PoppyD.com

  • About
  • Work With Me
  • Press
  • FAQ
  • Twitter
  • YOUTUBE
  • Disclosure
  • Contact

My new house finally smells like home…

August 7, 2014 By Poppy Dinsey Leave a Comment

I caught up with a friend at the weekend who moved house around the same time that we did and she said something that really resonated: “it definitely feels like home now, the smell of the old owners has gone and it finally smells like us.”
The house didn’t ‘smell’ before of course, but I knew exactly what she meant. Whether it’s the flowers we favour or even something as simple as our choice of laundry detergent, people’s homes have their own certain scent about them.
Since we moved in April (I wrote about the stressful process here), I’ve been on a mission to make our new home smell AMAZING. Unfortunately though, I seem to have the world’s fussiest nose and tend to despise nearly every single air freshener, candle or bowl of humble pot pourri that I come across. I’ll never understand the appeal of chemically fake sugary scents. I love cake, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t want my bathroom to smell like a bakery.
My favourite scents are woody and green, with my very favourite home scent being fig, but even that seems to be tricky to track down in a formulation that meets my ridiculous requirements. If I don’t want to bankrupt myself sticking solely to Diptyque, that is.
I’ve tried reed diffusers from 10 or so brands and I have finally found an affordable favourite – Fig Luxury Perfume Room Diffuser by Parks. (Pictured above). It’s currently on Amazon for £29.99 but I bought mine for less than a tenner each from TK Maxx. I stockpiled these when they were on sale, so I have this diffuser in most rooms and a few back-up ones still in their boxes in the kitchen cupboard. (Obsessed much?!).
Reed diffusers are great because they really do fill the room with fragrance (remember to turn the sticks each week) unlike candles which usually need to be lit to really scent a room of any size.
If money was no object I’d invest in Diptyque’s beautiful electric diffuser – ‘Un Air de Diptyque’ (£240) – and have my home smell of their Figuier scent all day long, but for now it’s just my wardrobe getting the Diptyque treatment.
Scenting a wardrobe may not seem like the world’s most obvious thing to do, but as wardrobes are confined spaces they’re really easy to scent and doing so comes with the added bonus of bringing a smile to your face every time you open the doors and deliberate over what to wear.
In one of my wardrobes I have Diptyque’s Figuier Scented Oval (£32)…

…and in the other I have Diptyque’s 34 Boulevard Saint Germain Scented Oval (£34).

34 is a truly captivating scent, it has notes of sun-dried fig leaves (biased, moi?!), damp mosses and crumpled blackcurrant leaves. It’s delicious.
You’d be forgiven for thinking candles would be an unnecessary addition with all of the above in place (ahem), but I do like to have candles by my desk, in the bedrooms and in the lounge. I don’t understand fragrance combining enough to light multiple scented candles at once, so I usually light lots of unscented candles and just one scented one.
Click here to continue reading my original post on MSN and see which candles I’m obsessed with…

Filed Under: MSN

My holiday beauty favourites…

August 5, 2014 By Poppy Dinsey 1 Comment

I just got back from a rather perfect holiday in Mallorca. In fact, the only bit that wasn’t perfect was the slight nervous breakdown I had the morning of our flight as I wrestled with what to pack.
My fiancé and I choose to share a suitcase when we go away to save on checked luggage fees, but I’m pretty certain the agro isn’t worth the saved cash. And it DEFINITELY isn’t worth the mini breakdown I am guaranteed to have in the bathroom as I choose between moisturisers as if they’re my own children.
When it comes to ‘basic skincare’, my packing doesn’t really deviate. I pack all the products that I use for mymorning routine and evening routine any day of the week. So that bit is easy – albeit worryingly heavy and bulky (why do I never get around to dispensing everything into smaller containers?!) – it’s just the ‘holiday extras’ that get me all hot and bothered.
SPF, holiday hair nightmare prevention tools, after sun, bikini body nonsense.
THERE’S TOO MUCH TO REMEMBER.
Luckily though, I seemed to pack the perfect storm of products this year. And it would be rude not to share, right?

Holiday nails always excite me and I am 100% convinced that a gel mani is the only way forward for holidays. I chose to get a ridiculous neon orange Jessica GELeration colour before I left and three weeks later it is still completely chip free. Normal polishes fade so quickly when in the pool and sand all day long, so at least with gels you don’t have to worry about touching up whilst away. I did my own pedi though and wore standard polish – O.P.I’s ‘My Chihuahua Bites’ (£11.95) has become my go-to holiday colour since first discovering it in the Bahamas last year.

I always, always try to keep minis, magazine freebies and sachets aside for holiday travels. These REN goodies were the ideal size for my suitcase, with everything from lip balm to shower gel to cleanser in one handy pouch.

I knew I wanted to REALLY protect my face from the sun, so whilst I was using any old factor 20 on my bod, I made sure it was a slightly more swanky SPF50 for my face. I’ve long been on the quest for a good SPF50 facial cream that doesn’t clog pores or leave me feeling generally disgusting – and I’ve finally found it! Sk:n’s SPF50 sunscreen(£18) kept my skin protected and I didn’t get even a tinge of pink on my face. It did feel thick to apply, but that’s because SPF50 is pretty heavy duty stuff. I am so pleased that this cream didn’t leave me spotty. (But I was religious about double cleansing when I returned from the sun, as well as before bed at the end of the night).

Hair needs protecting from the sun too, which is all too easy to forget. label.m’s Protein Spray (£13.25) is my fave summer hair product year on year and I sprayed this all over my locks religiously each morning. As well as offering heat and sun protection, it smells like hair heaven.
The blue gel that I actually bothered to decant into a smaller bottle (shock horror!) was Nivea’s Q10 Plus Goodbye Cellulite Gel-Cream (£10.89). I slathered this on my thighs each morning as some sort of “please let this undo the last six months of overindulgence” prayer to the cellulite gods. It’s not a miracle in a bottle, but it does make a noticeable difference and I can’t imagine donning a bikini without it.
Aesop’s Damascan Rose Facial Treatment (£51) also made the packing list as a bedtime boost. Can you tell I was obsessed with keeping my face as hydrated as possible on this holiday?! I can’t recommend this night oil more highly.
Click here to continue reading my original post on MSN to see what else I packed!

Filed Under: Beauty, MSN, Travel

Party with Andy Jordan? Yes please.

June 19, 2014 By Poppy Dinsey Leave a Comment

Ok, this is where I confess that I do not watch Made in Chelsea. I KNOW.
If Twitter is anything to go by on the nights that MIC is broadcast, I am quite possibly the only person in the UK who isn’t constantly obsessed by Spencer’s antics. I do know the characters though (it’s pretty hard not to when they’re in every mag going!) and I have had the pleasure of working with a few of the cast at various fashion events. I very narrowly avoided being in one episode when they filmed at London Fashion Week last season. Awkies. I think it’s best for everyone that I don’t gatecrash such important cinematic moments!
MIC heart-throb (yep, I’m using the word ‘heart-throb’…run with it) Andy Jordan isn’t just known for his TV antics though, he has his own clothing line – Jam Industries – with his brother Mark Jordan and he’s breaking into music with a UK tour this summer and perhaps the world’s catchiest single – Geography.
So when I was working with new fashion start-up Grabble on planning a party at the Hoxton Hotel to celebrate all things online fashion, we made it our mission to get Andy along to the party to perform and show off his clothing line.
Luckily for us, he accepted the invite!

It was a ruddy raucous night, with more than 150 fashion bloggers turning up to celebrate Grabble’s new makeover and catch up over a cocktail (or five!) as Andy serenaded us all.

Beer pong featured very heavily on the night. You’d be surprised just how competitive bloggers can be when it comes to beer pong!

Click to continue reading my original post on MSN, you’ll get to see a 7ft tall latex lady if you do! (Is that tempting?! I’m not sure!)

 

Filed Under: Fashion, MSN

My bedside table beauty regime…

June 12, 2014 By Poppy Dinsey Leave a Comment

One of the things I was most excited about when I moved house recently was upgrading to a bedroom that had space for bedside tables. It sounds trivial, but there was a serious level of anticipation around FINALLY being able to have somewhere to rest a book or, if we were feeling really flash, a bedside lamp.

Two full drawers to myself?! Whatever would I do with so much bedside space? Needless to say it got filled with trashy mags and PJs very quickly, but I also saved some space for beauty bits.
I am very bad at remembering certain elements of beauty regimes. The stuff that isn’t right here right now important (like covering up dark circles with heaps of concealer) can often get neglected. The products that have made it to my bedside table are there so that I remember to use them immediately on waking and/or just before going to bed. They’re impossible to forget because they’re RIGHT THERE, just begging to be used.
Here are the five things that made the cut…

Ameliorate Body Lotion – £27.50

Do you remember the post I wrote about my dreaded ‘chicken skin’ arms a few weeks ago? Well this brand-new product is set to banish the skin condition that causes that bumpy fugliness – keratosis pilaris. It’s a patent-pending formulation that “combines optimum levels of lactic acid, with a unique multi-active skincare complex of natural ingredients”. These ingredients nurture and condition, encouraging the skin’s natural exfoliation process which, in turn, helps to retexturise rough, dry, bumpy skin. I’ve been using it twice a day for a few weeks now and regardless of the positive results, I love the smell and texture of this cream. If I like using a product I will use it more, so that helps as you’re advised to use this twice a day. My arms are really improving, so it will definitely be repurchased when it runs out.

Buy it here.

E45 Nourish & Restore Lotion – £4.85

As much as I love a fruity, sugary, coconutty moisturiser, I prefer to leave my day-to-day skin health to the experts and use something more proper and sciencey for optimum hydration. I’ll use something more fun on holiday or as ‘a treat’, but day-to-day there are few brands you can trust like E45. This cream is very lightweight and absorbs beautifully, making it the perfect fuss-free daily moisturiser. If you hate body butters (come on, I can’t be the only one?!) then this is the no-frills ‘does what it says on the bottle’ cream your skin has been waiting for. I put it on first thing and just before getting into bed, it absorbs so quickly that it’s not annoying under the sheets.
Continue reading my original post on MSN to see which other products made the cut.

Filed Under: Beauty, MSN

Learning to walk (or sail?!) like an Egyptian…

June 11, 2014 By Poppy Dinsey Leave a Comment

If you’ve read Poppy’s World for a while then you may remember that at the end of last yearI went on my first cruise. Cruising is usually associated with sunshine and lazing about on deck, but my experience was a snowy one as we set sail to Bruges for the Christmas markets. The Caribbean it was not!

I said back then though that I’d definitely give life on the water a go again, so probably the most polar opposite cruise I could take would be a Nile cruise, right?!

Just look at that weather forecast for a start!

I don’t think there are many people who haven’t been fascinated by the idea of travelling to Egypt at some point. We all learn about the pyramids, mummies and pharaohs at school (I wanted Tutankhamun to be my boyfriend and genuinely thought this could be achieved) but no matter how old you are it’s pretty mind-blowing to think ancient Egypt actually ‘happened’, all the things we learned about as children were real….and a lot of them can still be seen today.
Of course, the Egyptian influence on fashion has been huge in recent years too. At one point you couldn’t buy a summer vest without some sort of hieroglyphic print (Illustrated People still have some ace ones) and there was the completely brilliant Topshop Unique SS12 collection…

I didn’t think I’d ever go to Egypt myself though, mostly because – if I’m honest – I hated the idea of seeing the sights with 20 trillion other tourists jostling past me. A 5,000-year-old temple can quickly lose its charm when bus loads of tourists are ‘following the flag’, trampling over your feet and enjoying everything solely through their viewfinders.
But Egypt isn’t packed to the rafters with tourists at the moment, quite the opposite in fact, so much so that some travel journos are saying now is the best time ever to go.
And so I did!

After feeling like a high roller as I withdrew my ‘big Egypt money’ (don’t get too excited, 100 Egyptian pounds is not much more than a tenner!) I found my travel buddies at Heathrow and we flew directly to Luxor with EgyptAir. It’s about 5.5 hours to get there, so easy enough.
We were headed for Red Sea Holidays’ MS Grand Rose and I have to admit that I had no idea what to expect really from a Nile cruise-boat. I knew it wouldn’t be a great big massive ship like the QM2, but I doubted it would be like the little riverboats my family would hire on the Norfolk Broads when I was eight, either. I was very pleasantly surprised by what greeted me though.
I would never have expected a standard room to be this plush on a BOAT!

I knew some fruit would be left in the room for us as our flight was so late that we missed dinner, but this went above and beyond 😀

I should point out now that Egyptian bread is THE BEST. Sorry Italy, France and all you other bready countries, but this bread was next level lovely.
Cruising on the Nile means early starts; it’s too hot in Luxor to see the sights after midday so you really need to be up and out first thing. We were having breakfast at 7am so we could get to the temples before it became unbearable. It’s HOT.

The best thing about this Nile cruise (except the food *ahem*) was that it came with guided tours included in the package. You really do need a guide (unless you happen to be an Egyptologist yourself, natch) or you won’t get the best out of the trip. The sights would still be impressive, but it certainly helps to know what you’re looking at!
We had a very knowledgeable guide called Hady looking after us and he took us to Karnak Temple first…

Karnak Temple is massive, even the small amount that is open to the public is hard to cover. Parts of it are over 5,000 years old and more than 30 pharaohs each made their own additions to the complex. It’s almost impossible to believe the detail of the ruins and the size of the place, and everywhere you look there’s something jaw-droppingly beautiful.

From there we visited Luxor Temple, which I think I preferred all in all…

The huge statues were intensely impressive…and gave me serious thigh envy!

I took the opportunity to do some ‘rubbing’ in the name of fertility…

And it seems I’m not the only one who has hoped the Egyptian gods will look down kindly upon them!!!

Hopefully it won’t work before my October wedding, although I do feel a bit sick today so I’m *slightly* paranoid it’s worked too well! A flashback to my Kate Middleton maternity fashion escapades?!
Click here to continue reading my original post on MSN and see what else I got up to…

Filed Under: MSN, Travel

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 12
  • Next Page »

Hello, is it me you’re looking for?

As seen in…

Press
Follow
blogging

Five things that have helped me fall back in love with blogging…

236951223alt2

Pram shopping for twins at A3 Baby Barn…

CARDkatie

23 things that made planning our wedding easier… (Part 2)

12 healthy vegetarian dinner ideas

12 healthy vegetarian dinner ideas…

ft imahe

Body Hair Week: Is the SmoothSkin Gold the best IPL at home device on the market?

beach

Beach body confidence and ditching the cellulite cream…

pill

A post about coming off the Pill…

COMENTS

Are blog comments dying out?

Baby Haul Thumb

Baby Equipment Haul!

PoppyD make-up bag

What’s in my every day make-up bag?

bloglovin

Instagrams

Categories