Vampy Vampire Essentials!

The Paris Poodle would like to wish you all a very Happy Halloween! It's a great time to throw a party, loose your angelic inhibitions and let your inner demon come out to play! And what better way to start the ghoulish celebrations than with some blood red nails, heavy death black mascara and thirsty blood stained lips? Think extreme, exaggerated and excessive - think Thriller! This is the one opportunity to embrace being British or American (aka unashamedly seduced by over commercialised holidays) its Halloween for goodness sake - it’s supposed to be cringe worthily naff!

Having recently fallen in love with all of the Cullen’s (a secret I can only reveal on a day such as today) this Poodle insists that women everywhere dress as vampires this year - which essentially means that you have to look as beautiful, impeccable and pale as possible!

Here are some of the Poodles Halloween essentials:

Blood red nails

Guerlain's Terracotta Paduka Nail Varnish Kerala Sunset £16.00 is a deep glossy red which was formulated to be the perfect colour next to a golden tan. Being Halloween I recommend wearing this with a ghostly white complexion to emphasis your pale ghastliness. Ultra bright with a long lasting shine this nail varnish will keep your talons looking petrifyingly perfect long past midnight!

Deepest Black Mascara

BADgal Lash Mascara from Benefit Cosmetics has a rich formula that builds horrifyingly hot lashes that are irresistible, flirty and filthy! The extra big brush is oversized to help achieve a dramatic lash effect so you look like you have very big, white eyes -combine this with some heavy black eye shadow and you will be well on your way to hypnotizing your victims with your killer lashes!

Blood Thirsty Lip Stain

Urban Decay Lip Envy in Envious is a great gel based lip stain which as well as being very hydrating, and long lasting, it dries to a semi-matte inky crimson finish. I recommend building up several layers and powdering your lip line so that the lip stain sinks into your lips and creates that 'just drank a cup of blood' look that Bella Swan does so well. Scented with vanilla and made with green tea and ginkgo biloba extracts this lethal lip stain postures as an innocent gloss, when really it gives you the poisonous lips of a French femme fatale.

Halloween isn’t a big deal over here in gay Paris...tomorrow is Tous Saints which is a national holiday that celebrates the dead, which is basically Halloween repackaged - and being French Tous Saints sounds more somber and respectful and sophisticated. And you certainly won't catch anyone dressing up as pumpkins or zombies. Plus in true French fashion Tous Saints is a national holiday! Too bad it falls on a Sunday this year!

Beauty is Law

In Paris (if you are an immeuble) it’s illegal to be ugly, unsightly or anything less than perfect! Every 10 years all Paris immeubles (traditional style Paris apartments) have to have their exterior facades repainted and re-perfected, as commanded by law. If you fail to clean up your act (or immeuble) not only do you look worn and haggard you also have to pay up!

This doesn’t surprise the Paris Poodle; this is a city of culture, beauty, a city of art and fashion, la mode and l’amour, and in this town believe me- no one’s falling in love with you if you look like you haven’t cleaned up for 10 years!

It’s a cultural requirement of the Parisian femme to cover up the cracks, and rather than every ten years this happens every 10 hours or so... morning and night. Day creams, night creams, eye creams, gels, serums and masks, there are plenty of options to keep your facade looking fabulous, and here are some French beauty secrets which the Paris Poodle has so far discovered...

Guerlain Orchidée Imperial Exceptional Complete Care Serum £275
Wowowow! This one is expensive! But if a cream doesn’t work after spending 300 euros, the Paris Poodle always finds that you will convince yourself that it really does work nonetheless! The extravagantly titled Orchidée Imperial Exceptional Complete Care Serum, contains Orchide Imperial molecular extract which has skin strenghtening powers, to rehydrate and protect dry skin. This silky smooth serum leaves your skin feeling supple and smoother and looking younger with fine lines reduced after just one application. As with all Guerlain products this serum smells beautiful –(even their lipsticks are like shimmering lip fragrances) and easily absorbed this super serum is the ladies way to better skin. The beautiful glass bottle is a work of art in its own right and or at least you start thinking it is after forking out for it !

Mixa Soin de Jour et Nuit
Right down the budget end of the scale is Mixa, this brand is a French classic that makes loads of moisturisers creams and potions in large ml’ages for not much cash. Their body lotions are great bathroom standards that have featured on every French persons bathroom shelf since I started visiting France many years ago. The day and night face creams from Mixa are suitable for all skin types – even really sensitive skin and are the non cash flashy way to care for your skin on a shoestring. The Mixa Expert Soins de Jour Revitalisant Fermete creme and the Mixa Soin de Nuit Régénérant Fermeté creme work in harmony together with a complementary vitamin complex of vitamin H and vitamin C. They stimulate collegan production throughout the day and night to ensure your skin is well hydrated – which in turn means wrinkles or ‘rides’ as they call them in France, are much less visible - And from 10 euros each this isn’t a bad price.

L’Occitane Immortelle Cream Mask £38.50

The Imortelle range from L’Occitane uses an extracted oil from the Immortelle flower which has anti wrinkle properties. This Poodle loves a rich blend of essential oils and really believes they can improve your skin overnight! The Immortelle Cream Mask is rich in essential oils and although it doesn’t make you immortelle, it does deeply replenish your skin. With restructuring vitamin A and E it protects your skin from the elements even on the coldest of days! A great winter essential this crème mask will certainly leave your skin in better condition, the only downside is the fragrance which is rather too old fashioned for a Poodle of my youngish years.

Smashbox Photo Finish Foundation Primer from £26.50
Although not French in any shape or form the Smashbox make up primer really does leave your skin feeling smoother than freshly spun silk. Apply just a teeny amount of this each morning before applying your make up foundation and this will instantly make your skin feel and look smoother, softer and perfected. Formulated with vitamins A and E this primer is the rescue remedy for skin tone casualties everywhere! Thanks to grape seed extract this primer is like smoothing liquid pixie dust onto your skin, the velvet texture is incredibly smooth but leaves a flawless matt finish whilst the antioxidant green tea extract helps protect your skin from damaging free radicals.

Let the Poodle know what your anti facade cracking favourites are! Post me a comment ...

The Non French Sourire (Smile)

The French aren’t too kind to their teeth! With their black coffee, cigarette chain smoking, decadent red wine drinking and black tea habits, I imagine the dentists over here make a killing! Brown stained, discoloured teeth are byproducts of being French –almost a prized possession- serving as proof of your hedonism and sheer French-ness, your fearlessness (when it comes to strong espressos), and your colourful social life whereby you smoke numerous cigerettes on roof top terraces across Paris, whilst discussing politics, sex and the latest Lacroix collection.

As a Paris Poodle I have already had to subject my pearly whites to such offending substances- just to feel like I am at least trying to fit in! Last week as I took my strong black tea to my lips with my French friends watching intently I realised that this was a part of my French flat share initiation. Followed by 3 nights of red wine drinking and I was starting to worry – a quick oral inspection and I was sure that the colour was just a little less sparkling white than before! Action was needed!

Although us Brits aren’t too well known for our nashers I feel it my Paris Poodle duty to look after my smile and at least have white teeth, even if they aren’t perfectly aligned. A simple smile can make you look a thousand times more beautiful and it’s a thousand times more useful for getting help/your own way/another drink, than a mouthful of yellow tombstones!

To keep my smile looking pristine and sparkling, to the extent that the Olsen twins would be jealous, I rely on some super teeth whitening products – which really should take off in France, soon. I hope. These are my personal Poodle beauty secrets – as I believe there is nothing more beautiful than a great smile (well maybe David Beckham’s Calvin Klein advert...or even Paco Rabannes Black XS perfume)...so here are my favourite buys for a set of glistening, gleaming, gorgeous white gnashers...

Beverly Hills Whitening Toothpaste (from £3.49 at most supermarkets or pharmacies) Of all the teeth whitening toothpastes out there this is the Poodle’s choice – its unashamedly American marketing, promises ‘Teeth so white’, its Hollywood promise of ‘total whitening’ is irresistible when sat beside the Colgate equivalent in the toothpaste aisle at Superdrug– its so much more girly and so much more fabulous! This is Beverly Hills Formula darling- and who has discoloured teeth over there? Nobody darling! Just the nobodies!

Crest Whitening Strips £34.98 – http://www.crestwhitestrips.co.uk/ These whitening strips are the sure fire way to have sparkling white teeth and they do really work. The strips are soft tape pieces which have a gluey gel on one side – there are strips for your top nashers and for your bottom nashers (upper and lower), you fold the strips over your teeth and leave on for 30 minutes. During this time frame you can talk with an entertaining lisp, but are forbidden to eat or drink anything- unless you want to swallow the strips. The gel itself has a sweet minty taste so although it is tempting it might not be a great idea as the gel contains 10% hydrogen peroxide. This chemical concoction is the magic ingredient to whiter brighter teeth. You can buy the strips in 7, 14 or 21 day sets (where you use the strips each morning and night) and I find that even after one set of strips your teeth are already looking more red-carpet-worthy. These are such good value, you can have them every few months, or as often as you wish, to make sure your teeth are always gleaming.

Pearl Drops Instant White Brush On Veneer £7.99 Although somewhat gimmicky I confess I was a total sucker to try this and then I just fell in love with it. The Instant White Brush On Veneer from Pearl Drops “gives you a dazzling white smile in seconds! In just one coat, you can transform your smile.” So say Pearl Drops themselves- and they would know! They made it! Although painting each individual tootth with this gel is somewhat inconvenient and vain, the gel itself has a touch of glitter so that in photos you can have a real sparkle to your smile! That’s right – glitter – on your teeth! It’s so teenage that this is my favourite novelty product in my make up bag – I mean it’s so ridiculously silly that simply wearing it is enough to make you smile all night! I also recommend, if you have a good half hour to spare, to use their online Tooth Whitener where you can upload photos of yourself to whiten your teeth and retouch your make up before posting to facebook - http://www.pearldrops.co.uk/tooth-whitener.php - as Crest say;

“people with whiter teeth appear more confident, are more likely to be hired for jobs and even get better dates”

Perhaps I’d better not tell France about this! After all if they had bright white teeth they really wouldn’t really be French anymore!

Addicted to chocolate in more ways than one!

Food, taste, pleasure. These are, in the correct order I believe, the 3 most important preoccupations of the French nation. I found these three vital elements deliciously combined at the Salon du Chocolate exhibition in Porte Versailles last week. This annual event has become somewhat of an obsession for the chocolate lovers of the world, and as a fellow chocoholic it was only fitting that I went along to discover more.
I had rather hoped that the Salon du Chocolate would have its own Hansel and Gretel style house of chocolate, cake and ginger bread, but sadly no.

However, the Salon du Chocolate was deliciously like entering a small chocolate shopping centre where all the vendors are keen to give you free samples of their sugary creations. Along with demonstrations of how to make chocolate cakes, macaroons and the like, there was also a chocolate fashion show where models (who clearly never touch the stuff) were wearing outfits created by renowned chocolatiers in collaboration with French fashion designers (including Thierry Muglar, Agatha Ruiz de la Prada and Jean Doucet). This delicious défilé was held in aid of the charity ‘La Voix de l’Enfant” to raise chocolate supplies and funds for under-privileged children (http://www.lavoixdelenfant.org/).

As well as the fashion show there were stands upon stands of chocolates all beautifully presented! At times I couldn’t tell if the chocolates were too perfect delicacies or lip glosses, eye shadows or compacts, either way they were too beautiful to eat!

The chocs and macaroons at Pâtisserie Sadaharu Aoki looked beautifully delicious!

The Salon du Chocolat also had a small section for makeovers by professional makeup artists along with a small stand from Palmers cosmetics which had joined in on the chocolate affair because of its cocoa butter content! This got me to thinking about how chocolate can be pleasurable in multiple ways...

Aside from being rich in antioxidants, highly addictive caffeine and sugar, cocoa butter has great skin softening properties hence its explosion into the cosmetics industry. I have to confess however, that previously I have found chocolate inspired beauty products disappointing – for me they smell too much like the real thing, your taste buds get overexcited, your mouth waters, only to be disappointed when the chocolaty substance ends up being used as a shampoo/moisturiser/face mask!

However, amongst my beautification adventures I have found some delightful chocolate inspired products which have a whiff of creamy deliciousness but remain firmly in the cosmetics side of aromas. Mixing food and beauty products to the degree that you can’t tell which is which is never a good idea! Take LUSH for example – are you supposed to eat their Heavenly Buttercream (£3.87) with chocolate flakes and cocoa absolute or use it in the shower for soft and silky skin?? LUSH say that with its cocoa and vanilla absolute and sweet orange essential oils it will make your “skin detox feel like a wash with a chocolate orange cheesecake” – eurgh! The Poodle apologises but I would rather eat a cheese cake and wash with shower gel! But no, there are some choctastic creams and lotions and potions that do the chocolate theme with a bit more cleverness and a bit more class.

Take Palmers Cocoa Butter Body Lotion for example. A classic well priced moisturiser which not only blends cocoa butter to a sexy smooth aroma but also smoothes away stretch marks and tones the skin. Any pregnant woman I know is always equipped with 2 bottles of this in the cupboard (along with much Bio-Oil) to prepare for the baby bulge! And at from only £3.50 it would be rude not to try it hein?

Another Palmers must have is something I discovered at the Salon du Chocolat itself –Palmers Dark Chocolate and Mint Lip Butter (£2.75). Rather than being buttery as the name suggests, this tube of gloss makes your lips feel silky smooth and the fresh smell tricks you into thinking that you have just enjoyed several boxes of After Eight Mints! It is destined to make men’s heads turn as you waft past and will give you just THE sweetest kisses!

As previously discussed this Paris Poodle has tried practically all of the fake tan options available to pale skinned beings and Diana B’s Miracle Tan from the states has not escaped my realm. Scented with chocolate truffle (better than the usual biscuit scent!) and the same colour too, this fake tan promises to tan you in 1 minute! The colour it gives you is subtle and natural looking but the way to achieve this colour is somewhat unusual, but ultimately practical. You apply it when you are in the shower, rubbing the foam onto your wet skin which activates the ‘sugar protein’ that gives you a ‘sunless tan’. Cover yourself in the chocolaty foam and wait 60 seconds until you rinse off. It is suitable for all skin types too but it’s MESSY! Really MESSY! The Poodle recommends emptying the shower room of all towels/clothes/dressing gowns as this stuff really does go everywhere – which means that once you have used it you can also give the bathroom a thorough clean too – that’s what I call multi tasking beauty!

Last but not least Liz Earle Naturally Active Skincare for Men has also used cocoa butter in their range – perhaps that’s why the range is a nice shade of truffle! The Men’s Cleanse & Polish as well as the Men’s Face Scrub both contain cocoa butter, the scrub is also contains pumice for extra gritty exfoliation – the perfect natural scrub for really manly metrosexuals who prefer to exfoliate with the hard stuff to have baby soft skin! All thanks to cocoa butter!

The Secret Math of the Famous French Figure

It’s a Paris Poodle duty to discover the well kept secrets and rituals that only French women know to render them so irresistibly effortlessly sexy – another of my duties is to find a concrete, semi scientific reason why French women can stay so rakish whilst simultaneously having Europe’s highest baguette count?...

Here are my findings so far...

(0 Gym + 0 work out video) – exertion of any kind = Tiny, toned, slim French Mademoiselles

All across the nation, from Nice to Nantes, French women don’t exercise, they aren’t seen in high numbers jogging in local parks, the Ministry of Sound work out DVDs are frowned upon (perhaps rightly so!), and they certainly don’t go to the gym! Gyms hardly even exist over here and when they do they are painfully expensive and are seen as sweaty work houses – the type of place a jeune fille française or ‘Madame de’ doesn’t belong...

After only a few weeks, already I have been to half the underwear shops in Rue de Rennes, Place d’Italie and Les Gobelins with my effortlessly sex kittenish French flat mates who see underwear window shopping, as normal a past time as running, aerobics or painting ones nails....
This strictly French phenomena of lusting after costly lingerie as a means of relaxation is certainly seductive. Just picturing the female form in various combinations of silk, satin and lace not only makes you feel super feminine and whole heartedly glad that as a member of the female race you can wear such flirtatious clothing, but it also has the added advantage of suppressing the appetite. It has become clear to this Paris Poodle that Lingerie Lust is a national female sport -welcome to the French workout - the typically français way to be fabulously slim!

As I wondered the shelves and rails of Soleil et Sucre, Aubade and Etam, meandering the Parisian streets with my always too heavy, always trop des choses handbag to ‘se detendre’ (unwind) amongst the French knickers and lace bras of the top underwear designers I began to believe that it is the perfect way to stay toned and commit to a low calorie diet so that one can wear such tiny frivolous creations. This regime is best practiced twice a week (with a heavy handbag/small child or some other weight) with a daily half hour round trip to the bakery and back to pick up 2 baguettes – one for ce soir and one for the morning of course!

The Paris Poodle has come to believe that French baguettes have slimming powers – even the tiniest scraps of French ladies insist upon thrice daily portions of bread baguettes with heart stopping quantities of butter! It truly is a marvel. Perhaps I will simply surround myself with lithe French girls until some of their weight gaining defences become mine by the power of osmosis.

So, from these results the Paris Poodle can conclude that; Baguettes + Butter x Lingerie Shopping= Size 0

Although not strictly exercise related, even my little French bathroom has not escaped the French love of les fasses (buttocks). It has been decorated in a haphazard style with various lingerie adverts. As I sit on the loo to ‘faire pipi’ I am affronted by two perfectly peachy arse cheeks and just to my left generous cleavage greets me wearing a lacy creation. Perhaps it’s just my flat mates but I like to think that it’s the French nation that is unashamedly fascinated by the female form, its curves and shapes.

As long as women are women they will competitively try to out slim and out sexify each other. Since arriving here I have had to find new alternative ways to feel my normal taille - in this city my slim size 10 is practically monstrous amongst the size zerolites that inhabit Paris en masse. As a Paris Poodle I have resolved to up my handbag weight by 2 kilos, my baguette intake to 3 a day, my lingerie lusting to 4 times a week and a monthly tour of the Champs Elysees to exercise my credit cards! You should try it too! It’s so much more elegant than the perspiration humiliation of the gym- je t’assure. Vive la France!

France says NO to fake tan

I personally have been a fake tan user for many (embaressingly streaky) years. Once after an authentic French kiss at a wedding in Normandy I remember the horrific moment that my French amour whispered in my ear ‘tu est très charmant, mon petit orange’... and it suddenly became clear to me that the French don’t do fake. Be it tan, boobs or handbags.
Quelle dileme! For years I have lived life a more intense shade of me, having sampled every instant tanner, religiously faked it with mousses, gels, creams and sprays, even concocting my own home made melanges of L’Oreal Sublime Bronze Tinted Gel with the L’Oreal Nutri-Summer Daily Moisturiser, to spray on salon tans... now I am to pooddle in Paris I have had to ask myself, I may have, finally, reached the end of the (orange) line. There is no more fake tan can do for me, or I for it, and having now taken up residence as Paris Poodle, I refuse to be anyone’s "petit orange" again!

It may be Autumn now, but every so often the Paris Poodle is invited to a special occasion that warrants a healthy glow. An autumn wedding, a special birthday or reunion or the like, and seeing as any photographs could serve as a lifelong reminder of one’s pallid sickly skin tone, just once and again it the Poodle fake tans or autobronzes – (which sounds heaps more sophisticated!)

In Paris however, when it comes to being sun kissed, golden and gorgeous, the only name that springs to mind is that of the original sun goddess, Brigitte Bardot. The ultimate 1960’s advert for the natural suntan; her sexy spattering of freckles and a deep golden skin...One look at Mlle Bardot told a story of long summers lounging on the beach, swimming in the sea and wandering gloriously bare limbed in the heat of the sun.

After a rather malicious and ageist attack in the press, she has since become known as the ultimate anti advert for sun worshippers everywhere. Beware of each and every sunbeam, or the prune face will be your face-(quelle horreur!) and we haven’t even gone down the skin cancer route yet! Every Paris Poodle knows that to protect the skin is to perfect it.

And so these musings have lead me to the elusive question of how to achieve a healthy glow that is streak free, natural and acceptable to the anti fake wave in France...

In a dramatic step away from the hardcore overnight St Tropez Auto bronzant I have sniffed out some super subtle alternatives which can be kept in the bathroom cupboard whenever a hint of health is called; for...Introducing the new ‘its so real it must be fake’ line up...

1. The Paris Poodle loves Clarins all the more because all its packaging is in both english and french. At no. 1 is Clarins Delicious Self Tanning Cream, £19.09 or si vous preferez Clarins Creme Délicieuse Auto Bronzant! With extract of cocoa butter, it really does smell delicious! Although not as subtle as the rest of the tanners in this list it really does deliver a beautiful natural tan that is golden rather than tangoed. With a healthy dose of skin loving aloe vera this rich cream won't dry out your skin like some fake tans out there!

2. Dove Summer Glow Body Lotion for Fair To Normal Skin is a true bargain and a sure fire way to look a shade more bronzed, smell fruity and fresh, have smooth hydrated limbs and feel amazing about your own unique body shape! Despite Dove's valient efforts to use 'real women' to sell their potions, I only became curious to try this gradual tanner when I met beautiful blonde Swedish bombshell with a washboard stomach who swore by it! But the swede was real! Even if the tan wasn't! Besides Dove's £4.49 price is real enough for me! You can't go wrong with this - just apply once every other day!

3. Another of this Poodles' No.7 must have - (perhaps its because I get so many bloody vouchers) is thier No.7 Naturally Sunkissed Gradual Body Tan, £9.25 this daily moisturiser gradually builds a natural glow that is more green tea healthy than bling bling wealth. Not only does it give you a subtle colour it also leaves your skin irresistably smooth! 4. Finalement, if the idea of NOT fake tanning is totally abhorent then The California Tan Neutralizer is the must have product to banish the biscuity aroma with which all fellow fake tanners are familiar with! For only £14.99 this is a true bargain!

Fabulous French Fragrance

As well as their reputation for obtuse men, delicious cheeses and a penchant for smoking, the French are renowned for their noses, that is to say, their ability to create the most exquisite, world famous and incomparable landmark fragrances of all time. Chanel No. 5, Miss Dior, Shalimar, are all classic fragrances which are timeless as they are irresistible.
As any Paris Poodle knows, smelling divine is an essential part of your preening routine, as Coco Chanel rightfully said "A women who doesn't wear perfume has no future." Hard to hear but utterly true! And as a new resident of Paris, I thought it fitting to recap the classic French fragrances and list my favourite 3 french fragrance newcomers.

Chanel No. 5

The Mother of all fragrance, the only number associated with style, femininity and class, Chanel No.5 is sophistication in a bottle. Even though one bottle sells every 30 seconds this parfum has only become more iconic with time. Launched in 1921 this i s a parfum classic that has continued to captive, a parfum which has faciliated many costly advertisements with the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Nicole Kidman, Audrey Tatou and and a parfum which has graced the necks and wrists of the worlds most fabulous women for decades! Who could fail to fall in love with the romanticism of Chanel No.5?With a blend of floral top notes of ylang ylang and neroli, and less alluring sounding synthetic chain notes, this rich seductive scent has its mid notes of rose and jasmine and its base notes of sandalwood and vetvier to thank for its trademark associations of finesse and states of undress... I say take Chanels advice and wear this classic "wherever [you] expect to be kissed."

L’air du Temps

This Nina Ricci fine fragrance was launched in 1948 - some time ago! The perfume itself was designed by Francis Fabron whereas the luxury french glasswear company Lalique assisted with the dove design bottle - very fitting in the post war climate. Nowadays the Paris Poodle has found this uplifting scent continues to have an air of optimism with its sparkling top notes of rosewood and carnation, mid tones of powder room femininity evoked by rose, violet and jasmine and with its woody sensual undertones of musk, sandal, amber and cedarwood. The bottle itself is a work of art ou ouevre- the way a true french classic parfum bottle should be!

Jean Paul Gautier "Classique"

Arguably the most feminine bottle around Classique is really the essence of feminine playfulness and sensuality! This Paris Poodle certainly loves its rosey femininity, its flirtatous orange blossom and ginger and its sensual vanilla base which demands affection, caresses and tenderness. Although this parfum was only launched in 1993 its certainly up there with the best of them.

Yves Saint Laurent - Parisienne

As for whats hot now there have been some delicious new launches in Paris lately that demand a few inches of cybercolumn space here on the Paris Poodle - upfront, and no prizes for guessing... Yves Saint Laurent! and their new fragrance, Parisienne - with Miss Moss fronting their campaign and a name that encapsulates the essence of Paris dwellers and wannabes everywhere, I loved it before I even inhaled its fresh invigorating fragrance! A sweet urban fragrance that combined vinyl tones with cranberry, vetvier and damask rose, I love this newcomer! Although the eau de toilette didnt seem to last that long the Paris Poodle still thinks this is the perfect fragrance to wear on sunny days walking along the seine and shopping in the afternoon before stopping for a vin rouge. It is Parisienne after all!

Guerlain – Idyll

Another romantic sweetie is the new launch from Frances finest fragrance house - Guerlain. Their new parfum, Idyll, is the love of love in a bottle - romantic heady and bittersweet. With rosy notes combined with patchouli, white musk and freesia this tear drop shaped bottle is definately a young sexy fragrance, the likes of which may lead to many heads turning as you walk past leaving a trail of lily of the valley, jasmine and lilac. A floral whirlwind inspired by young french maidens pondering the timeless question; 'he loves me he loves me not '...

And last but not least, the Poodle has fallen in love with the paradox that is...

Givenchy - Ange ou Demon - Le Secret

Another delicate floral it may be, but this citrus scent combines green tea and citrus with musk and blonde woods to leave a light and fresh inticing aroma that leaves one smelling very clean and angelic, which is the perfect smell to have when one wants to behave badly! Although the Poodle prefers heady, strong fragrances, for a citrus Le Secret has got it just right!