All Posts By Elody Von

The Best Smart Home Devices Worth Buying In 2026 — What Changed How We Live And What Didn’t

By Elody Von7 July 202610 July 20260 Comments4min read5 views

The Best Smart Home Devices Worth Buying In 2026 — What Changed How We Live And What Didn’t

When we moved into this house two years ago, I had a list of smart home devices I planned to install before we’d unpacked the kitchen. I was going to automate everything. The lights would know when we were home. The heating would learn our schedule. The kitchen would probably start dinner.

Two years on, the reality is both more modest and more genuinely useful than that initial enthusiasm. Some things on the list changed how we live every day in ways that feel permanent and worth the money. Others went in a drawer after three weeks. A few I’m still not sure about.

The Devices That Changed Daily Life

Philips Hue Smart Lighting — The One I Recommend Without Qualification

The Philips Hue lighting system is the smart home investment that I’d recommend to anyone considering smart home technology because the payback on daily quality of life is immediate and continuous.

The specific thing it changed: the lighting in our home now suits what we’re doing rather than being set to one level for everything. In the morning, the kitchen lights come on gradually — not a sudden overhead light that announces the start of the day aggressively, but a gentle brightening over fifteen minutes that produces a more natural waking experience. In the evening, the lights warm and dim automatically at sunset, which signals to the body that evening is approaching in a way that constant bright light doesn’t allow. When we watch a film, the lights in the living room dim to a low warm level without anyone getting up.

These are genuine improvements to daily experience that accumulate into meaningful wellbeing benefits rather than being novelty features that wear off.

The Hue Bridge (the hub required for the full feature set) is an additional purchase if buying bulbs only, and the initial investment is higher than standard bulbs. The per-bulb cost (£15-25 per bulb) is justified by the quality and longevity — Hue bulbs are rated for 25,000 hours of use and the system supports automations that standard bulbs can’t enable.

Price: Starter kit from £79, individual bulbs £15-25
Available at: Philips Hue directly (philips-hue.com), Amazon, John Lewis

Nest Learning Thermostat — Worth It For The Energy Savings Alone

The Nest Learning Thermostat learns the heating schedule from a week or two of manual adjustments and then automates it. The payback in convenience is real — we no longer have a schedule to manage. The payback in energy costs is also real — the Nest’s automatic setback when the house is empty has reduced our heating bill by an amount that covered the cost of the device within the first heating season.

The specific feature worth knowing about: the Nest’s Home/Away Assist detects when phones leave the house and adjusts the heating accordingly, which means the house isn’t being heated while empty even if the schedule says it should be. This is the feature that produces the actual energy saving rather than just the convenience.

Installation is straightforward if your existing thermostat is a standard system — the Nest replaces the existing thermostat and works with most standard boiler systems. It’s worth checking compatibility before purchasing.

Price: £219
Available at: Nest directly (store.google.com), Amazon, John Lewis

Amazon Echo Dot — The Useful Small One

The Echo Dot is not the Echo that sounds best, is not the most capable, and is not the most impressive. It is the Echo that costs the least and sits in the kitchen answering questions, setting timers, playing podcasts, and controlling the other smart home devices without being asked to do more than it can.

The things I actually use it for: kitchen timers (hands-free timer setting while cooking is more useful than it sounds when your hands are covered in flour), quick questions while cooking (how long per pound of chicken at 200 degrees, the distance to the nearest hardware shop), and controlling the Hue lights when a phone isn’t to hand.

Price: £39-49
Available at: Amazon directly (amazon.co.uk), John Lewis

The Devices That Went In The Drawer

The Govee smart LED strips, which I installed under kitchen cabinets with the intention of creating ambient mood lighting. The ambient mood lighting required an app to control, the app required opening, and the threshold of opening an app to turn on ambient lighting proved higher than I’d estimated. They were removed after two months.

The smart plug system I installed for a lamp in the bedroom to turn it off with a voice command. The lamp was twelve steps from the bed. The time required to say “Alexa, turn off the bedroom lamp” was comparable to the time required to turn it off manually. The novelty was high and short-lived.

The lesson: smart home devices are most valuable when they do something automatic — when they remove a decision or action entirely rather than simply replacing one form of action with another.

The Devices I'm Still Not Sure About

The video doorbell. It shows me who is at the door before I answer it. This has been useful twice (both times delivery companies) and irrelevant hundreds of times. The monthly cloud subscription for video storage is the ongoing cost I find most difficult to justify. I keep it running more out of inertia than conviction.

Conclusion

Smart home technology is most valuable when it automates things you currently do regularly and manually, not when it makes manual actions marginally more convenient. Philips Hue automates lighting to suit the time of day and what you’re doing — genuinely valuable. The Nest automates heating to match actual occupancy — genuinely valuable and financially returns its cost. The Echo provides hands-free information and control in the kitchen — genuinely useful. The rest, in our experience, turned out to be solutions to problems we didn’t consistently have. Start with the lighting and the thermostat. Add from there if the return justifies it.

By Elody Von

Olaplex Review 2026 — Is It Still Worth It? My Honest Take After Years Of Use

By Elody Von7 July 202610 July 20260 Comments3min read6 views

Olaplex Review 2026 — Is It Still Worth It? My Honest Take After Years Of Use

Olaplex had a complicated period between 2022 and 2024 that included a class-action lawsuit (since settled), significant social media criticism, and an FDA review of one ingredient (BHMT, subsequently removed from the formulations). If you’re arriving at this review with concerns about that period, I want to address it directly before getting to the product.

The lawsuit was settled without Olaplex admitting wrongdoing. The ingredient of concern (BHMT) has been removed from current formulations. The reformulated products have been independently assessed and no safety concerns have been raised about the current formulations. I’ve continued using Olaplex through this period and have experienced no adverse effects.

What remains is the product question: does it work, and is it worth the price?

My Experience With Olaplex

I’ve used Olaplex No. 3 (the at-home treatment) weekly for approximately three years, with occasional use of Nos. 4 and 5 (shampoo and conditioner) and No. 6 (leave-in smoother).

My hair context: naturally wavy, coloured every ten to twelve weeks, moderately heat-styled (a diffuser two to three times per week). The coloured and heat-styled combination produces the specific damage that bond repair treatments are designed to address.

The No. 3 — The One Worth Buying

The Olaplex No. 3 is an at-home bond repair treatment — it reconnects the disulfide bonds in the hair’s protein structure that coloring and heat processing break. This is a specific claim with a specific mechanism, and the evidence for this mechanism (bis-aminopropyl diglycol dimaleate, the active Olaplex ingredient) is genuine rather than marketing language.

Applied to clean, damp hair, left for a minimum of ten minutes (I leave it for 45-60 minutes under a shower cap), then washed out as part of normal washing. The difference in hair texture immediately after use and the cumulative improvement in hair strength over weeks and months of consistent use are observable in a way that purely conditioning treatments don’t produce.

The specific thing it does that conditioners don’t: reduces breakage. The hair that would previously snap during styling or brushing is noticeably more resilient with consistent No. 3 use. This is the observable evidence for the bond repair mechanism working rather than simply conditioning the surface.

Price: £28-30
Available at: Olaplex directly (olaplex.com), Space NK, Sephora, Boots

The Shampoo And Conditioner — Good But Not Irreplaceable

The No. 4 Bond Maintenance Shampoo and No. 5 Conditioner are good haircare products. They’re not as specifically differentiated from other quality shampoos and conditioners as the No. 3 is from other treatments.

For someone committed to the Olaplex system, they’re worth using. For someone who wants the bond repair benefit without switching their entire haircare routine, using the No. 3 treatment weekly alongside a different shampoo and conditioner produces the primary benefit.

Price: £26-28 each
Available at: As above

Olaplex vs K18 — The Current Comparison Question

K18 is the bond repair competitor that emerged during Olaplex’s difficult period and that many people switched to. The two use different mechanisms — Olaplex addresses disulfide bonds, K18’s peptide addresses the broader polypeptide chain — and both have genuine evidence for their approaches.

My experience with K18: the results are faster and more dramatic in the first few uses, and the leave-in format is more convenient than Olaplex’s rinse-out application. The cost per use is higher (K18 is more expensive per application).

For severely damaged hair needing fast results: K18.
For ongoing maintenance and prevention: Olaplex No. 3 is more cost-effective and the cumulative benefit over months is comparable.

Conclusion

Olaplex is still worth buying in 2026. The reformulated products don’t contain the ingredient that prompted safety concerns, the mechanism behind the No. 3’s effectiveness is genuine, and the cumulative benefit of weekly use over months is observable in reduced breakage and improved hair strength. The No. 3 is the specific product worth prioritising. The shampoo and conditioner are good additions but not essential to the benefit.

By Elody Von

The Best Skincare Routine For Beginners In 2026 — The Honest Simple Version

By Elody Von7 July 202610 July 20260 Comments3min read2 views

The Best Skincare Routine For Beginners In 2026 — The Honest Simple Version

The skincare industry makes more money from complexity than from simplicity. A twelve-step routine requires twelve products. A four-step routine requires four. The four-step routine, executed consistently, produces better results than the twelve-step routine executed inconsistently — which is what happens to most people who start with an overwhelming routine and gradually abandon the steps that feel like the most effort.

I’m going to describe the routine that actually works for most people most of the time. It’s not the routine that sounds most impressive. It’s the one with the highest compliance rate and the most evidence behind it.

The Four Steps That Actually Matter

Step 1 — Cleanser

A gentle, pH-balanced cleanser that removes what’s on the skin without stripping the moisture barrier. The CeraVe Hydrating Cleanser for dry to normal skin (£12-15) and the La Roche-Posay Toleriane Purifying Foaming Cleanser for oily to combination skin (£16-22) are the two recommendations that most dermatologists would agree on.

Neither of these is exciting. Neither has an impressive list of active ingredients. What they do is clean the skin correctly — removing the day’s pollution, SPF, and skin cell debris without the alkaline stripping that more aggressive cleansers produce.

Step 2 — Moisturiser

The CeraVe Moisturising Cream for dry skin (£12-18) and the Neutrogena Hydro Boost Water Gel for oily to normal skin (£18-22) are the accessible starting points.

The ceramides in CeraVe are the relevant ingredient — they restore and maintain the skin barrier that cleansing, environment, and the general business of existing gradually deplete. The hyaluronic acid in Neutrogena’s Hydro Boost provides hydration without oil. Both are correct for their skin types in a way that more fashionable products at higher prices often aren’t.

Step 3 — SPF (Morning Only)

Every morning. Without exception. This is the step that produces the most observable long-term improvement in skin quality and appearance and it is consistently the most skipped step in beginner skincare routines.

ISDIN Fusion Water SPF50 (£40-46) is the recommendation for the easiest daily application experience. La Roche-Posay Anthelios SPF50+ (£20-28) is the recommendation for sensitive skin. Both are good. Both need to be applied every morning.

The Optional Fourth Step — Targeted Treatment

Once the three-step routine is established and consistent (minimum four weeks), a targeted treatment can be added. For most beginners, this means one of two things: niacinamide for tone evening and pore minimisation, or retinol for longer-term skin renewal.

The Ordinary Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1% (£5-8) is the accessible starting niacinamide. The Ordinary Retinol 0.2% in Squalane (£7-10) is the accessible starting retinol. Both work. Neither is complicated.

What You Don't Need At The Beginning

Eye cream — a small amount of your regular moisturiser applied gently around the eye area is sufficient for most people until a specific eye concern warrants a targeted product.

A toner — the primary functions of toner (pH balancing and hydration) are served by a good cleanser and moisturiser. Most toners add a step rather than adding a function.

Multiple serums — pick one targeted ingredient and use it consistently for eight to twelve weeks before assessing results. Adding multiple serums simultaneously makes it impossible to know which is producing any observed effect and increases the likelihood of irritation from ingredient interactions.

The Budget Breakdown

Complete four-step routine at accessible prices:

CeraVe Hydrating Cleanser: £12-15
CeraVe Moisturising Cream: £12-18
ISDIN Fusion Water SPF50: £40-46 (the one worth spending on)
The Ordinary Niacinamide: £5-8

Total: approximately £70-87 for a complete, evidence-based routine that produces results.

Conclusion

The skincare routine that produces results is not the most complex one — it’s the one that’s followed consistently with the right ingredients for the right skin concern. Cleanser, moisturiser, SPF, and one targeted treatment: this is the complete routine for most people. Start with this. Use it consistently for three months. Then reassess what, if anything, needs to be added.

By Elody Von

The Best Scented Candles For Home Worth Buying In 2026 — Honest Picks That Actually Fill A Room

By Elody Von7 July 202610 July 20260 Comments5min read3 views

The Best Scented Candles For Home Worth Buying In 2026 — Honest Picks That Actually Fill A Room

Let me tell you the specific disappointment I’m trying to help you avoid: buying a beautifully packaged candle, lighting it for the first time with some ceremony, sitting down to enjoy the result, and noticing approximately twenty minutes later that the fragrance extends to about eighteen inches from the flame and no further.

This is the experience of a candle with poor scent throw. The fragrance is present if you lean close. It doesn’t fill the room. It doesn’t change the quality of the air in the space. It burns attractively and smells nice to people standing directly over it, which is only useful if you’re planning to spend the evening leaning over a candle.

The candles worth buying fill the room. Not overwhelmingly — good candle fragrance is ambient rather than aggressive — but perceptibly from across the space. You notice it when you walk in from another room. It changes the feeling of the space.

Why Some Candles Throw And Some Don't

The fragrance load — the percentage of fragrance oil in the wax — is the primary determinant of scent throw. Most mass-market candles use 6-8% fragrance load because it’s the cheaper option and sufficient for the in-shop sniff test that drives purchasing decisions. Premium candles typically use 10-12%.

The wax type also matters. Coconut wax holds and releases fragrance better than most alternatives. Soy wax performs well. Paraffin can hold high fragrance loads but burns less cleanly.

And the wick must be sized correctly for the jar diameter — an undersized wick produces tunnelling (the wax burning down the centre without melting to the jar edges), which wastes fragrance because unmelted wax can’t release its fragrance oil into the air.

The Best Candles To Buy Right Now

Diptyque Baies — The One That Changed What I Expected From A Candle

I was resistant to the Diptyque price for approximately three years. The candles cost more than I thought any candle warranted. Then I received one as a gift and lit it and understood within twenty minutes why people buy them repeatedly.

The Baies fragrance — blackcurrant and Bulgarian rose — fills a medium-sized room convincingly within thirty minutes of lighting. Not the aggressive synthetic-sweet room fill of a cheap scented candle but a specific, sophisticated ambient fragrance that changed the quality of the air in the room in the way that good candles are supposed to.

I’ve since bought three more. The throw is consistent from candle to candle. The burn time (approximately 60 hours for the medium size) is correct when the candle is used properly — first burn long enough to melt the wax to the jar edges, wick trimmed to 5mm before each subsequent burn.

The honest cost-per-use: at £75 for a 190g candle with approximately 60 hours of burn time, the cost is £1.25 per hour. That’s cheaper than most streaming services and considerably more meaningful to the atmosphere of a room.

Price: £75 (190g), £145 (large)
Available at: Diptyque directly, Selfridges, Space NK, Net-A-Porter

NEST New York Classic Candle — For Strong Scent Throw At A Lower Price

NEST New York’s candles are the American counterpart to Diptyque — a brand built on genuine fragrance quality rather than on packaging alone. The Classic candle in Moroccan Amber is the specific recommendation for those who want strong scent throw in a large space.

The 600g large candle (three wicks) is the format for genuinely filling a living room. The three-wick design melts the wax surface more completely and releases fragrance more aggressively than a single-wick candle of the same size. At 100+ hours of burn time, the per-hour cost is competitive with Diptyque.

Price: £55-75 depending on size
Available at: NEST New York directly, Nordstrom, Anthropologie

Anthropologie Capri Blue Volcano — The Accessible Quality Candle

The Anthropologie Volcano candle has maintained its position as the most recommended accessible candle for a genuine reason: the throw is strong for the price. The tropical fruit and sugared citrus fragrance fills a room convincingly and consistently, and the 3-wick format in the large size produces the kind of room-filling result that many more expensive candles don’t achieve.

I keep one in the kitchen where the scent (clean, citrusy) works well alongside cooking smells and the strong throw is most appreciated in a room that experiences regular air circulation.

Price: £22-35 depending on size
Available at: Anthropologie directly, their stores

Boy Smells Kush Candle — For Something Different

Boy Smells produces candles that don’t fit neatly into the traditional candle aesthetic — the fragrances combine elements traditionally separated by gendered marketing and the results are genuinely interesting rather than unconventional for the sake of it. The Kush candle (sandalwood, vanilla, cannabis) is the one I’d direct people to who want something that doesn’t smell like anything else in the room-filling fragrance category.

The coconut wax blend holds fragrance exceptionally well and the throw is among the strongest in this comparison at the medium price tier.

Price: £36-55
Available at: Boy Smells directly, Sephora, Anthropologie

Yankee Candle Clean Cotton — The Reliable Everyday Standard

Yankee’s large jar candles are the reliable standard for affordable, consistently performing scented candles. The paraffin wax holds high fragrance loads and the throw in the large jar (which I use in the bedroom) fills the room effectively within twenty minutes of lighting.

The Clean Cotton fragrance is the recommendation because it suits the widest range of contexts — a fresh, clean linen-adjacent scent that works in bedrooms, living rooms, and bathrooms without being polarising.

Price: £18-28 depending on size
Available at: Yankee Candle directly, most supermarkets, department stores

How To Make Any Candle Last Longer And Throw Better

Trim the wick to 5mm before every burn. An untrimmed wick creates a flame that’s too large, burns the candle too quickly, and produces more soot than fragrance.

Burn for at least two hours on the first use — until the wax melts to the jar edges. The first burn establishes the “memory” of the melt pool and prevents tunnelling on every subsequent burn.

Never burn for more than four hours at a time. Extended burns overheat the wax and burn off the fragrance oil faster than it can be released into the room.

Conclusion

Candles that fill a room with fragrance are one of the most immediate, low-effort changes to how a home feels, and the brands above deliver this in different ways at different price points. Diptyque is the reference — if you can justify the price once, try it once, because it will recalibrate what you expect from a candle permanently. NEST provides comparable quality at a slightly lower price in formats that suit larger spaces. Anthropologie’s Volcano delivers surprising throw for the money. Boy Smells offers the genuinely different fragrance direction. And Yankee provides reliable everyday fragrance at accessible prices. Whatever you choose, the first burn is the one that determines all subsequent burns — give it two hours the first time.

By Elody Von

Drunk Elephant Review 2026 — Worth The Price Or Overrated? My Honest Take

By Elody Von7 July 202610 July 20260 Comments3min read7 views

Drunk Elephant Review 2026 — Worth The Price Or Overrated? My Honest Take

Drunk Elephant is expensive. The C-Firma Fresh Day Serum is £82 for 30ml. The Protini Polypeptide Cream is £62 for 50ml. The T.L.C. Sukari Babyfacial is £78 for a treatment that’s used once a week. These prices require justification rather than the implication that quality automatically follows premium positioning.

I’ve used Drunk Elephant products for approximately fourteen months, having started from a position of genuine skepticism about whether the price was justified. Here is what that experience produced.

The Products And What I Think Of Them

C-Firma Fresh Day Serum — The One I'd Buy Again

The C-Firma is a vitamin C serum using 15% L-ascorbic acid with ferulic acid and phloretin — the specific combination that the original vitamin C serum research identified as the most effective formulation for stability and efficacy.

The fresh-mixing format is the innovation that addresses vitamin C’s fundamental problem: L-ascorbic acid oxidises rapidly once mixed, which means most vitamin C serums are selling degraded product by the time they reach the consumer. The C-Firma ships with the powder and serum base separated, mixing on first use. The resulting product is potent for the first four to six weeks and then begins to degrade — the orange colour change is visible and tells you when to replace it.

The results over fourteen months of daily morning use: visible improvement in skin tone evenness, progressive fading of post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation from a period of breakouts two years ago, and a luminosity to the skin surface that wasn’t present before beginning vitamin C use. I can’t attribute all of this to the C-Firma alone — other skincare changes happened during the same period — but the correlation is strong enough to keep buying it.

Is it worth £82? The question is whether the fresh-mixing format justifies the premium over cheaper vitamin C serums. My assessment: yes, because the potency at point of use is genuinely different from oxidised serums, and vitamin C that’s still active is categorically more effective than vitamin C that’s partially degraded.

Price: £82
Available at: Drunk Elephant directly (drunkelephant.com), Sephora, Space NK

Protini Polypeptide Cream — Good But Not Irreplaceable

The Protini is a signal peptide moisturiser — a moisturiser where the peptide content is at concentrations claimed to support collagen synthesis and skin firmness. The texture is medium-weight and absorbs well. The skin feels comfortable after application without any heavy residue.

The honest assessment: I noticed a difference when using the Protini compared to a standard moisturiser without peptides. I am less certain that the difference is attributable to the Protini specifically versus the general improvements in my skincare routine during the same period.

Is it worth £62? Possibly. The alternative for peptide moisturisation at a lower price would be the COSRX Advanced Snail Peptide Cream at approximately £25, which has a different formulation but addresses the same skin concern. Whether the Drunk Elephant’s formulation is sufficiently superior to justify the price difference is a question I’m genuinely uncertain about.

Price: £62
Available at: Drunk Elephant directly, Sephora, Space NK

T.L.C. Sukari Babyfacial — Worth It For The Specific Result

The Babyfacial is an AHA/BHA exfoliation treatment — 25% AHA and 2% BHA used for twenty minutes once a week. The specific result (skin that looks noticeably smoother and more luminous for three to four days following treatment) is observable in a way that’s less ambiguous than most skincare claims.

At £78 for a 50ml tube that lasts approximately three to four months of weekly use, the per-use cost is manageable at around £5-7 per treatment. The result is sufficiently distinct from regular cleansing and moisturisation that it genuinely earns the separate step.

Price: £78
Available at: Drunk Elephant directly, Sephora, Space NK

The Overall Verdict

Drunk Elephant justifies its price in specific product categories — the C-Firma (fresh-mixing format genuinely matters for vitamin C efficacy) and the Babyfacial (the exfoliation result is visible and consistent). The moisturisers and other products are genuinely good but face more direct competition from lower-priced alternatives that close the quality gap more than they close the gap on vitamin C formulation.

My honest recommendation: buy the C-Firma if daily vitamin C is part of your routine or you want to start one. Buy the Babyfacial if regular exfoliation treatment is a step you’d use consistently. Consider whether the alternative peptide moisturisers at lower prices serve the same need before committing to the Protini.

By Elody Von

McGee & Co Review 2026 — Is It Actually Worth The Price?

By Elody Von7 July 202610 July 20260 Comments3min read3 views

McGee & Co Review 2026 — Is It Actually Worth The Price?

McGee & Co appeared in my internet life through the Fixer Upper adjacent world of American home content, which is its own specific aesthetic universe of shiplap and neutral linen and vintage-looking new things. I came to it skeptically.

I stayed because the actual products, when they arrived, were better than I expected from a brand built on social media presence. And then I had the experience that every honest review of any home brand should include: the thing that didn’t meet expectations, which taught me the most about when McGee & Co is and isn’t worth the price.

What I Bought And What I Thought

The Boucle Throw Pillows

This is the purchase I’d make again without hesitation. The boucle texture on the McGee & Co throw pillows is genuinely luxurious — the loopy, textured fabric catches light differently at different angles and produces the specific warmth that photographs well and feels good in person. The insert quality is above what most decorative pillow inserts provide; the pillow holds its shape on the sofa and doesn’t go flat within six months of regular use.

I have three of these on the living room sofa in warm white and one in a terracotta that works as the accent piece. Fourteen months later, the boucle looks essentially the same as when it arrived. The terracotta has faded marginally in the sun — I’ve since moved it away from direct afternoon light.

Price: £45-65 per pillow
Available at: McGee & Co directly (mcgeeandco.com)
Verdict: Worth it. Possibly the best accessible boucle pillow available.

The Vintage-Inspired Ceramic Vases

Also worth buying. The glazed finish on the McGee & Co ceramic vases has a specific quality — the slight variation in glaze thickness that produces depth rather than uniform coverage — that distinguishes them from mass-produced alternatives at lower prices. The shapes are simple enough to suit multiple aesthetic directions.

I have two on a floating shelf in the living room and one on the bedroom windowsill. All three look as they did when purchased.

Price: £35-85 depending on size
Available at: McGee & Co directly
Verdict: Worth buying when on sale (which is often).

The Linen-Look Curtains — Where Expectations Weren't Met

I ordered two panels of the McGee & Co linen curtains for the living room and this is the honest disappointment in the review. The curtains photographed beautifully on the website — the natural linen colour, the gentle texture, the way they hung with the specific relaxed elegance that linen curtains achieve in well-lit rooms.

What arrived was a product that was genuinely good but not extraordinary. The linen content is a blend rather than pure linen, which means the texture is softer and less distinctive than pure linen’s slight irregularity. The weight is lighter than I’d have chosen — the curtains move more in any air circulation than I’d like, which produces a constant slight motion that reads as breezy in some contexts and restless in others.

They’re not bad curtains. They’re above the quality of most high-street alternatives. But at the price, I had expected something closer to pure linen and received something closer to a linen-look blend.

Price: £85-165 per panel
Available at: McGee & Co directly
Verdict: Consider alternatives at this price — specifically pure linen options from specialist curtain suppliers where the linen content is confirmed.

When McGee & Co Is Worth It And When It Isn't

Worth it: Decorative accessories — the pillows, vases, trays, smaller textile pieces. The quality-to-price ratio in these categories is genuinely good and the design aesthetic is distinctive enough to be worth paying for.

Worth checking first: Furniture, which has more variable reviews related to shipping damage and quality consistency than the accessories. Read recent reviews specifically related to the delivery condition before ordering large furniture items.

Look elsewhere: Large textile items like curtains and rugs where the price is high enough that alternatives with more specific material quality are available for comparable amounts.

Conclusion

McGee & Co is a genuinely good home decor brand whose quality is highest in its decorative accessories and whose value proposition makes most sense when buying those pieces rather than furniture or large textiles. The boucle pillows are among the best I’ve found at any price. The ceramics overperform their price. The curtains are good but not exceptional for the money. Understanding which categories represent the brand at its best determines whether any given purchase is satisfying or disappointing — and for the right purchases, the answer is genuinely satisfying.

By Elody Von

The Best SPF For Your Face In 2026 — I Tested Several. Here’s What I Actually Wear Every Day

By Elody Von7 July 202610 July 20260 Comments4min read5 views

The Best SPF For Your Face In 2026 — I Tested Several. Here’s What I Actually Wear Every Day

The SPF conversation is one where the honest answer and the popular answer diverge in a way worth addressing directly. The honest answer is: the best sunscreen is the one you’ll actually wear every day. The popular answer is a long list of ingredient requirements and finish preferences that result in a theoretically perfect product many people don’t consistently use.

I’ve been wearing SPF on my face every day for approximately five years. Getting to daily application required going through several SPFs that I didn’t like using — a white cast here, a greasy finish there, a formula that pilled under foundation — before finding products that I forgot I was wearing, which is the sign that an SPF has become part of the routine rather than an obligation on top of it.

The SPFs I've Actually Used Daily

ISDIN Fusion Water SPF50 — The Daily Standard

The ISDIN Fusion Water SPF50 is the product I’ve worn most consistently and reached for most automatically. The texture is called “water-like” on the packaging and the description is more accurate than most product descriptions — it absorbs immediately, leaves no residue, and after thirty seconds I genuinely can’t feel it on my face.

No white cast at any skin tone I’ve seen it on (I’ve recommended it to several friends with a range of complexions). It layers under foundation without pilling. It sits over moisturiser without moving. It doesn’t contribute to mid-day shine on normal skin.

After five years of using this SPF, the skin benefits are visible in a way that I’m genuinely uncertain how to attribute specifically to the SPF versus general skincare improvements during the same period. What I can say is that my skin’s evenness and texture have improved over the period during which I’ve been wearing daily SPF, and the dermatological evidence for SPF’s role in this is consistent enough that I don’t feel the attribution is a stretch.

Price: £40-46
Available at: ISDIN directly, Amazon, Space NK

Anua Birch Juice Sun Serum SPF50+ — The Korean Formula

Korean sunscreen formulation has influenced the global SPF market significantly in the past five years, and the Anua Birch Juice Sun Serum represents what Korean SPF does that European and American SPFs often don’t: it feels like skincare rather than medicine.

The serum-weight texture, the birch juice base, and the overall cosmetic elegance of the formula produce an SPF that I’d apply even if the sun protection weren’t the primary motivation. The formula contains additional skin-beneficial ingredients alongside the filters — the hyaluronic acid and birch juice provide genuine hydration that makes the product feel like a step that’s improving the skin rather than just protecting it.

The finish is invisible in a specific way that the ISDIN almost but doesn’t quite match — after application, there is no discernible film or residue, just skin that has had something applied to it without looking like anything was applied to it.

Price: £22-28
Available at: Various Korean skincare retailers online, ASOS Beauty, Space NK

La Roche-Posay Anthelios UV Correct SPF50+ — For Sensitive Skin

The La Roche-Posay Anthelios range is the SPF that I’d recommend specifically to anyone with reactive or sensitive skin. The formulation has been tested for sensitive skin tolerance and the absence of fragrance and alcohol reduces the irritation risk that many SPFs produce on reactive complexions.

The UV Correct version adds niacinamide to the SPF base, providing the pore-minimising and tone-evening benefits of niacinamide alongside the sun protection. For those who want one product to do multiple things without layering separate products, this is the most coherent combination available.

Price: £20-28
Available at: La Roche-Posay directly, Boots, most pharmacies

Why I Don't Use Mineral SPF For Daily Face Use

Mineral sunscreens (zinc oxide and titanium dioxide) are the safest category from a skin-contact and environmental perspective. They’re also the category most likely to leave a white cast on most skin tones, to feel heavy on the face, and to disrupt makeup application by sitting on rather than absorbing into the skin.

For those who specifically want mineral SPF for ethical or sensitivity reasons, the best available is EltaMD UV Clear SPF46, which uses micronised zinc oxide to minimise the white cast and includes niacinamide for additional skin benefit. It’s not invisible the way the ISDIN or Anua is, but it’s the most cosmetically elegant mineral SPF available.

Price: £35-45
Available at: EltaMD directly, Dermstore

The One Habit That Matters Most

Apply enough. The SPF protection is measured on a 2mg per cm² application — for the face, this is approximately ¼ to ½ teaspoon of product. Most people apply less than half this amount and receive substantially less protection than the stated SPF number. Using enough SPF, even of a less elegant formula, provides more protection than using too little of a perfect formula.

Conclusion

The SPF that works is the one worn every day in sufficient quantity, which means it needs to be a product you genuinely don’t mind applying. ISDIN Fusion Water is my daily standard for the combination of protection and invisible finish. Anua Birch Juice is the Korean alternative that surpasses the ISDIN in cosmetic elegance. La Roche-Posay serves sensitive skin with documented tolerance testing. Whatever you choose, wear it daily and apply enough — consistency and quantity are the two variables that determine whether daily SPF makes the observable difference to skin quality that the evidence says it should.

By Elody Von

Kosas Makeup Review 2026 — Is It Worth The Hype? My Honest Assessment

By Elody Von7 July 202610 July 20260 Comments3min read5 views

Kosas Makeup Review 2026 — Is It Worth The Hype? My Honest Assessment

Kosas positioned itself in the clean beauty space before clean beauty was a mainstream marketing category, and the brand has maintained credibility in a space that now contains many brands with less substantive clean credentials alongside its own. Whether the makeup is good enough to recommend independently of its clean positioning is the question I’m actually answering here.

What I've Used And For How Long

The Kosas Tinted Face Oil for approximately eight months. The DreamBeam Mineral SPF 40 for six months. The Revealer Concealer for four months. The Cloud Set Baked Setting Powder for three months.

The Products I'd Recommend

Tinted Face Oil — The Best Product In The Range

The Kosas Tinted Face Oil is a tinted serum with 10 shades of buildable coverage. I wear it over moisturiser as my daily base — not when I want more coverage, but for the majority of days when I want skin that looks like healthy skin rather than skin that looks covered.

The texture is genuinely serum-like. It absorbs rather than sitting on the skin. The coverage is very light — it evens tone rather than covering anything significantly — and it reads as enhancement rather than application. The result on my skin (normal to dry, slightly uneven tone) is what I’d describe as my face, but a better version of it.

After eight months, I’m on my second bottle. The formula works well with SPF underneath — no pilling or separation. The finish is luminous rather than dewy in a way that suits most skin types without looking oily.

Price: £45-52
Available at: Kosas directly (kosas.com), Space NK, Sephora (US), Cult Beauty

Revealer Concealer — Second Favourite

The Revealer Concealer is the under-eye and spot concealer that most consistently delivers the specific result of looking like the area is better rather than looking covered. The formula contains caffeine and hyaluronic acid alongside the pigment, and the brightness it produces under the eye is partly the concealer doing its job and partly the skincare ingredients doing theirs.

The Product I'd Approach More Carefully

DreamBeam SPF 40 — Not For Oily Skin

The DreamBeam Mineral SPF is the product I’d recommend with a significant caveat: it’s not appropriate for oily skin. The moisturising base and the luminous finish that make it excellent for dry skin produce a result on oily or combination skin that reads as too shiny by midday.

On dry skin, the DreamBeam is among the best SPF moisturisers I’ve used — it genuinely moisturises, provides genuine SPF protection, and produces a finish that’s appropriate for daily wear without requiring powder on top. On oily skin, look elsewhere.

Price: £45-55
Available at: Kosas directly, Space NK

The Overall Verdict

Kosas is a genuinely good clean beauty brand whose best products (the Tinted Face Oil, the Revealer Concealer) produce results that compete with non-clean alternatives at the same price. The clean formulation is genuine — the ingredients list is genuinely free from the components that most clean beauty certifications target — and the products perform in a way that doesn’t require compromising on performance for cleaner ingredients.

The brand is worth buying from in the specific product categories where their formulation approach suits the result: skin-enhancing base products and skincare-adjacent makeup. For heavy coverage, the clean formulation approach produces limitations that conventional makeup doesn’t have at the same coverage level.

By Elody Von

Ruggable vs A Regular Rug — I’ve Had Both. Here’s My Honest Take

By Elody Von7 July 202610 July 20260 Comments4min read3 views

Ruggable vs A Regular Rug — I’ve Had Both. Here’s My Honest Take

I want to start where this decision actually started for me: on a Saturday afternoon with a glass of red wine, a distracted conversation, and a rug that absorbed what spilled before I’d registered that it had happened.

We had a wool rug. It was beautiful. It had cost considerably more than I was comfortable admitting when asked. It was at that point approximately eleven months old and had survived one cat, one husband who tends to eat on the sofa, and the general traffic of a house used like a house rather than a showroom. The wine was not the first challenge it had faced, but it was the most significant.

I spent a Sunday afternoon applying everything recommended — specialist cleaner, cold water, blotting rather than rubbing, a fan drying it afterward. The stain faded to something visible only in certain light at certain angles. I was fairly pleased with the result and mildly anxious about it for the remaining time we had the rug.

The Ruggable arrived three months later.

What Ruggable Actually Is

The Ruggable system is two pieces: a non-slip rug pad that stays on the floor and a cover that attaches via a cling mechanism and comes off for washing. The cover goes in a standard washing machine — cold, gentle cycle — and reattaches to the pad when dry.

The attachment is stronger than it sounds. The cling between the cover and pad is firm enough that the cover doesn’t shift during normal foot traffic. It releases when you deliberately pull it up from a corner — not the satisfying Velcro rip you might imagine but a smooth separation that takes a few seconds.

The washing is exactly as described. I’ve washed the cover approximately twelve times over fourteen months. The machine fills, the cycle runs for about an hour, the cover comes out slightly wrinkled and damp, and after an hour or two laid flat (or hanging, though I find flat-drying produces fewer wrinkles) it’s ready to reattach.

The Honest Comparison

Appearance

The wool rug won. Not dramatically, but clearly. There is a depth and warmth to the texture of a quality wool rug that the Ruggable’s flat-pile construction doesn’t replicate. The Ruggable looks like a good rug. The wool rug looked like a great rug.

After twelve washes, the Ruggable still looks good. The colours have not faded noticeably. The pile hasn’t degraded in the way I’d worried it might. The edges are clean without fraying.

Comfort Underfoot

The wool rug won again. The cushioning of a thick wool pile against bare feet on a morning is genuinely different from the Ruggable’s thinner construction. This matters in the living room and bedroom. It matters less in the hallway.

Practical Peace Of Mind

The Ruggable won. Completely. The specific freedom of knowing that anything that happens to the rug can be reversed in a washing machine changed how I lived around the rug in a way I hadn’t fully anticipated. I stopped the small moment of anxiety when my son carries a juice box near the living room. I didn’t strategically position the coffee table to conceal areas of concern.

This is not a trivial thing. Living more freely around your own home because you’re not worried about your rug is a quality of life improvement that photographs of clean rugs don’t capture.

Value Over Time

This depends entirely on what happens to the rug. The wool rug at greater initial cost would have been better value over ten years if nothing had happened to it. The Ruggable at lower cost is better value over ten years if the household produces the kind of life that does things to rugs, because professional cleaning of a regular rug costs £40-80 per clean and you’d need several of these over a decade.

Who Should Buy Which

Regular rug: households without children or pets, those who want the highest visual quality, those whose primary room use doesn’t involve regular food and drink near floor level.

Ruggable: households with children, pets, or anyone who eats near the living room floor; anyone who has had a rug cleaning anxiety before; rental properties or anyone who moves regularly and wants to be able to wash the rug before a move.

The choice between them isn’t a quality question, it’s a lifestyle question. I have both now — the Ruggable in the living room where life happens most actively, a smaller conventional rug in the bedroom where the conditions are more controlled. This combination is, I’ve found, the honest answer to the question.

Our Top Product Picks

Ruggable Vintage Washable Rug

Price: From £169 for 3’x5′, up to £599 for 8’x10′

The Ruggable Vintage collection is consistently the most recommended design direction from the brand because the complex pattern hides texture variation after washing more effectively than solid colour options. The Moroccan and Persian-inspired patterns also suit a wide range of furniture styles and read as more traditional and considered than the contemporary abstract options.

Available at: Ruggable directly (ruggable.com)

Lulu and Georgia Wool Area Rug

Price: From £299-899 depending on size

For those who want a conventional rug at the highest accessible quality tier, Lulu and Georgia’s hand-tufted wool options provide genuine wool depth and warmth at prices below what designer rug brands charge for equivalent construction.

Available at: Lulu and Georgia directly (luluandgeorgia.com)

Wayfair Unique Loom Vintage Rug

Price: From £89-350 depending on size

The most accessible conventional rug option with genuinely good design for the price. The machine-made construction doesn’t have the depth of hand-tufted wool but the pattern quality and colourways are more sophisticated than the price would predict.

Available at: Wayfair directly (wayfair.co.uk)

By Elody Von