Thoughts on five perfume samples

This new world order that we're currently in means that shops are being a lot more careful about putting out samplers. In most cases, they're erring on the side of caution and not leaving out samplers at all. This makes perfect sense from a health and safety perspective, but I do so very much miss being able to try fragrances before you buy!

Graciously, a neat little workaround of this problem is to order five samplers from the Feel Unique website. You then just have to cover the price of the postage and packaging, of £3.95. You can use this amount to spend on your next Feel Unique order too!

The five I ordered were: YSL Libre, Viktor & Rolf Bonbon, Issey Miyake L'Eau d'Issey, Jean Paul Gaultier Scandal, and Kierin Nitro Noir. Aren't the samplers just darling?

My thoughts on the fragrances, from left to right:

8 Lessons Learned from the 2019 BBFC Annual Report

The blog is rated 15 for strong sex references and drug references.

On Thursday, the BBFC dropped their 2019 Annual Report, which for film classification nerds, is also known as 'Most Complained about Films to the BBFC Day'. I spent Friday evening poring through the report, looking for clues and new information, and psycho-analysing every adjective used in the report. In short, I was in heaven.

Here were eight prominent things I noticed from reading it:

01. Emma knows her BBFC…

Tale as old as time… that the first point I make every year when discussing the BBFC annual report, is not an observation, but rather, a shameless display of braggadocio. The three most complained about films in 2019 were Joker, The Favourite and John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, and I'd predicted all three of these in my prognostication blog.

Book review: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS AND SNAKES (Suzanne Collins)

Set 64 years before The Hunger Games, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is Suzanne Collins' prequel to her dystopian YA trilogy, a book series whose film adaptations launched the Hollywood career of that awful over-actor and recipient of the most undeserved Oscar win ever, Jennifer Lawrence.

For that reason, then, you'd think that I would dislike The Hunger Games books. But I actually really enjoyed them (I even enjoyed some facets of the films). The world-building exhibited in the books was extremely inventive, and, whilst it may have been a tad derivative of Battle Royale and various Roman and Greek myths, I maintain that most good art contains inflections of other artists that preceded it.

Central to the books was the first-person narrative of Katniss Everdeen, the tribute from District 12. Throughout the trilogy she displayed courage, resilience and resourcefulness beyond her 16 years, and her actions were underscored with familial loyalty to her younger, more fragile younger sister, Prim. Collins shrewdly avoided painting her heroine as a Mary Sue, however, as Katniss was also stubborn, unforgiving, whiny and often downright unlikeable.

My 10 favourite acting performances of 2018

In terms of my affinity for the films represented here, it's quite a mixed bag, with 60% of the films present being in my top 10 of 2018, but 2 of them being movies I actively disliked (Hereditary and Thoroughbreds). 

But, when watching a film, even if I'm not enjoying the experience, I try to focus on the redeeming qualities in it, which is why two films I didn't like are making appearances: because they contained eye-catching and impressive performances from their talented stars.

10. Jesse Plemons, Game Night

Dress review: ADELA DRESS (Hobbs)

The work aesthetic that I aim for with my sartorial choices is demure and classy. Whether or not I realise those objectives are another matter, but, to help achieve this aim, I have few, but not inexpensive pieces from three retailers which I think exude elegance: Hobbs, Ted Baker and Hawes and Curtis.

In terms of Hobbs dresses worn at work, I rotate between three: the previously-reviewed Harper dress, the Mariatta dress, and the Adela dress.

You love to sea it

As I discussed in April, working from home, and the various video-conferences I partake in on a daily basis has made me more conscious of the film posters I had on the wall facing the camera. I had bought a Parasite film poster from Geeky Illustrator to join the Shawshank Redemption one I already had.

The Shawshank Redemption poster was on the wall opposite the Parasite one, and I realised it made sense to put the two side by side, seeing as they were from the same artist. And then in late May, I purchased a Finding Nemo poster to flank the Parasite poster on the other side (from another artist).

What I now have is a very colourful display of three films to face my Webcam for when I'm in a meeting, that perfectly represents three facets of my love of cinema: Disney, foreign film and character-driven dramas!

Guarding them all is my boy Gary Cahill, because, obvs.