LUST-HAVE | Filorga at House of Fraser

STORES AND boutiques have made it their business in recent years to stock the best beauty brands and products from around the world. No more waiting until you next travel to France or New York to stock up on your local favourites. You can get them anywhere, including the high street, which wasn't a reality just afew years back.

From Bluebird on King's Road to Content Beauty/Wellbeing in Marylebone, Beauty Cube in Spain or even, yes, House of Fraser, you can get your mitts on exotic beauty goods. In fact, House of Fraser have just rolled out their Apothecary concept in Glasgow, soon to be launched throughout the rest of the UK. They're stocking a private label Apothecary brand that's as gorgeous as any high-end brand out there (including a gorgeous 20 quid candle). Plus, they're carrying brands from far-flung destinations like Hei-She, Hissyfit, Pure by Mary Greenwell, Deborah Lippman, Electric Body, Slendertone, Rosebud, Trilogy, Bliss, Body America, Cereria Terenzi, Banana Republic, Gentry Grooming, Perricone MD and more.

My favourite new brand so far? French lable Filorga. The brand has made injectable cosmetic products for over 30 years and have now brought topical treatments made from the same high concentration active ingredients -- 55+1 to be exact. And they're traditionally used in mesotherapy treatments. Trust the French to bring us such products. They love their 'little' injectables and they love their skincare. Us? It's the slap, to cover up all those skincare transgressions and lazy habits. Whoops. Time to change that, no?

According to the press release, the range employs a patented core formula of hyaluronic Acid and NCTF , and those active ingredients really are identical to the ones injected in mesotherapy.

What else does the press release say? That the range uses a Hyaluronic Acid (HA) with high molecular weight and that "the complete anti-ageing efficiency of the 55+1 (NCTF + that Hyaluronic Acid) ingredients has been proven by a number of studies carried out by an independant molecular and
cellular pharmacology research centre: Stimulation of cellular growth, (+147 %)*, Anti-radical protection, (+90 %)*, Collagenic re-densification, (+256%)*, Slow down of dermal rigidification, (+366%)*

(*series of studies conducted by an independent research laboratory specialised in molecular and cellular pharmacology.)

So that's a bit more science backing up the products than Rodial and their Boob Job, eh? However, not being of a science background I can't verify the validity of their studies but the history of the brand suggests that they take their clinicals seriously.

What do I think? That I saw an instant change in my skin tone and texture when I started using the Filogra Absolute Anti-Ageing Serum, made of 100 ingredients (67% active), including the 55+1 medley, retinol and DNA. How DNA helps the skin, I cannot explain, but the product details state that it is anti-oxidant, moisturising and reactivates fibroblasts.

Since using it, my rosacea has been less rosy (no doubt helped by the Alpha H I've been using in tandem. More on that later), the fine lines under my eyes and on my forehead are dimished and my skin looks more even. Many anti-ageing serums really irritate my skin. I'm not sure if it's the fragrance or if they're meant to do so to inflame the skin and make it look smoother (completely counter-productive) but I have trialled a load and ditched them after a week or so because I simply can't take the way my skin breaks out, turns red and feels uncomfortable.

The texture is less viscous than many serums, having a thicker texture. If you have dry skin, you won't be able to use it alone (like me).

My conclusions: It's in my repeat buy pile for the forseeable future because of the immediate and lasting results in skin texture, fine lines and lack of irritation I've experienced with it.

Filorga Meso+ Absolute Anti-Ageing Serum (£55.00 for 30ml)

French organic skincare from Melvita | Sponsored post

I WANT young skin. Don't we all? But it's a fact that the one thing we're not getting as we age is younger (don't believe the commercials!). That said, you can give good skin even as it matures over the years, genes and nature be damned. Sometimes it seems we can't be bothered to put in the ground work to keep it in top form though.

Which brings me to the streak of all things French that I've been on lately. My eyes have been re-opened to the military precision with which French women are rumoured to attack their daily skincare regime. A recent Mintel study stating that French women spend more on their skincare than their European sisters – by a lot – isn't surprising. Sure, they discreetly dabble with the old jab of Juvederm later in life, but, true to the stereotype, their skin seems to age better (with and without cosmetic surgery) than that of their US and UK counterparts, if my eye-witness, anecdotal evidence – and spate of articles (New York Times et al) – has anything to say about it.

So when France's top-selling organic (ECOCERT) beauty brand Melvita (owned by L'Occitane) was rumoured to be coming to both the US and UK, I nearly melted into an agitated puddle of anticipation. Melvita (honey + life for the linguists out there) is now in standalone shops in the US (San Francisco, Seattle and Newport Beach, Manhattan (opening winter 2010)) and available most readily at Whole Foods and John Lewis in the UK.

Founder and Biologist Bernard Chevilliat started his career in beauty as a beekeeper, much like Burt Shavitz of Burt's Bees. Re-locating to south-central France in the late 1970s, he started an apiary that ended up several hundred hives large. They made honeycombed soap from the bee byproducts and, what do you know, it snowballed into a range of certified organic skin care products like skincare, bodycare, fragrance, plant oils, floral waters and haircare that use ethically sourced and harvest ingredients (full ingredient lists are featured online) to do everything from fight acne to clean baby and fight the ravages of time.

To paraphrase a well-known saying – an ounce of preventative (in this case organic) skincare is certainly worth a pound of facial fillers later.

Learn more about Melvita

A day in the life

Editing post on London's Spa Verta, wrote a piece on sleep and sent a pitch to them.

Reading a new favourite blog find and an amazing standby. Clearly lusting after a bit of fall in Paris today, aren't we?

Sipping a detox tisane because my head hurts a bit as last night...

I had two bubbly cocktails sat out here before going to see this guy live here... and then two lagers once inside. Yipes.

Admiring these illustrations and have trialled this and this but had to wash off both with this before leaving the house because it's just midday.