FEELING FLUSH

Perfume evokes so many memories for me. A whiff of something heavy and floral can transport me back to another time and place, make my eyes well up or can bring a rye smile to my face. Whether it's your first date, the smell of your grandmother's dressing table or the trail of eau de parfum wafting past you as a child when you're mum was going out, we all have occasions when it's smells that jog the brain and take you back to places you'd forgotten about. One of my first memo

We’ve all done it - dreamt of a sparkling ‘New Year - New Me!’, made a bog load of sweeping New Years resolutions and then by the start of February, we’ve not only fallen off the wagon, we’ve also set fire to the b'stard and buried it under the weight of our guilt. So, if you’re over it already, here are 5 easy ways you can self sabotage your good intentions.... 1. Resolution - I WON'T USE MY CREDIT CARD *tears up cards* Simply add all your credit cards to PayPal before you

Let me tell you a little bit about me. I love routine. My alarm goes off at the same time every day. I get the same train - even getting on in the same spot. I wash my hair every other day. I always do my eyebrows before any other bit of makeup (after foundation obvs, I’m not a complete animal!). I have been known to eat the same breakfast and lunch choices for a whole week. My internal body alarm for bed goes off around 9pm each nigh and if I want to stay up later, I have t

Once upon a time, there was a girl who used to save things for best. She saved her silky dresses for special events that would never happen, her perfume lasted for months as she wouldn't use it daily for going about her mundane chores and anything 'special' was wrapped in tissue and stored away to protect it from damage or spoil. This girl was me. I'd save my scented candles until we had guests. I wouldn't over use my expensive handbag incase it got damaged and heaven help if

I hate the gym. There. I said it. But. And there is a but. I understand the need to go and have done since my early 30’s. I’ve flirted with cardio, I’ve been trained by women and men - with varying results - I’ve done every type of class going (except for aerial yoga which I am still to try!) and I’ve worked out with personal trainers, alone and with friends. I’ve tried it all. Big gyms, tiny gyms, home gyms, work gyms, large corporate gyms, boxing gyms... all in a quest to s

Last week we had a lively discussion within our Facebook group around going grey after one of our members posted a piece from the BBC about women loving their grey hair. Should you or shouldn't you? Does it age you or does dying it actually age you more...? Whilst I liked the piece the BBC tried to do, they chose photographs of women who had gone grey at a young age - let's face it, grey hair on a young face actually looks cool and should I be 25 I'd be all over the 'grey hai

APPRECIATION IS LIKE AN INSURANCE POLICY - IT HAS BE BE RENEWED NOW AND THEN.... DAVE MCINTYRE... I can sometimes be a miserable old trout. The list of potential grumpy causing issues are long and varied - it could be my commuter train is 10 minutes late (again - I mean why should it be on time when I ONLY pay £4,500 a year), my left hand is aching a bit (potential early onset osteoarthritis - more on this another time), I forgot to get the chicken out of the freezer for tea

Since I got to the age where walking around in heels all day is akin to sticking my face in to boiling hot fat whilst having a each tendon in my foot extracted with tweezers and hammered in to a nearby fence (graphic enough for you?), I thought I'd bring your attention to my favourite footwear. They haven't always been fashionable, but ever since Lily Allen decided to bang on a pair of trainers with a vintage frock they have managed to go mainstream and we can now even get aw

There is one thing that drives me mad about underwear - seams. I can't stand looking at a woman in a gorgeous dress, only to glance down and see her bottom chewing her knickers or the exact line of her thong..... Ewwwwwww. I've researched this in depth over the years - I've tried so many different brands, I've paid anything from £3 to £30 a pair all in my quest to find the perfect non VPL underwear. So as an extreme connoisseur of no VPL kecks, I'd thought I'd share them with

There are numerous things I LOVE about being female - I wouldn't want to be a man for all the tea in China - and we are so differently wired for sure. But being female also has its downsides. This week, an article in The Telegraph really wound me up and it's one thing about being a woman that I don't like.... The writer talks of how she's lost friends (two in total) due to talking about her about much she and her husband have sex. Apparently one single girlfriend thought she

We have a SPECIAL OFFER on a beauty subscription box from 'Time Of Your Life'. The contents are worth over £90 and the FIRST box you subscribe to (via us) is only £12.50! PLUS the contents are aimed at those of us over 40. It is part-beauty box (six products) and part-magazine and lifestyle - as along with the contents you also receive podcasts and interviews that are sent to you via email links throughout the month. Feeling Flush members have been offered a 50% discount off

My hormonal clock body has pretty much run like a well oiled machine for most of my life. Whether it be my 28 day period cycle with its 5 day bleed and its very predictable daily flow/colour (I even had a period 28 days exactly after each child was born!), the appearance of a strategic chin spot, a craving for carbs and sweet stuff, a mood change that might mean I could injure someone.... Any time during the month, I could genuinely read what was going on inside plus where I

We seem to talk about unwanted hair a lot at Feeling Flush... Whether it’s about shaping your under carriage foliage, strimming your moustache or plucking out that unwanted goatee you seem to be growing. It's a topic that we will never exhaust. Recently, I was having the 'hairy chin chat' with my mother - not yet 70 and Mrs Glam to a tee - when she mentioned her new gadget - the JML Finishing Touch Flawless Trimmer. This little battery operated beauty will whip off of the fu

In our series of Love Letters to an old friend, I decided that Patience needed a reminder I was still here.... Dear Patience Do you mind if I call you that? I mean Mrs Patience sounds too formal and Big P a little too slangy for you. I was only talking about you the other day and I reckon last time I saw you properly was when you were helping me to clear out the loft - god that was a hideous job and must be 8 years ago now. To be honest, I didn’t really notice you’d gone away

I love sleep. Correction, I adore it. And this isn’t a new thing either, I’ve always loved it to be honest. Never was I the child to be told to go to bed, I was gone on my own! When I had my babies, (both shocking sleepers until ages 3 and 6 years respectively) it was like nightly Chinese water torture not getting my 8 hours of slumber in. I had a stressful job in an investment bank and going to work on 2 hours shut eye did not a happy Paula make. Fast forward now to some 20

It’s ok for blokes to have a perv. Having worked in male dominated environments all of my career, I'm so used to 'bloke banter' - all day long - about which woman has amazing knockers, legs, arse... Yeah, whatever. Do blokes think we don't do the same? Well HELL YEAH we do. So ladies who does it for you? Is it still that pretty boy look or a of bit rough and ready? Does a beard tickle your fancy (quite literally...)? What you fancied in your 20s and 30s doesn’t always transl

Sorry in advance if that title makes you think of 90’s one hit wonder by C+C Music Factory ( drag yourself back via YouTube if you need refreshing). So at one time, it might have been an invitation to an all nighter that made you go hmmmm but what does it for you now? This is what makes us go hmmmm.... 1. Cream cakes. Those big mother’s that they shove in the window of Patiserrie Valerie. Phoaaarrrrr. 2. A glass of decent wine. Ok sod the glass, we mean a bottle. 3. When you

Over the last 5 years, mindfulness has become main stream and big business. It's thought of less as a past time only reserved for the shaven headed monks of Tibet and just as likely to be a keen past time for the paid up members of cappuccino classes. In several new studies, mindfulness is thought to be able to help with some of the symptoms of perimenopause and menopause. Mindfullness has shown to help with symptoms such as anxiety, panic attacks and stress plus, apparently,

My hair is best described as frizzy, fine and unruly. It literally has a mind of its own. The only hair style I’ve ever had that suited it’s crappy texture was when scrunch drying was trendy in the 80’s. I smashed it. Me and Bonnie Tyler/Carol Decker/Shakira could have been separated at birth. (Wish I’d got Shakiras’ arse rather than her curly barnet). During night sweats, the back of my neck gets so damp that my hair just absorbs it all, kinking up like a thousand rubbish, b

So you’ve sat on your eggs for a while, they hatch, you feed them around the clock everytime they squark. They’re major high maintenance to be fair. Then they suddenly start stretching their wings a bit, going off to bird school during the day, you’re no longer regurgitating worms as they’ve worked out how to yank them out of the ground themselves. It all starts getting a bit easier to manage. And then before you can blink your black beady eyes, they are teetering on the edge