Colour code your bathroom …
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Just as colourful bathroom suites seem to have made a reappearance (the Hotel des Deux Gares in Paris, pictured above, was one of the first to champion their return), after decades of disdain for avocado-coloured basins and bright yellow baths, so too our bath ranges seem to be getting brighter. We included some of the fun ones here and here. If you’ve gone bold with your bathroom suite or wall colour, here are some treats to match – or to deliver a pop of colour into your plain white bathroom …
1 Hermès
We can’t get over the luxuriousness of this bathroom range. Forget “self-care” – this is self-spoiling, and then some. The scents of the hair and body shower gels, foaming hand and body washes and moisturising body lotions are as good as the original perfumes by the master Christine Nagel, who is renowned for her daring, innovative fragrances that are seriously good but don’t take themselves too seriously (who’d have thought rhubarb could be this sublime, soft and sweet?). Try also the classic Eau d’orange verte and Eau de citron noir, a stunning bright, clean scent. There are also dry body oils in selected Jardins scents. And the packaging is both sustainable (in refillable glass bottles) and super luxe. The Le Bain Hermès Collection is available now at www.Hermes.com. From €47; refills €43.
2 Escentric Molecule
Head to Seagreen to smell these lovely 01 and 02 body wash and body lotions from the ever-popular fragrance range originally created by Geza Schoen. Seagreen boutique consistently picks interesting beauty to stock – the yellow lidded cut-glass bottles of Vilhelm Perfumery, and Carriere Freres candles are great examples. If you love great smells that aren’t intrusive or overpowering, these Escentric options are always a good bet. We love the Molecule 01 +Mandarin, +Patchouli and +Iris fragrances in stock here too (from €80) – they are each wonderfully light and bright for summer. They look good, and most importantly smell great too. From €50, at Seagreen Ranelagh and Monkstown, Co Dublin; www.seagreen.com.
3 Sundaes for the shower
Here’s a weirdly addictive new shower novelty. Australian bodycare line Sundae Body has come up with a can of shower cream, in a range of different fruity scents, that comes out just like that squirty cream we all loved as kids. Yes, we’ve had shower mousse and foams before, but this is even more fun – it has a wonderfully whipped texture: one shake and it comes out like the finest 99.
Most of all, I feel that this would encourage reluctant kids(/teens) to have baths/showers, as it makes the whole scenario far more fun and fragrant (I remember adoring M&S peach bubblebath as a kid). They smell great – there are ten options, from green tea to berry and vanilla. I’m trying the orange one, and love the scent, and it works well as a shaving cream also.
They’re a fun novelty, clearly designed to be Instagrammable, and you wouldn’t want to use them all the time; I’m not sure how clean they actually get you. I’m not entirely convinced by the cans’ recyclable credentials either – aerosol cans are notoriously difficult to recycle. But they are cute and colourful. €15 at pharmacies nationwide and www.sundaebody.ie.
4 Barbie-coloured sonic toothbrushes
Do you need a good-looking toothbrush? Personally, I’m happy with a plain white one if it’s recommended by my dentist, and couldn’t care less what it looks like. Though it is surprising that no one has yet redesigned the humble toothbrush in any striking way (I always thought Dyson would come up with one).
Ordo toothbrushes are, apparently, designed to “elevate your bathroom aesthetic” and come in colours from violet (“the epitome of feminine grace and modern chic”) to rose-gold. They’re €85 each (€80 at Boots.ie), and they’re for people who consider brushing their teeth to be a “self-care ritual” and want to “proudly display” their toothbrush, for whatever reason. The Sonic+ version also has a charging travel case (€25), which is neatly portable and USB charging.
The Sonic Lite travel version (€46, with a USB charging cable) is pretty neat. And I like the idea of the mouthwash concentrate; a small pouch of it becomes a large (refillable) bottle when diluted (€8). In the UK it offers a brush head recycling scheme, which is novel (if people bother to use it). They also do a sonic water flosser (pretty large). The style and charging scenario is certainly neat, and the battery life is long; I like that the replacement heads aren’t prohibitively expensive, either (currently under €20 for four), as they often are, ludicrously so.
Personally, I think it’s strange that Ordo’s website is so absolutely carried away about the looks, colours and accessories that it rather overlooks the dental expert side of things. Surely we want a toothbrush that is properly effective and expert-recommended, rather than just pretty? They do have a dentist ambassador (who helped with the design), described on his website as a cosmetic dentist with a focus on Invisalign, cosmetic bonded edges and veneers. The brushes are apparently “approved by dentists” but the website is pretty vague around that.
So while these have some attributes, I’d check its efficacy with my own dentist first, and doubt I’ll be trading in my dentist-approved electric one, even though it’s not remotely Instagrammable. We don’t want another instance of trading in a fancy wall-hung designer vacuum cleaner for a plain old unbeautiful, hardworking and unbreakable Henry (they are the best). I do think a neatly cased, long-lasting and easy to charge Ordo one could be handy for travel, though.
Available at Boots, and www.ordolife.com.
