Good morning... hope you had a lovely weekend

Hope you had a lovely weekend everyone.

I spent it exploring some amazing food (who knew, right?!) in Columbus, OH (more to come in case you ever find yourself there), starting and finishing The Little Pink Book of Elegance, Better Than Beauty and Bringing Up Bebe (or French Children Don't Throw Food) on my awesome Kindle Fire, re-discovering my Yuroll jade roller and sleeping in very late. All in all, very enjoyable. And my best friend's baby (the friend/baby were the reason for my Columbus visit) is adorable -- a 12 week-old bundle of pure zen, sweet-smelling, smiling joy. 

[Original image from the fabulous Oscar PR Girl.]

BEAUTY OP-ED | Do salon names bother you?

THEY. RILE. me.

Mind, not all of them. Just the really SHIT ones.

How do I know when one's shit?

If you're instincts fail you, then we have some tips to help along your powers of observation.

That said, if you need such hand-holding to spot shit salon names, your taste is probably questionable at best anyway. Bitter pill, I know. The upside is you probably won't be as offended. 

What's the secret?

Basically, a clever business owner decides to work some hair-related word into a common idiom or phrase. Surely you've all cringed at the sight of a salon called something like Hair Apparent or Mane Appeal?

Thought so.

My personal favourite is when said owner decides a generic name/phrase that's been intentionally misspelled will make their formerly hum-drum name suddenly appear unique.

Sure does. In that you have MISSPELLED it. Nail Tyme isn't any more appealing to me than Nail Time. On the contrary.

I would blame THIS EVIL WEBSITE if I thought anyone used it. Holy shit, it's awful. Or wonderful. Wonderfully awful?

Better even than the name suggestions is the story after the fold. Pure gold, that.

What's the worst you've seen?

TRAVEL TALES | Another Kiwi (thought not necessarily beauty) brand

B_E_E LOVED, kind, clean and good? Call me a hippie, but that sounds like fun to me.

Beauty Engineered forEver is another Kiwi beauty brand (sorry for missing you the first time) that lives up to the green credentials and ethos that so many other New Zealand beauty (and otherwise) brands seem to inherently embrace. Made from natural ingrdients that are safe and gentle and meet the most stringent global standards set for eco products. They want to make stuff that's efficient and beautiful and green.

I love this blurb: "B_E_E is from here. Very New Zealand, in ideas, ingredients and inspiration that could only come from our place. Made with the belief that New Zealanders like to make things better.....better than just about anyone else. We're from a part of the world that can change the world. So that`s what we`re going to do."

And they're as quirky as Bliss and Soap & Glory. Like a slightly Method products would be with a couple drinks in 'em, right?

The range includes laundry liquid, laundry powder, delicate fabric wash, multi-surface cleaner, dishwash liquid and whitener.

Check out B_E_E and our other lists of New Zealand beauty brands here and here.