Lazy Links

This was a rough week - frantic, tiring, and full of black clouds of gnats. Quite literally. So let's take a leisurely stroll 'round some lovely little things, and unwind for a quiet weekend. Don't forget to stop in at the comments and say hello! Tell us which literary hotel is your favorite. Do you take a good picture? Are you liberal or stingy with the SPF? More importantly, do you think if I bring a little appreciation card and a princess cake around to Florence Welch's house, she'll let me live there? Let's discuss below...

• An extremely useful and frighteningly detailed guide on how to apply mascara correctly.Unfortunately, it doesn't cover the old poke-yourself-in-eye-with-wand step which I can't seem to skip.

• Have a look around Florence Welch's gorgeous house. She is just the coolest, and so are her bookshelves.

• The lovely Garance Dore shares seven ways you can look better in photos. None of them work for me, but maybe you'll have more luck.

• Look at this fabulous list of literary hotels! I think I'll plan a little weekend at Thornfield Hall one of these days. Obviously doing a quick attic check first.

• Diptyque has come out with a jonquille candle, and I must have it. I go crazy for jonquil. Jonquil are kind of like narcissus, right? Narcissi? Oh never mind.

• This Swedish princess cake looks divine. I want it, and I want it now.

• This poor woman's body lotion set off airport security. If that's not an incentive to start buying greener, I don't know what is.

• The ever fabulous Beautymouth takes us through some idiot-proof SPF rules - timely, because the only time I ever burn is in the springtime. Thin air + strong sunlight = lobster shoulders and freckle moustaches.

• Aren't these random notes of appreciation adorable? Let's all stock up, and hand them out with gusto.

August Favorites - Lazy Summer Beauty

I don't know about you, but I get awfully lazy when it comes to beauty in the summer. A hint of sun on the skin and some healthy outdoor living, and I can just about forgo all the fuss so required in greyer months. Hair is left easy and undone - a spritzing of Surf Spray through damp locks leaves my straight, fine locks wavy and tousled with minimum effort. NARS brilliant new tinted moisturizer somehow covers imperfections thoroughly while leaving skin sheer and glowy - with a good helping of SPF included. A slick of juicy, pink Beach Tint dabbed on cheek bones leaves a healthy looking flush, and several lashings of Dr Hauschka's soft and simple mascara is the perfect natural-looking definition for my sensitive eyes. I love the deep shine and Aegean teal hue of Butter London's Slapper on toes - and accept that the name is alarmingly fitting, though somewhat accusatory. Shins and shoulders on show get a golden sheen from a few drops of Huile Prodigieuse, and a dab of Philosykos solid perfume on wrists and neck leave a light, fresh cloud of tart, green fig in your wake. 

How do you pare down your makeup routine in the dog days of summer? Any hero products? Share them below!

Diptyque Philosykos

The beauty of Diptyque's Philosykos lies in its simplicity - a vibrant, unique facsimile of a green fig. As someone who steers away from the gourmand and fruity scents, this was the most beautiful suprise when I first sampled it years ago - there's no jammy, sticky fruitiness - it's the green, dry, rough, almost unripe bounty of a sundrenched tree - a smell of resinous bark, the pulpy, pithy, creamy fruit, and the sunbaked rocky ground around it.

It's a green scent, absolutely, but there's no sharpness or acidity- it's sundappled and bright and soft, and transports me instantly to Durrell's wild Corfu. It's like a snapshot of a precise moment, and what a lovely moment it is. Some people detect a hint of coconut, and I do as well - but it's not a note so much as a texture - the rough, succulent outer of the green fig shares a shadow of a scent with the former.

Wearing Philosykos you're unlikely to ever be asked what your perfume is - it's too subtle and evocative to be instantly recognized as a synthetic fragrance - to me it suggests a feeling of place more than any other scent I've experienced, and smells its very best on salty, sunkissed skin. I tend to wear it in summer because of this, but I like to crack it open every so often in the depths of winter just to be transported to that grove of trees on the rocky hillside, the bright sun beating on my face, goat bells in the distance and the hot dust between my toes. Then I stopper it back up and go put my snowboots on, and slog through another winter, wondering why I don't just pack it all in and go raise honeybees and goats on a Greek island. I may yet.