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Jo's Scent Notes: How to Speak Scent (by Jo!)

Feature, Jo's Scent NotesJosephine FairleySeptember 29, 2026books, fragrance, perfume, perfume books, How to Speak Scent, Josephine Fairley, Lorna McKay, The Perfume Bible, fragrance education, fragrance families, perfume ingredients, perfume history, how to choose perfume, perfume gifts, Christmas gifts, stocking fillers, Octopus Books

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Face-to-face with @lauragellerbeauty the OG make-up artist on beauty for the 40+ woman 💖 Laura Geller is our kinda gal. Punchy, knowledgeable, enthusiastic, no-nonsense. She’s a roller-up-of-sleeves, as we are ourselves. She became a professional make-up artist at just 18, and over three decades has built her signature, innovative make-up line into a major brand. Maybe you’ve seen her on QVC, where she’s been presenting her make-up innovations for 20 years. Or social media. What Laura talks is always – well, just good sense. We caught up with Laura for her ‘five gems’ in Laura’s words, around the products she’s developed specifically for – well, our kinda faces… Link in bio to read more 💫✨ #beautybibleloves #beauty

New book alert! 📚✨ Coinciding almost perfectly with the launch of our Beauty Bible Iconic Edition, How to Speak Scent revisits an earlier book, The Perfume Bible. It’s a brilliant little guide to the world of fragrance, covering everything from ingredients and fragrance families to perfume history and how to choose a scent. Link in bio to read more 🌟 #fragrancereviews #perfumelovers #scentnotes

Looking for a lightweight base that helps even out the appearance of skin while still looking natural? @trinnylondon Fearless Skin Tint Drops offer buildable coverage with a fresh, luminous finish. The formula helps blur the appearance of dark circles, pigmentation and redness without feeling heavy or cakey. It also contains skincare-inspired ingredients, including hyaluronic acid, niacinamide, biomimetic lipids and evodia extract, to help hydrate, support the skin barrier and boost radiance. Available in 30 shades, with the Match2Me shade finder to help you find your match. 💛 £45 for 30ml A versatile option for anyone who wants a more natural-looking alternative to traditional foundation. Read more via the link in bio ✨ #beautybibleloves #skintint #fabfind

Beauty Bible Loves… @thebodyshop new Body Butters 💚 The Body Shop has given its iconic Body Butters a 2026 refresh – and we’ve been putting the new formulas to the test. We tried the whole range at The Butter Shop, the brand’s pop-up at Westfield Stratford, and the big news is that we really like the new textures. They’re easy to spread, absorb quickly and don’t leave that greasy feeling behind. Shea is still our pick for very dry, rough skin, while Hemp, Mango, Coconut, British Rose, Strawberry, Satsuma, Almond Milk, Grapefruit, Moringa and Olive all have gorgeous textures and scents. We particularly loved Olive and British Rose – and the pop-up is a lovely place to have a proper try before choosing your favourite. The Butter Shop is at Westfield Stratford until 13 October. 🤩 Body Butters are £19 for 200ml, with 50ml travel sizes from £7. Read the full feature via the link in bio. ✨ #beautybibleloves #popup #thebodyshop

🍂 Health Notes: stocking up for Autumn/Winter With colder months ahead, we asked pharmacist @shabirvh for his advice on the supplements worth considering to support our health through winter. From probiotics and vitamin D to omega-3s, Shabir talks us through some of his go-to choices, including DoSe by VH Mega Probio, BetterYou Vitamin D3 and Bare Biology Life & Soul Pure Omega-3 Fish Oil. And if you’d rather keep things simple, there’s DoSe Daily Immunity, combining probiotics, vitamin D, zinc, vitamin C and herbal extracts in one formula. Read the full article via the link in bio. 🍂 And just to clarify, these are supplements Sarah buys for herself and family – they’re not press freebies. #healthnotes #healthandwellbeing

Beauty Bible Weekend Steal: @nyxcosmetics Smushy SOS Hydrating Lip Mask 💕 Hate to say it, but the dry lip season is about to be upon us. However, forewarned is… fore-lipped! Because we have discovered NYX Smushy SOS, a hydrating lip mask which (unlike most) is designed to be used by day, delivering a glossy, tinted finish. It gives the cosy-care feeling of lip treatment, but with the polish of a lip gloss – in the shade of your choice. In fact, what it is, is a mega-rich lip balm that just takes longer to disappear from lips, we’re finding – unlike some, which disappear into the ether… Link in bio for the full review 🌟 #beautybibleloves #weekendsteal

✨ Win @thisworks Beauty Bible bundle worth £355! ✨ We’re thrilled to have teamed up with one of our long-term favourite brands to offer one lucky winner eight Beauty Bible Award-winning This Works favourites – including two products featured as ‘Icons’ in our brand-new book, The Beauty Bible: Iconic Edition. 💫 The fabulous prize includes: 🌙 My Wrinkles Midnight Moisture (£52) – an ‘Icon’ in the book, this overnight moisturiser leaves skin looking smoother, firmer and beautifully rested. 💧 My Wrinkles Extreme Moisture (£52) – a deeply hydrating moisturiser for soft, nourished and dewy-looking skin. 💤 Deep Sleep Pillow Spray (£25) – the legendary, multiple Beauty Bible Award-winner and now a book ‘Icon’, with a relaxing blend of lavender, chamomile and vetiver. 💤 Deep Sleep Pillow Spray Refill (£50) – because you’ll never want to run out of your bedtime essential! ✨ Skin Deep Dry Leg Oil (£48) – a nourishing botanical oil that leaves skin soft, smooth and beautifully scented. 🦵 Perfect Legs Skin Miracle (£45) – a wash-off tinted serum for instantly smoother, more even, subtly sun-kissed-looking legs. 💎 Perfect Cleavage & Neck Serum (£45) – a targeted treatment to hydrate and smooth the neck and décolleté. 📸 In Transit Camera Close-Up (£38) – a clever mask, moisturiser and make-up base for a quick, luminous complexion boost. That’s £355 worth of This Works brilliance – and every product has picked up a Beauty Bible Award (or more than one!) over the years. 🏆 Do follow @thisworks on Instagram while you have your fingers crossed! 🤞 Prize draw closes Wednesday 21 October. Good luck! 💫 #beautybibleloves #prizedraw #win #thisworks

7 Secrets of Beauty & Wellbeing: Val Garland. (Well, 9, actually.) We’re long-term massive fangirls of make-up artist @thevalgarland 💄✨ In the past, this fearless and tirelessly creative professional mostly worked her magic behind the scenes, creating unforgettable looks for catwalk shows like McQueen and Galliano and for many of the world’s most influential photographers, as well as getting megastars like Lady Gaga camera-slash-red-carpet-ready. Always inventive, sometimes subversive, she is gloriously anti-beige! These days, Val has become familiar to millions as one of the judges on the must-watch BBC show @glowupbbc A long-term fan of Weleda Skin Food, an essential in her kit, she just collaborated on some capsule @weledauk x Val Garland editions of Skin Food, and has put together some truly fab get-your-glow-on kits, which we featured as our Beauty Bible Weekend Steal, last week 🌟 Head to the link in bio to discover more and uncover her best-kept beauty and wellbeing secrets 💫 #beautybibleloves #sevensecrets #beautyandwellbeing

Beauty Bible Weekend Steal: @aveenoukire calming new skincare innovations 💙✨ Aveeno – longstanding hit with the sensitive-skinned Beauty Bible team – has long made a virtue of gentle, barrier-conscious formulas. The whole (supremely affordable) range harnesses the power of oats, which are notoriously soothing and calming. We recently tried this head-to-toe routine designed for skin that becomes dry, tight, reactive or simply needs a little more kindness – and could almost hear the sign of relief from our face/body. Link in bio to read the full review 🫶 #beautybibleloves #weekendsteal #aveeno #skincare #calm

Rarely does @beautybibleofficial get to discover all the exciting upcoming newness in such a beautiful setting – look forward to many reviews in our ‘Beauty Bible Loves’ of the brands showcased so beautifully at yesterday’s House of Muse open day @hotelmarylebone Highlights of the day... • @suqqu new foundation * @stilauk upcoming ‘Hunger Games’ collab • @aromastories exciting new gourmand-with-a-twist fragrances • The return of @decleorparis to these shores (can you hear our trumpets from here?) • @persskincare gentle but brilliant exfoliator (we tried this last night; full report incoming!) • Chatting with @michelle.quantumalchemy about her upcoming stress-soothing launches (we’re such long-term fans) • Fabulous new @aromastudium scents and new discoveries from @sabrinacarpenteruk and @maisonnoirparfums – among other fragrant fabulousness from @gloriousbeauty.co.uk • A quick zhoosh hairdo from @salon64london • Showing off @onthescentmedia magazine to journalists and influencers (the whole team did a shift, including @jofairley ) ... And always lovely to see @rubyhammerbeauty in person! More anon... But what a great day. And we do so love a showcase – in the busy lives of beauty editors, being able to research look of brands in one space is the absolute best use of our time, and hugely appreciated! #houseofmuse #beautyshowcase #beautylaunches

✨ Jo’s Scent Notes: @ode.ona Carte Blanche ✨ Can a fragrance actually calm you down? Jo thinks so - and after one particularly stressful five days, she discovered Ode Ona Carte Blanche was exactly the olfactory therapy she needed 🌿 Inspired by the ritual of clearing a space with woods and herbs, this intriguing scent blends sage, sandalwood, pine needle tea, fresh citrus, black pepper and warm amyris for a beautifully cleansing, grounding effect. And with its sleek handbag-friendly 8ml atomiser, it’s perfect for carrying a little calm wherever you go. Read Jo’s full review including the Apple ID saga that led her to rediscover this little bottle… 🖤 £48 for 8ml eau de parfum 🖤 £150 for 50ml eau de parfum 🛍️ Shop via the link in bio ✨ #beautybibleloves #scentnotes

🍂 Seeing more hair in your brush or shower drain now autumn is here? Seasonal hair shedding is completely normal - but after a long, hot summer, your hair may also be feeling a little parched. Trichologist Anabel Kingsley shares her tips for keeping your scalp and hair healthy, from caring for your scalp to protecting strands from heat and making sure you’re eating a nutritious, balanced diet. And if you missed it, our new Beauty Bible Iconic Edition has also just launched, with plenty more advice on hair health, wellbeing and looking after yourself. Read the full article on our blog - link in bio. ✨ #beautybible #hairhealth #haircare #healthnotes

We couldn’t have a new Beauty Bible without a gathering of friends to launch it into the world – thank you to the wonderful people who came to last night’s gathering at the Royal Ocean Racing Club (Sarah’s husband’s club in St. James’s). It was fab to have two of our ‘Real-Life Icons’ who appear in the book , @trinnywoodall and @lizearleme , there – and the brilliant @alicehartdavis who brilliantly wrote our section on Tweakments, because she’s the expert and we’ve never had so much as a syringe of Botox between us! (Or anything else, come to that.) BOTH our Beauty Bible publishers were there – Kyle Cathie, who published the first eight volumes, and @mslisamilton at @harpercollins who said some truly lovely things, explaining that waiting 30 years to publish this book, since she was the buyer at Harrods when the first one came out! Thanks to @carolinehirons for popping in before heading off to scoop up a Sunday Times Style Beauty Award! (Well done you!) Also so lovely so lovely to see journalists and make-up/skincare/haircare/tanning legends including @rubyhammer @jamesreadtan @aliyoungbeauty @giamills7 @amywilliams_79 @atehjewel @sarahchapmansc @pauledmonds217 @kathyphillips1 @nm_beautydesk @suerpeart – and bravo to @fightingfifty for bringing her SIGNED copy of the oirginal 30-year-old Beauty Bible! (We BIG RE-signed it!) And thanks to everyone who’s ever bought a Beauty Bible – and might just be buying this one... #beautybibleiconicedition #newbook #beautybible

As we’ve shared during the countdown to this launch, we’ve often discussed gathering together every little nugget of wisdom we’ve ever learned over three decades of writing our books and running our Beauty Bible Awards – and turning them into the ‘ultimate’ book. And we’re slightly having to pinch ourselves, because… 10th September 2025, the day has dawned and The Beauty Bible Iconic Edition. Alongside insights from so many of the amazing hairdressers, make-up artists, facialists and holistic practitioners that we’ve interviewed over the years, we also wanted to big up the products which have become superstars – or rather ‘icons’ – on the strength of our readers trials. There’s so much noise in the beauty arena, nowadays. Since we launched our first book The Beauty Bible, in 1996, we have seen thousands of products come – and go. We’ve sat back and watched fads and trends wax and wane, too. And we’ve entered an age – thanks to social media and the cosy relationship between advertisers and editorial in print publications – when it’s almost impossible for anyone who loves skincare, make-up, haircare and bodycare to know for sure whether information is being shared because it’s truly worthy – or whether money has changed hands to secure that mention. Proudly, we are happy to say that we have never taken a penny in advertising or sponsorship for anything we’ve written about. Products earn their plaudits through merit. Never, ever via monetary incentives. In quite a few cases, though, our pink books have played a really important part in a product’s success – and so throughout The Beauty Bible Iconic Edition, we share those skincare, haircare, bodycare and make-up superstars, alongside the tester comments which helped propel them to icon status. We also invite you to meet our real-life heroes: @lizearleme @marcia.kilgore @trinnywoodall @charlottetilbury @dija_ayodele @sammcknight1 and @beeshapiro who shared their tips, tricks and beauty philosophies with us for the pages of this book. We hope you love it. And then all the 30 years of hard work will have been worthwhile…!

🤩 WIN @lanolips ‘Icon’ plus a fab bundle of skin-saving treats (worth almost £58) 👄 To celebrate the iconic status of Lanolips Tinted Lip Balm SPF30 in our new Beauty Bible: The Iconic Edition, we have FIVE fabulous Lanolips bundles to give away - each worth almost £58! Each six-piece prize includes Lanolips favourites including Tinted Balm SPF30 in Rhubarb and Rose, 101 Ointment Multi-Purpose Superbalm, Lanolin Everywhere Cream and two Fruities Jellybalms. The Tinted Balm in Rhubarb is one of the beauty icons featured in our brand-new book, Beauty Bible: The Iconic Edition - which launches today! 📖✨ More info about the book coming very soon… To enter the prize draw, simply fill in the form - link in bio 🫶 Good luck! 💋 #beautybibleloves #prizedraw #lanolips #theiconicedition

Hands deserve a little love too ✨ Jo discovers the new CACI Hand Rejuvenation Treatment at @johnfriedasalon on Aldford Street, where nail expert @jennidraperr is now offering her Signature Luxury Manicure. Think nourishing gloves packed with hyaluronic acid, shea butter and collagen, combined with CACI microcurrent to leave hands looking smoother, softer and revitalised – followed by Jenni’s expert manicure magic. And the best bit? You can get your hair done at the same time 😍 Read Jo’s full review via link in bio 🌟 #beautybibleloves #handrejuvenation #beautyandwellness #treatmentswelove

Beauty Bible Weekend Steal: @lush Intergalactic Candle 🕯️✨ Fact: scented candles can be an arm and a leg. And while we wouldn’t necessarily burn every candle in the Lush range (we are not massive fans of gourmands or mega-florals), this has been flickering in the Beauty Bible office this week, bringing a sophisticated breath of refreshing air, with a wake-up vibe that has felt just perfect for this back-to-school season. Link in bio for full review 🫶 #beautybibleloves #weekendsteal #lush #candlelovers

Salons we love: @wyldebirdbohemia ✂️ A lovely new discovery for Jo, right on her doorstep in St Leonards 🌊💙 Jo has, in her words, ‘impossible hair’ but stylist @jamiemccormickhair proved more than up to the challenge. She was particularly impressed with the Natulique products Jamie used, which managed to tame her hair without her usual mousse. The salon itself is gorgeous too - a former baker’s shop with beautiful tiling, marble shelving and mid-century pieces. Co-owner Jose Bass has also created a great edit of skincare and make-up, including Erborian, SVR and Verden. ✈️ 💫 Special mention for Airplane Mode room spray - rosewood, cedarwood, palo santo and patchouli. Jo says it’s the most instantly calming room spray she’s ever tried. Read Jo’s full review via the link in bio 🫶 #beautybibleloves #salonswelove #stleonardsonsea

Fab Find of the Week: @cornishseaweedbathco haircare 🌊🌟 These are shining stars. They truly are. Have to say, the Cornish Seaweed Bath Company hadn’t floated onto our radar until recently, but now we’re absolute converts to the haircare (and looking to try some of the other all-naturally-derived goodies in the range). It has to be said that natural haircare hasn’t always pushed our buttons – but these three products put on a performance that rivals anything out there. Not cheap – but then nowadays, a lot of haircare isn’t. This brand really has a bracing coastal vibe to their haircare, with a zingy, wake-you-up fragrance that focuses around mint leaf, frankincense and angelica. Link in bio for our full review 💙 #fabfindoftheweek #haircare #beautybibleloves

🍫 Jo’s Scent Notes: @akrofragrances Akro Dark Chocolate + patchouli? You had us at hello. 👀 Jo dives into Akro Dark - a rich, moreish scent created by master perfumer Olivier Cresp - and explores the fragrance brand he founded with his daughter Anaïs, inspired by our favourite little vices and addictions. And with Jo’s lifelong love of chocolate (she did, after all, co-found Green & Black’s…), this one feels particularly personal. 🍫 Discover why Akro Dark has become such a perfect match for Jo - plus her thoughts on the rest of the Akro range. Read the full feature via the link in bio 🫶 #scentnotes #fragrancelovers

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