      Today, it's Dior's turn to entertain you over the McVities Digestives and the beverage of your choice, with a rather beautiful new film for J'Adore.  It was shot in Versailles and stars Charlize Theron, Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe and Grace Kelly.
     And yes, you read that right.
     Just click here to view on YouTube, or here to see it via their Facebook page.
     We think you'll - er - adore it.

www.dior.com
Facebook:  www.facebook.com/Dior

Make yourself a cuppa and watch this (No. 1)

Those folks at Chanel have been at it again. Again, we tell you!

     So put the kettle on, and treat yourself to a couple of minutes of smile-time, watching the dancing fingers in this short film on the always-genius Chanel Makeup Confidential site.  (Just click here to view.)
     Pure Bob Fosse.  Pure genius.
     Finger-clicking good, actually.

www.chanel-makeup-confidential.com 

Come on you blues (and whites)

Love this loo.  Love, love, lurve it.  (Thanks to the brilliant and beautiful Coco + Kelley blog - written by a pair of Seattle-based interior designers - for alerting us to it.)

     The bold bird wallpaper.  (Big prints can look amazing in a small room.)  With a blind that matches so well, you have to look extra-hard for it.

     The OTT gold mirror and rococo sconces.  

     That bamboo shelf unit.  (We told you Chinoiserie was back, this season.  Though for us, it never went away.)

     It's the kind of loo where if you opened the door, you'd almost squeal with delight.  And then not want to leave.  

     So with this latest in our series of pretty pampering spaces, we wish you a great weekend.

     Or should that be wee-kend...?

Skin vits you'll never forget to take...

While swanning through Harrods on Monday (en route to the Chanel pop-up), we were a little bit blown away by the new, relocated Apothecary.
     Can we just say:  Such.  An.  Improvement.
     And savvily, one of the ranges they've hand-picked is Visoanska, named after the unbelievably-smooth-skinned founder (Elisabeth Visoanska),  which explains the slightly weird name for this luxe line.  (She's Parisian.  Via Poland.)
     What we're particularly taken with is the designs.  Not just airtight, but each tube of the anti-ageing products - Formule Anti-Age Optimale and Extrème for day, plus Longévité Cellulaire Night - twists to dispense a skin-boosting vitamin to complement the effects of the active creams themselves.
     So the skin vits are right there to remind you to take them, staring you in the (potentially younger-looking) face.  Not in the bottom of your handbag.  Or your bedside table.  Or anywhere else that makes it so darned easy to forget clean about popping those pills regularly.
     No wonder it's won a beauty industry packaging 'Oscar'.
     Truly memorable...
  
www.visoanska.com

A skincare road trip

It may look like an ice cream van.
     But actually, this is a skin cream van.
     The bareMinerals® three-wheeler will be touring the country this month (for dates from today see below), dispensing info on their new bareMinerals® Skincare, which is powered by an 'ActiveSoil complex'.  (You can read a previous blog about it here.  And you've gotta believe us:  it's more glam than it sounds.)
     Roll up, roll up, for complexion advice and to try the range.  And you'll also be able to enjoy an RDA Organic Smoothie, on the house.
     Or should that be 'on the van'...?

Find the van here, and make a date for your diaries...

13th September - Guildford (House of Fraser Guildford entrance)
14th September - Kingston (Marketplace)
15th September - London (7 Dials, Earlham Street)
16th September - Birmingham (Rotunda Square)
17th September - Manchester (Trafford Centre, Great Hall entrance)

For more info about the bareMinerals® Skincare, click here
Click here for their Facebook page
Click here to follow @Bare_UK on Twitter

Two treats for you from L'Occitane

First off:  we are so coveting this special gift set from L'Occitane, which they'll be giving away FREE to the first 100 shoppers to visit their new store at Westfield Statford City, which opens at 10 a.m. tomorrow morning (Tuesday 13th September).
     How very, very adorable is that bag...?  (FYI the whole thing is worth £35 and stuffed with travel sizes of bestsellers including Immortelle Precious Cream and Shea Butter Cream).
     Even better:  for one and all there's an exclusive 15% discount for the entire opening week (until 18th September) - and a complimentary bestselling Verbena Shower Gel (full-size) when you splash out £35 or more.
     That's L'Occitane Westfield Stratford.  Got that...?
     Because there's more L'Occitane loveliness for you tomorrow afternoon at their Covent Garden Store where Jo (Fairley) will be in residence, happy to answer all your beauty conundrums and sign copies of The Anti-Ageing Beauty Bible.  (That's what Jo's brain is there for:  picking!)
     There'll be drinks and nibbles.
    And a FREE goody bag.  And the chance to dip, dab, spritz, spray and find answers to your beauty challenges.

Date:  Tuesday 13th September 2011
Time:  3.30 - 6 p.m.
Location:  L'Occitane Covent Garden Boutique, 9 The Market, London WC2E 8RB

To reserve your place (they're limited) call 020-7379 6040 or e-mail ukstore.coventgarden@loccitane.co.uk

A cool idea for a warm(ish) weekend

Seems autumn's not totally upon us, quite yet.
     So instead of the latest in a long series of Fabulous Friday Bathrooms, we bring you:  The Perfect Garden Shower.
     Imagine stepping out of the blazing sunshine int a shaded, marbled shower room.  Complete with interesting dark wood stool and an inviting pile of towelled squishiness.
     Cool, or what?
     (And our thanks to the Everything Fabulous blog, for this.  Which we follow through the utterly brilliant Bloglovin...)

www.everythingfab.com

Velvet Eyes will be in Vogue tonight

We're not generally fans of 'ultra-high fashion' make-up.  But we're prepared to make exceptions.
     For Dior's Velvet Eyes 'eyeliner patch' for instance:  a limited edition which debuts tonight as part of Vogue Fashion's Night Out, at the Dior Boutique New Bond Street and Selfridges W1.
     Since we're not always the most steady-handed of eye-liners ourselves, we love the fact that these are adhesive - and repositionable. (NB  There are also versions with Swarovski crystals, but we think that might be going a l-i-t-t-l-e too far.  For us, anyway.)
       A liitle bit of make-up fun, on a Very Big Night Out.

Click here to read more about the event, which is happening all over the West End, with hundreds of stores participating - and helping to raise money for the wonderful Kids Company.
     

Une promenade avec Chanel

If MI5 is looking for new recruits, they might want to start sniffing around the Chanel Press Office.  Yesterday's ssssh-don't-tell-a-soul instruction to Beauty Bible:  be at Harrods Door 9 at 10 a.m. sharp.  

     Naturally, we accepted this Above Top Secret assignment.

    And what did we find...?  Well, we were actually the very first to discover the pop-ups to end all pop-ups, which opened yesterday - not a word of which had leaked beforehand.  A fashion boutique, tucked behind the windows on Knightsbridge (which are all devoted to Chanel, right now).  
     A jewel of a 'beautique', where yesterday ubermanicurist Sophy Robson and make-up goddess Mary Greenwell were making over real women using products from an exclusive Chanel 'Knightsbridge Collection', created by Peter Phillips.  (We hear Marian Newman's pitching up, at some point.)

    And upstairs on the Third Floor, the pièce de résistance:  a 350 square metre exhibition - think of it as 'Coco in Wonderland' - which quite took our breath away, from the moment we stepped through (what else?) a floor-to-ceiling pearl curtain, into Chanelworld.  (Where nothing, interestingly, is even for sale.  Which is a shame because we seriously covet a CC-monogrammed watering can and trowel combo.)

     Actually, words don't really do it justice.  So Jo took lots of snaps, to lead you by the hand through the show...  (Sorry about any gaps in this layout.  Today we officially hate Blogger.com)

You're invited to step inside a Chanel 2.25 handbag...

To watch a fascinating film of the making of one of these classic bags...

Then visit Coco's 'playroom', which even has a Rue Cambon 'dollshouse' (below)

The 'haute couture' salon, with the special boxes only clients normally see...

The tactile, textured 'Tweed Room'

Meet cut-out Karl in his 10-metre faithfully recreated library

A handbag as big as a room!

Inside a Tuileries-style garden, gravel, topiary, benches - and this gardening set...

But our favourite of all:  vintage ads projected in a No. 5 bottle...

The whole thing is a total swoon.  So:  wherever you are, we suggest you buy yourself an Awayday to Harrods sometime soon.  Or you'll never be able to karaoke 'je ne regrette rien', in future.

     There.  The secret's out.  But oh, what a secret...

Sexy Tom Ford news

There, that got your attention.
     Though actually, we're not talking about the gorgeous and sexy Mr. Ford himself.  We're referring to his equally gorgeous and sexy make-up, which just debuted at Harrods, Harvey Nichols and Selfridges (all London) as well as Brown Thomas in Dublin.  
     And as you can see from this shot of a so-wearable eyeshadow quad - we'd go so far as to call it an instant classic - the dark brown packaging, with its gold 'library style' spine (and very satisfying 'click factor'), is as covetable as make-up gets.  The textures are bliss, too.  And the shades?  D-i-v-i-n-e.
     Though if you really want to show your finger's on the pulse, you'll be wanting to grow your nails a bit, 40s vamp style, to show the compact off to its best effect. And gloss them a deep, shiny red.
     Even though Tom doesn't actually make nail varnish yet.  But it's surely a matter of time.  And till then, we'll be panting for it, Tom.
     Er, the varnish, that is.
     Yes, that's what we meant, honestly.

Also at www.selfridges.com

It may feel like 'back-to-school' day...

... But here's one last nostaglic taste of summer from a lovely blog - Coco + Kelley - that we enjoy.  (And we're pretty sure you will, too.)
     Those legs will be encased in black opaques before she knows it, so meanwhile:  let's enjoy any sunshine that we get.

Click here for Coco & Kelley