There is only so much small talk one can make with an Aesop employee.
Before you know it; you know them, they know you and the sweet aroma of mandarin rind and wild rosemary has become a scent filled with prominent suspicion.
So I hold my aromatique hand-balmed hands up!? But the phrase 'try before you buy' holds with me for at least a dozen tries before I even consider making a purchase. It's my belief they predicted their own demise when they installed those outdoor dispensors.
Complimentary testing aside, it's true that beauty products don't maintain with such high esteem for me.
I like to credit healthy skin and a somewhat dewy complexion to a 'get out what you put in' regime, with just a few little extras.
Plenty of water, your five (pushing for more) a day and an added cosmetic helping from the otherwise remotely known brand - Weleda.
A Berliner recommendation (danke Von Heyden), Weleda's wunder-cremes have become a staple in my beauty bag since I discovered them in the German capital last autumn.
The unsung heroes of the 'all-natural, all-ethical' world; their Skin Food does exactly as it would suggest and feeds into my hands, elbows and face with deep penetration for a fully-nourished effect. Although slightly on the thick-ish side, it works intensively on dry, flaky and dull skin - an all too common feature of living in a city such as London.
On the move and away from Aesop, I treat my hands to Weleda's Pomegranate Regenerating Hand Cream. Softening them up in what feels like an instant with a subtle and clean-smelling fragrance, the only downturn I do have is that the cream can take more than enough time to completely permeate.
And sitting on my wish-list, saldy not yet my bathroom shelf, is the Weleda Wild Rose Smoothing Mask.
A sweet pick-me-up and (drum roll please) my first active fight against the evil enemy society calls 'ageing'. Staying on the good side of my 20's is something I - if not most of us?- would like to continue to do, and if I'm going by what I've seen of the women in Berlin.... lather me up!
