I have known, and admired, Julia Busuttil Nishimura, for many years now and always felt connected through our love of Italian food, Tuscany (Julia lived in Florence and in Orbetello, just 10 minutes away from where we lived in Porto Ercole while I was writing Acquacotta) and Japan. So I have been eagerly awaiting her debut cookbook, Ostro: The Pleasure that Comes From Slowing Down and Cooking with Simple Ingredients, and it is a beauty it is full of food I want to make and eat. It's also a joy to look at, as it is presented so beautifully with photographs of Julia (and often her darling little boy Haruki) at home and tables full with food that look Caravaggesque. I have already made her everyday banana loaf, several times, after years of searching for my ideal everyday cake, it is now my go-to banana loaf. I tested her ricciarelli (soft almond cookies from Siena) and pork braised in milk (a classic Italian dish that I have always loved) when she was writing the book and I have long-known her absolutely wonderful, incredibly moist lemon olive oil cake (which is also divine with blood oranges). I absolutely love her homemade approach to everything, including all the wonderful handmade pasta like trofie and orecchiette (look at those beautiful dishes below), but also things like classic tiramisu homemade savoiardi, homemade mascarpone (yes and yes, I absolutely believe that for the freshest, most delicious mascarpone, it needs to be homemade especially if you live outside of Italy). Yes, these are all things you can also buy in a packet, but Julia's point is, it is a pleasure to make these things by hand, and the ingredients are so simple water, flour, cream, eggs, you probably have them all in your house already. She is a woman after my own heart. Her book inspires you to give it a go. Julia believes that A. simple food is good B. Less ingredients is more C. not enough information D. balance is key
B

Regular readers of Beauty Best Friend blog will know that I suffer from an extremely sensitive scalp which can be really itchy, and I have to be very careful what shampoo I use. I know that I'm sensitive to shampoos containing sodium laureth sulfate (also known as SLS, it's the ingredient that makes shampoos, shower gels and soaps lather) but I'm also sensitive to some other ingredients in shampoos too mainly fragrances. I had previously been using Rainforest Balance Shampoo and Conditioner from The Body Shop®️, but I found the conditioner a bit too rich and my hair didn't always feel totally clean after using it. So I started doing a bit of research into recommended natural shampoos and this Sensitive Shampoo from Lavera kept coming up again and again! Several of the reviews I read said that this was the best shampoo for sensitive scalps and that it left hair feeling really clean and soft, so I decided to try it. The shampoo is a translucent peach-coloured gel that contains organic witch hazel and organic almond milk. It has quite a strong scent, but it's a nice one so it doesn't put me off. The shampoo feels creamy when you rub it together in your hands, but I did need quite a lot of it to get a good lather on my first application the second application lathers a lot more easily. I definitely agree that this makes hair feel a lot cleaner than a lot of the other SLS-free shampoos that I've tried, my hair feels clean and full and soft when I've used it the same way it would do if I were using a regular shampoo. I think it also helps my hair to dry more quickly and makes it easier to straighten too. But where this shampoo is outstanding is the way it makes my scalp feel my scalp feels soothed and calm and there's no hint of itching. I've been using Lavera Sensitive Shampoo for over a year now and I wouldn't change it for the world, it's definitely one of the best shampoos for a sensitive itchy scalp. What is the author sensitive to? A. peach colored gel B. not enough information C. sodium laureth sulfate D. Sensitive Shampoo from Lavera
C

I repeatedly see people asking advice on forums as to which is the best detox to do. Whenever I see this question I want to scream at the person 'no, don't do it. It is a waste of your time and money'...but I don't. I don't want to cause a scene, or start a barrage of backlash from people claiming that it worked for them. Instead, I will present the facts and let you decide for yourself if it is worth doing. Before I start, I just want to clarify that when I am referring to detox I mean the ones that you buy where you have to take a million various tablets a day and stick to a very restricted diet. If you are going to 'detox' by simply eating healthily then all power to you. That will most definitely do wonders for your body. These detox kits won't. They will produce results; however, the results will be temporary. Why detoxes don't work Firstly, the companies who are marketing the detoxes talk about removing toxins that have built up in the body. So, what are these toxins? They don't say. They remain vague and just leave you to let your imagination run wild. Do they mean chemicals, waste products from digestion, bacteria? I guess I imagined it as the waste products from digestion but it would be interesting to hear what other people perceive as the 'toxins' in their bodies. I read an interesting article on British Beauty Blogger about how Veet gave Chinese women a problem they never had. Chinese women naturally have very little body hair so hair removal products have always been poor sellers. Therefore, Reckitt Benckiser (who own Veet) devised a marketing campaign to convince Chinese that any body hair is unsightly and released ads equating hair free skin with health, confidence and "shining glory" (the full marketing concept can be read here). I feel that this is the same as what is happening in regards to detoxes. The marketers of the products have convinced us that our bodies are full of these so called 'toxins', from our unhealthy lifestyles, that need to be removed with a detox. What does Veet do? A. make you lose weight B. not enough information C. make you healthier D. make you less hairy
D