Espadrills with all the frills

I love holidays... snoozes by the pool, fruit and coffee for breakfast, the sound of lapping waves and the excuse to completely and utterly relax. Everything slows down about ten notches, and it allows for you to do things that you could never do at home, like sleep for the best part of a sunny afternoon, and when it comes to fashion it allows you to wear a completely different wardrobe. For some people it's all about wearing the best bikinis or dressing up for cocktails but for me its all about being as casual as possible. And one thing that looks out of place anywhere but on holiday are Espadrills - the perfect accompaniment to any chill out holiday and these laid back shoes are best worn in the sun. Something about their canvas fabric and jute sole makes them go with everything when on holiday and the wedged version oozes by the sea glamour. Originally from the Pyrenees, espadrills have now gone global and people from South America to Bali is channelling the discreet but chic shoe. Forever in fashion and great when your dashing, I've picked some of my faves below.

TOMS
The idea for this fab brand started with an American traveller called Blake who discovered that a lot of kids in Argentina had no shoes to protect their feet so he created TOMS, and with every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair to a child in need. They have a great range of colours and patterns to choose from and are easily purchased online. www.toms.com

Paez
Ok, so not strictly espadrills, well, actually not espadrills at all - these are actually called alpargatas, but they have the same holiday vibe about them and their soft canvas upper, cotton lining and cushioned leather insole make them impossibly comfortable. Inspired by Argentinian gauchos and made in Argentina, but brought to you by a British guy, Paez is committed to making sure its employees are as healthy and happy as possible. www.paezshoes.com

Soludos
Priding themselves on five centuries of tradition, Soludos have created a trendy shoe that is perfect for beachside living. Their website is as cool as the shoes that they sell, with achingly chilled beach shots and an equally relaxed holiday soundtrack. Soludos shoes are made from a natural jute sole and breathable cotton upper, and the warning that these shoes are not for working out but for chilling out says it all. www.soludos.com

Bee good - My skincare recipes with honey

I went to visit a Taiwanese facial masseuse who used to be a ballet dancer the other day for her signature facial treatment. When I asked her to recommend a hydration facial mask to deal with my dehydrated skin with breakout problem, she said, why don't you try honey?

For people like me, using natural remedies as part of daily skincare routine means spending a lot more time. I was curious enough to give a try, assuming that honey is something can only do me good. I was more convinced after doing some research online: Honey has natural antioxidant and anti-microbial properties, which explains that honey does not really "expire" as long as it is stored properly. It also attracts and contains moisture. After a few weeks' of experiments, I would like to share the following

1)Honey facial mask with essential oilsl - hydration

Manuka Honey Active:
People claim that unprocessed honey provides better effect than the processed honey. While it is rather difficult to tell among all kinds of honey jars, I went for Manuka Active 10+ as a safe choice. The thicker texture of Manuka honey is also better for topical usage (thinking about your face flooding with sticky sweet honey?)

Essential Oil:
Depends on your skin type, a few drops of essential oil can be added into the honey mask: Almond or jojoba oil for a bit dry skin; lavender or rose oil can be added for balancing the oily skin. I am usually very careful about using essential oil for topical use and make sure that you choose the top quality ones such as Jurlique or Neal's Yard Remedies.

Squeeze about 5 grams (or two tea spoons) Manuka honey into a small tea cup and add three drops of essential oils ( I used tea tree oil and lavender oil). Start with small dose and try more if you feel it is needed. Use a tea spoon and stire the mixture well as these two do not naturally mix. The easy way to put the freshly made mask is to spread a thin layer of the mixture to the face using the oval side of the tea spoon. Unlike other masks, this honey mask can stay on your face as long as possible. Usually I put it on for at least an hour before rinse it off with warm water. It had a bit tingling sensation for the first time but everything was fine afterwards.



Although it takes long to see the effect when using natural remedies for skincare, I feel my skin smoother immediately after washing it off. What I also like is that the skin is left nourished but not greasy.

2) Honey facial mask with Motherwort:

Although typically used to improve women's health in the Traditional Chinese Medicine practice, Motherwort is also recommended as a blood invigorator. A honey facial mask with Motherwort syrup would accelerate the circulation and improve the uneven tone of the skin.


I have to admit that preparing the skin care products yourself takes more time and energy and most importantly your patience. But it was indeed the lengthy process itself which calm myself down after a long busy day. Who says this is not a double healing?


For more information:
www.manukahoney.co.uk




www.trisori.com

Great Scott!

This weekend I was lucky enough to be invited by one of my friends to the newly opened Marcus Wareing Gilbert Scott restaurant housed in the recently restored St Pancras Renaissance hotel. A good excuse to have a snoop around the hotel also!


En route to the restaurant through the hotel, one very much gets the sense of being in a 'Gothic Revival' building with dark corridors on coloured tiled floors and wallpapered walls. It looks lavish but true to the style of that period. The restaurant was historically the coffee room in the old days of the Victorian hotel and thus named after the famed architect, Gibert Scott who won the competition set by Midland Railway for his design for an 150 room hotel to go alongside St Pancras station back in 1865.


Described on the website as having a "sense of grandeur in a relaxed and informal brasserie-like setting" is rather apt as the high ceilings and elaborate frieze are somewhat juxtaposed against the simpler furniture reminiscent of the old fashioned carriages. But this classicism together with the charm of the waiters & waitresses is endearing and their efficiency faultless - I loved that the waiter spotted the chorizo that had flown of my fork onto the floor and swifty swept it up in his hands.


The menu is pure heaven, a delight for culinary bold & daring (me) with a plethora of enticingly interesting options - razorclams, licolnshire haslet, different salad combinations yet mixed in with a few old favourites - brown & forrest salmon and london pride battered cod with chips. It details dishes as being inspired by old english cuisine and names renowned old cooks such as Isabelle Beeton and John Nott whose spatchcock inspired chicken was divine with an unctious lemon and herb gremolata. I couldn't really fault the food at all apart from personal preference (I like my chicken skin uber crispy!) Even the accompaniments were varied and inspired. Juicily griddles courgette chunks and pease puding for the nostalgic.


I would most defintely return in a flash at the merest suggestion of visiting the place - also to the pub on the other side with picnic benches outside. I have already sold the restaurant to my brother to take his wife or our parents maybe partly though as he knows that they serve Mrs Beeton's Snow Eggs!

http://www.thegilbertscott.co.uk/


www.trisori.com

The summer hat

I am still gathering my summer wardrobe for my next trip ( I know I am counting the days...) and I found this lovely green hat in the ASOS website.

It's a lovely shade of green and I am kind of obsessed with this vibrant colour.
It looks good on you when you are pasty white and it will look great with a bit of tan too.

It also helps shading your face from the sun so to avoid the annoying damages that can be caused by over exposure.

Wear it with a short linen white dress (as I would do) or with a long summer dress if temperature permits so.
It's a flashback to the 70s and I can totally see myself on the Italian riviera with maxy sun glasses the white dress and green hat.

With a very affordable price of 20 pounds, I am very happy with the choice!

Enjoy the sun!

www.trisori.com

In-flight beauty tips

Over the past couple of weeks I have taken three different flights and I am due to do two more before the month is over. Besides being absolutely terrified of flying (even though I have enough stamps in my passport to rival George Clooney in Up In The Air) I also hate what flying does to your skin, eyes and immune system. It is an unfair fact of life that when I get off the plane I will look tired, pale, spotty and often disheveled where as the air hostesses all bound through customs looking well rested and ready for the day. With that in mind I decided to ask around what other people's in flight essentials are in order to put together an easy-to-implement beauty routine that helps with all the problems that air travel can through at you....and here is what I found:

Hydration
Top of the list has to be keeping yourself well hydrated. As soon as you step foot in an airport you begin to get dehydrated - this is because of two things; the air con and the stress of travelling. Staying well-hydrated is so important, as it can lead to all sorts of nasty things if you don't such as DVTs and kidney stones. So, make sure that you drink loads of water the day before you travel - giving your body the best possible chance to begin with and then constantly sip on a bottle of water throughout the flight itself. A great tip is to pack a lemon or some fresh mint leaves in your carry on and add this to your bottled water to give your water some taste.

Move & Massage
Every half an hour or so get up and go for a walk. Stretch and massage your legs as much as possible - it will keep the blood flowing and get the circulation going, reducing the risk of DVTs and swollen ankles. Through in a yoga pose if you are brave enough.

Rescue Remedy
If you're a bit of a white-knucle rider like me, than Bach's Rescue Remedy is a great way to calm the nerves and help you relax. It's made up of five individual flower essences that help you cope with different stressful situations; rock rose helps you to deal with feelings of panic and terror and the cherry plum assists with irrational thoughts and lack of self control. Just add a few drops to your tongue every couple of hours on the flight to steady those nerves.

Eight Hour Cream
This is an inflight essential as it can be used for anything, anywhere and is a great rehydration tool for your skin. Use it on chapped lips, dry or tired eyes, blisters, sunburnt skin or for quick beauty fix it can also be used as a lip gloss.

Origin's No Puffery Cooling Eye Mask
Because of the dehydration and the pressure that flying puts on our bodies it can often result in puffyiness, and because you may get some odd looks if you were to put cucumber slices on your eyes in flight, apply this mask instead; It uses well-known aloe vera and cucumber to cool the eye area and get rid of puffiness and the yeast extract it contains will banish bags, leaving you alltogether brighter and fresher. 

Moisturise
Moisturising is key to maintaining the healthy glow you have gained on the holiday. Just keep applying it. 

What to wear
Take a stylish pashmina with you for in flight chills, as it can then also double up as a stylish through post-flight. I love the original Sonya Madden cardi-wrap, which has sleeves for ease.

Jet Lag
To ease jet lag on the other side don't drink alcohol as it certainly won't make you feel good and eat a banana on the plane as it helps to restore and maintain your body's sodium and potassium levels, which in turn promotes healthy sleeping patterns.

High-Brow
book the window seat on a daytime flight as you'll find it the perfect place to pluck your eyebrows. The light is AMAZING as you are so up high close to the sun it shows EVERYTHING up, just make sure the person sitting next to you cant see what you are doing!

Bring my glow back

We know foundations and blushes are cosmetic, so we step on treadmills and bend our bodies in the yoga room. Above all, I believe a proper massage can do something different and special. I am not talking about one pouring body oil to your body and sliding fingers on your back, but something deeply soothing and release all the tense.

A few months ago, I tried a promotion offer in Chuan Spa, a spa sitting in Langham Hotel in Portland Place, which offers massage combined with Chinese medicine philosophy. I'd never had a satisfactory massage experience in London, hence was rather taking myself as a human guinea pig.

The whole treatment started with a quiz of your life style, emotion and other seemingly random questions. Then from the answers, the therapist is able to find out which element I am lack of, out of five elements in Chinese Traditional Medicines: gold, wood, water, fire and earth. It seemed that I need a bit of "earth", hence more earthy ingredients were added to my treatment oil. It sounds like a cheesy game to play with but later my Chinese doctor confirmed that I need earth element to cure my weak digestion system. Well this is another story.

Before the massage, the therapist warmed my feet with hot towel which i liked very much and i was also taking a few round breathing exercises to get my whole body more prepared to the treatment.

The overall massage takes about 1.5 hour, including an express facial, which I don't think is their forte. An hour massage-only treatment might be a better deal in my opinion. What I like about Chuan's massage is really the therapist's techniques which combine deep tissue massage and shiatsu. Such style not only relaxed my massively tensed neck and shoulders by pressing the relevant points, but also soothed the whole body, from the head to toe. The relief came from inside of my body and the amazing thing was that I saw my face glowing after the treatment.

There are lots of Groupon Spa deals these days and I even tried a few. My conclusion is to save the money for the proper one. In the end, it is the treatment which will make the difference.

Tips: Use the complementary jacuzzi and sauna before the treatment, which relax the muscles and help benefit the massage the most. One also needs greater patience with the receptionists, although I hope they work in a better way now.

www.chuanspa.com/en/London

Weekend in Verona

We arrived in Verona at Piazza Erbe and as instructed called the owner of the B&B who said it was difficult to find and so came to collect us, not usual B&B style to be so friendly, but I could see why as it was through an arcade round the other side and in front of the 'pozzo degli amanti' (lovers' well so called as one threw themself down there after the other) and we soon discovered inside that it was most definitely not a B&B! But something far more worthy - an art&design B&B with a view.

So it turns out that the owner had managed to double book - so he upgraded us to the most luxrious bedroom that I can only describe as antique chic. Not many places can pull this off and most likely not unless they are in Italy (Palazzo Tornabuoni, Florence for example). I've never been so glad that someone has made a mistake before! The view being incredible from our infinite windows and a room to die for as well as two bathrooms. Each piece of furniture is either an antiquity or a design piece - Louis V Ghost chairs for example. Even the art hanging frm the walls was desirable.

Probably what struck me most was the fact that the room had been built originally in 1636 and trasnformed into the modern looking antiquity that it is. Complete with everything that you need including aircon and a covetable smeg fridge full of chilled bottles of water etc. Actually it's so cool, that you feel bad putting your things anywhere and its so designy that you don't know where to put your make-up.

So after a day's shopping, a much needed shower, with a glass ceiling that was part of the floor of our room, we headed out to dinner at the beautiful Tre Marchetti near the 'Arena' for the opera. If I could create a restaurant, this would be it. Stunning murals on the walls, exquisite place settings, divine food - mixed smoked fish followed by stuffed squid and moreish petits fours or dolcetti all with a maitre d' who spouts into operatic overtones during dinner.

Afterwards we headed to the opera ground to see Aida and after having queued each of us for the bathroom for so long, were placed on seats near the entrance, which proved rather noisy but also provided light for following the programme. Definitely tougher than I had realised, but delightful nevertheless - the scenery was incredible with an enormous amount of dancing. Sadly we had to wait a while until the drops of rain stopped after the last interval, but mexican waves around the arena made up for it!

www.piazzaerbe-verona.it
www.tremarchetti.it/en/
www.arena.it
www.trisori.com