Bookish Monday

Did I need it? Nope. Will I use it? Maybe. Probably for one or two recipes if I'm being honest. One thing I do not need is more cookbooks. I have Delia's Christmas, too faffy. Nigella's Christmas, which surprisingly hasn't aged well. Nigella's Feast and How To Eat however, are dog-eared, How To Eat easily being my most-used and recommended cookbook ever.

Jamie Oliver's Christmas Cookbook is lovely, reassuringly heavy and glossy and contains the usual brilliant photography of David Loftus. 

So if you like a cookbook - yes, are obsessed with Christmas - always, and don't need another cookbook but cannot resist, Jamie Oliver's Christmas is available here for £11.99: www.amazon.co.uk/Jamie-Olivers-Christmas-Cookbook

One of the earliest big breakthroughs for my little part of the internet was this interview with Sam and Nic Chapman, aka Pixiwoo:

 

Once that interview went up, my blog reached a new audience and the site grew quickly from there.

Sam and Nic have spent years writing this new book and the attention to detail includes tutorials, beautifully photographed visuals, advice and loads of further information. There's even an app that you can use alongside it.

If you are interested in beauty, specifically 'how-to' type tutorials, this is a must. Available here for £9.99: amazon.co.uk/Face-Pixiwoo 

After my recent find of Estee Lauder's Biography from the 80s, I went back into the archives and came across this on Amazon for a few quid. As you can imagine, it's a tad juicier than the official version, and doesn't pull any punches, which makes for a must-read if you're interested in all things beauty icons.

Estee Lauder's Beyond The Magic is available for differing prices here: amazon.co.uk/Estee-Lauder-Beyond

















*This post contains no affiliate links.
See my full disclaimer here: http://bit.ly/1rpEmSq
The views expressed on this site are the author's own and are provided for informational purposes only. The author makes no warranties about the suitability of any product or treatment referenced or reviewed here for any person other than herself and any reliance placed on these reviews or references by you is done so solely at your own risk. Nothing on this site shall be construed as providing dermatological, medical or other such advice and you are always advised to seek the advice of a suitable professional should you have any such concerns.

Bookish Monday

The one thing I buy as much, if not more than skincare, is books and music. Yes, I still buy CDs, the old-fashioned way. 

Book-wise, I'm a sucker for a beautiful, good, solid hardback and there have been an abundance of them released in the last month.

First up is Bloom by the lovely Estee Lalonde aka Essie Button-of-old to those of us in the blogging world. Bloom is a journey through Estee's life so far and is done really beautifully, almost like an extra long blog post with fabulous photographs. A joy. Available from: waterstones.com/book/bloom 

Estee's site can be found here: www.esteelalonde.com

I remember shopping for Lime, Basil and Mandarin shower gel in Jo Malone's first store in Walton Street in London. Since then she's sold the business to Estee Lauder, survived breast cancer and opened Jo Loves, while being a wife and mum along the way. This is the story of her journey. Available from Amazon: www.amazon.co.uk/Jo-Malone-My-Story More info on Jo can be found here: www.joloves.com

Sali's second book looks at iconic beauty products through the decades and is a cross between a fun encyclopedia and a trip down memory lane. LouLou fragrance anyone? 

A breeze to read, it's an excellent reference book and a perfect Christmas present for the beauty lover in your life. Available here: waterstones.com/pretty-iconic More info on Sali here: salihughesbeauty.com

Finishing up with The Coveteur. I am fairly new to this site, but I am completely addicted. If you like nosying into people's wardrobes/dressing rooms/general living spaces, be warned, you'll be here for hours. The book is beautiful. Big, hefty, bright and chock full of exquisite photography.

Available from Waterstones: waterstones.com/the-coveteur and the website is here: Be warned - make a brew before you start. coveteur.com/closet

As an aside: every time I googled these books, Amazon came up first. Can we please support traditional booksellers? The absolute joy of meandering for hours in a bookshop cannot be matched by having something delivered to your house with lightbulbs and phone chargers via Prime delivery.

To that end, here are some of the best:

www.dauntbooks.co.uk

www.johnsandoe.com

www.ica.org.uk

www.assouline.com/boutiques

www.thephotographersgallery.org.uk

www.clairederouenbooks.com

www.sotherans.co.uk



*This post contains no affiliate links. See my full disclaimer here: http://bit.ly/1rpEmSq The views expressed on this site are the author's own and are provided for informational purposes only. The author makes no warranties about the suitability of any product or treatment referenced or reviewed here for any person other than herself and any reliance placed on these reviews or references by you is done so solely at your own risk. Nothing on this site shall be construed as providing dermatological, medical or other such advice and you are always advised to seek the advice of a suitable professional should you have any such concerns.

Currently reading.....

After mentioning in yesterday's post that I like to curl up in fresh bedding with a good book, I had a few requests asking for my current reading list. Truth be told, I don't have one. I have books. Piles and piles of books. They're generally broken into a few categories - namely, murder, music, people, photography and self-help. And cooking. Always the cooking.

The 700 Nimes Road in the picture above is the photographic account of Elizabeth Taylor's house during her last days (taken with her full permission - this is not TMZ). I love nosying in people's houses and this is no exception. There are some peeks inside on this week's vlog.

Haven't read all of the above yet, but I've picked through most of them. I've moved Grace and Amy to my bedside to make sure I get properly into those ones.

Betty Halbreich was the personal shopper at Bergdorf's for years. Her memoirs are a great insight into the high-end lifestyle of shoppers and the industry in general. This article is a great intro to her if you weren't aware of her previously: vanityfair.com/betty-halbreich

The rock biographies I read just for the laughs. The Dirt by Motley Crue and Tommyland take some beating for the depravity and filth content though.  If that's your thing... ;)

People in business are always a good bet for hints and tips if running your own business is what you do/want to do. The Arianna Huffington one is a tad slow for me, the Aliza Licht one a little 'young' - all worth a quick browse though.

Hidden at the top of this pile is the Marie Kondo Tidying book. It thrills me that one of the best selling books in the UK is a book on tidying. Now all we need is a Dettol candle and I'll be all set.

Annnd a little murder to finish things off. After all, if you can't read murder curled up in bed all cosy, when can you??

Choice Books - Food. The New Health Rules by Frank Lipman M.D. & Danielle Claro

Adding to my obsession with lovely books that are not only beautiful to look at but actually full of good info, this one is a really simple, interesting, easy read that pulls you in as soon as you open the cover.

It contains beautiful photography alongside sections including Eating, Moving, Boosting, Healing and Living that are easy to follow and not 'preachy'.

You can imagine how happy I was when I saw this page..... :)

The New Health Rules is priced around £13.00 (the same as Amazon) and is available from Waterstones.com - who also do free delivery and pay their UK taxes. ;)

Choice Books - Lifestyle/Inspiration: Kate Spade 'Things We Love'

I popped in to Kate Spade in Westfield this week - it draws me in like a homing beacon every time I go past it. I ended up buying some earrings: (digression)

 and found this book by the tills. It's completely filled with colour/brightness/fashion/home/lifestyle - everything.

If you too, have 'big gorgeous book' issues, Kate Spade's 'Things We Love' is divine and available here.




*purchases - non-affiliate

Choice Books - Health: A Short Guide to a Long Life

If I took all of the advice in all of the books on health that I've read I'm pretty sure I'd be much healthier than I am. That doesn't stop me however, from reading as much as I can on the subject - and frequently.

David Agus MD was Steve Jobs' personal doctor - and as such he has both traditional views - and some that challenge modern 'Western' medicine. For example, he disagrees with 'detoxing' - and isn't a fan of juicing. And - music to my ears - advises against wearing high heels! *jazz hands*

This is a great, interesting, easy-to-read book and makes you think twice about a few things.

Available from all good book sellers and Amazon.

DavidAgus.com

*purchase - non-affiliate 

Choice Books - Beauty: A Guide for Health & Beauty Therapists

I am always asked about my beauty therapy training and what advice I can give to people studying/thinking about studying beauty therapy. I will do more posts of this nature and about 'How to get ahead in the Industry' etc but thought I would start with the basics.

The Gaynor Winyard 'A Guide for Health & Beauty Therapists' was my Bible when I was at Steiner. It's quite detailed and although some of the advice/language may be a tad outdated it is a brilliant starting point for therapists. It gives detailed information on anatomy, systems of the body, structure of the cells, tissues of the body, structure and functions of the skin, lymphatics, skin analysis and much, much more.

Its available on Amazon and the IBN codes are as follows for those Overseas:

ISBN-10: 058224790X | ISBN-13: 978-0582247901 

Hope it helps!

Kate Somerville now shipping to the UK

Finally - FINALLY - Kate Somerville is shipping her amazingness to our very shores. I'm always asked for specific recommendations - but in all honesty its kind of hard to go wrong with this range. (Before it comes up - the KS range has 'foaming' cleansers - the Gentle one is SLS-free)

Some of my favourites:

Line Release Eye Cream - beautiful, beautiful, beautiful product. Over 30/35? This is for you.

Deep Tissue Repair - plumps, rehydrates, smooths wrinkles - lush.

Oil Free Moisturiser - water-based, brilliant hydrating - the Gold Standard of moisturiser for the truly oily skins.

1.7 oz

Nourish Daily Moisturiser - pretty much a perfect 'go-to' staple for everyone. And another great thing about the KS brand? They make Luxury (salon) sizes available to the public like this:

5 oz

..with a proper value saving.

And finally:

When in doubt 'go Goat'. This is listed as for dry/sensitive but is also brilliant for acne. Everyone I recommend this to loves it. Literally.

As an aside - I am frequently asked for book recommendations on skin (blog post coming) etc - this one is very good:

It'll cost you less than £20 - stick it in your basket before you checkout.

Welcome back!

www.katesomerville.com