10 things I learnt in Sharm el Sheikh

Snorkelling with butterfly fish and exploring the Sinai desert

1. Butterfly fish fall in love so deeply, that if they become separated from their partner they often commit suicide Romeo and Juliet style, by swimming down to the depths where they can no longer breath.

2. Quad bikes are cool, Sand Buggies are awesome, but a bikini top is not sufficient support for either. Really.

3. Camels see everything six times bigger, which is why even a child can control a fully grown camel.

4. There are plans to build a bridge connecting Sharm el Sheikh with Saudi Arabia. People in the tourism industry have mixed feelings.

5. Bedouin tea blends are very, very nice. Everyone should try them.

Sampling hotel cuisine, Bedouin tea and of course, local ice cream

6. Joey Essex isn't far off - in Arabic, Reem means 'woman of beauty'.

7. Sharm el Sheikh is the only part of Egypt to lie on the Asian continent, the rest, as most you will already know, lies to the north of Africa.

8. Brits complain about hotels and holidays in general, more than any other nationality. As a group, we should lighten up or grow some balls.

9. Your skin will feel amazing after after a swim in the Red Sea. Fact. Hair on the other hand, might need a moisture boost after all the salt.

10. Though the older and younger generations clash over progress, Egyptians in general have a positive attitude to welcoming tourists. So forget being shunned for not speaking the language or taking photos in the street!


You can read more about my trip to Sharm el Sheik with Red Sea holidays over on Handbag.com. In a word, it was lovely.

How To: Get nail varnish stains out of your carpet

After a monumental make-up clear out ended in disaster this week, I've learnt two very valuable lessons. One, how to remove even the darkest purple nail varnish from a pale coloured carpet, and two, that avalanching a mass of glass nail polish bottles from basket to basket will only end in disaster.

Let me set the scene: my wicker nail basket was overflowing. I had procured a new, larger and by all basket standards, better one, and so a transition had to take place. Rather than hand place them one by one however (there's a lot of nail polish over here), I decided to slowly 'pour' the bottles from old basket to new. Argh.

During this process one Bourjois purple polish suffered a fatal blow to the neck. Cue the slow leaking of dark violet vinyl finish onto the pale lavender carpet. An hour later I discovered the horror.

My first instinct was to douse it with nail polish remover, while taking tips from my flatmate and her boss via WhatsApp.

Yep that's the Airplane Mode icon. I wrote this on a flight to Sharm el Sheikh

Not only did remover not work, rubbing made it far, far worse. Next came an emergency text to my dad, the keeper of surprisingly useful and impressively varied snippets of random knowledge.

                                  

Yes people, shaving foam works. Here's what you do:

1. Cover the area with foam, no need to go overboard, but make sure it's totally covered.

2. Leave for at least 5 minutes, before using a damp cloth to wipe away the foam. Careful rubbing and three applications sorted out my stain, so don't be afraid to keep reapplying.

The full ins and outs of how/why it works is probably a whole other post, but what we can all take from this is that something in shaving foam (not gel, I don't know why) breaks down nail varnish, and for our purposes, that's a very news indeed!

Yep, shaving foam is great at removing nail varnish stains from carpet

Anyone else tried this? Or another nail polish stain remedy? Share below!

#LibertyofLondon: Liberty Print Scarves

If you didn't watch C4's Liberty of London documentary tonight, where on earth were you?! Unless those more exciting plans included sipping champagne with Kate Moss at the British Fashion Awards, you missed out. Oh yes you did.

From the beardy guy with a real gold Liberty discount card, to the heave-ho decision on whether turning an unused loo into a beauty treatment room was in fact a good idea, Ed Burstell's cave of wonders proved for some good viewing.

So inspired by the doc as well as the Liberty #AScarfADay celebration, here's a few of the best Liberty print scarves online at the moment...

BLACK TREE OF LIFE PRINT WOOL SCARF, £225, Liberty.co.uk

SQUARE BLACK JEWEL OF LIBERTY SILK SCARF, £150, Liberty.co.uk

LILAC CHRISTELLE SILK TWILL SCARF, £150, Liberty.co.uk

ORANGE TREE OF LIFE SILK SCARF, £150, liberty.co.uk

What do you think? Got your own favourite? Do share!

COLOURED COAT TREND: Oasis x Molly King blue coat

Since the pink coat trend went from must-have to must-avoid lest we all walk around like a winter-ready candy coloured army, I went for blue.

Soft powdery baby blue, from the Oasis Loved by Mollie King collection.

It's warm, smart and still wearable on casual occasions, has deep pockets, a good collar and if you haven't picked up on the message by now, I'm obsessed with it!

1 blue coat, 4 looks while on a trip to Milan

Oasis Pastel Car Coat, £110, available now at oasis-stores.com.

Berry Nails: YSL Laque Couture in 40 Sepia 7E Art

Oh lordy, after wearing it this week at the P&G Future Fabrics conference in Milan, I'm obsessed with the new Yves Saint Laurent La Laque Couture shade!

A deep berry hue, you'll need two coats to get good coverage - it can be a bit streaky - but the finished shade leaves you with nails the colour of something utterly awesome, falling between rich black berry and shiny aubergine.

It's out now at YSL beauty counters, £18. What do you think?

Party hair in Paris with Ken Paves...

When the Disney team asked if I'd like to pop over to Disneyland Paris, stay in the actual Disney Hotel, and interview celebrity hairstylist Ken Paves about his involvement in new animation Tinkerbell and the Secret of the Wings, unsurprisingly, I said 'hell yes!'

If you're unfamiliar with Ken Paves, he's the charmingly sweet creative genius behind the hair of Victoria Beckham, Eve Longoria, Jennifer Lopez, America X Factor and many more lovely locked ladies. Not to mention Disney's new fairy Periwinkle, and now little old me too. Hurrah!

Tiphareth Star, Ken Paves, Amy Lewis at Disneyland Paris Barbershop

Since our Parisian meet landed on the cusp of party season, conversation and live demos of course moved swiftly onto his favourite looks for the glam squad.

Between my love of classic vintage hair, Ken's love for full-on glamour and a sprinkling of fairytale inspiration, we came up with this side-swept coif of curls using medium barrelled tongs and a whole load of Ken's hairspray...

Mr Paves, I felt like a fairy princess all day! How would your fairy hair manifest...?

All hail Queen Mary!

Since rendezvousing with Mary Greenwell at Chanel's Covent Garden pop-up last summer, I've become obsessed with, infatuated by, addicted to and probably now dependant on, the red Rouge Allure lipstick in #105 (Inimitable)...

Loud, luxe, bright, bold, intense, elegant and the long-lasting giver of seriously sumptuous slicks of colour.

(L-R): Jessica Bridgeman, Mary Greenwell, Amy Lewis

Mary, for the gift of the perfect red, I praise thee!

Anyone else tried this?