Posted by Lucy
on
14 October 2007

I confess I stalk the aisles of the personal care sections of health food stores, and I feel well rewarded when I discover an affordable product that works as well as Alba Botanica’s Sugar Cane Body Polish. It is like comfort food for dry skin. There is the high sugar and fat content (Hawaiian sugar cane juice, honey, kukui nut, macadamia nut and sunflower oils with vitamin E). And there are no unpronounceable or mysterious ingredients whatsoever.
Sugar Cane Body Polish’s large sugar granules are suspended in an rich, slushy base of sugar cane juice and nut oils. They dissolve slowly in a hot shower…
Posted by Lucy
on
22 September 2007

The old quiet, the old comfort of home. Not a sound but that of pattering rain in the still night. As always, the room smelt of lavender, blended with that indescribable fragrance which comes of extreme cleanliness in an old country house. (from Will Warburton by George Gissing)
Lavender has been somewhat over-exposed in mass market products, which far too often deliver only a symbolic representation of its true qualities. Making a flower water doesn’t take much time or effort and the results are more fragrant and effective…
Posted by Lucy
on
9 September 2007
On a summer evening cool enough to turn off the A/C and open the windows, or with evening rain dropping the temperature, I like to have the warm scent of perfumed candle burning while I am reading or writing. Taking advantage of summer's cool humidity to carry and magnify the fragrance, I can also use the flame to serve as a point of contemplation when stopping to look up and think from time to time. Then the perfume in the candle creates an atmosphere for my mind's fascination in the flame.
As is well known of the Annick Goutal house, each of the fragrances is inspired by a personal association or individual who has been closely connected to Annick Goutal, or now to her daughter, Camille, who continues this practice. Petite Chérie, inspired by Camille's emerging beauty as a teenager, is the one I have been using this summer…