Ickle Bockles

I'll be straight with you, the name Ickle Bockles makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit. But then dammit, I realised that the company is actually a brilliant idea. They sell sets of LITTLE BOTTLES (see how easy it was to say that like a grown up?) that are totally compliant with EU flight regulations.

If you've ever been stood in line at airport security wondering if your bottle of perfume is the right size, or if you're allowed your contact lens solution in your carry-on, you'll know how annoying it is when they take your bottles away and you have to buy more on the other side. There's always one that you forget about. Ickle Bockles might not be able to answer the 'is lip gloss a liquid?' question, but their little travel kits are ideal for trips away.

The flight-friendly Ickle Bockle Bank (for the love of GOD, why can't it be called something else?) is a very reasonable £10.50. Try your best to forget the name and fill them with your best toiletries. You'll never have to worry at airport security again.

Pantone and Perfumes

I know I shouldn't just smellies by their packaging, but I can't help it. This weekend I admitted that I could be swayed into buying a toiletries brand because of the design. Compagnie de Provence have always had a nice look about them - bold typefaces, bright colours - but they've outdone themselves with this trio of soaps that I spotted while reading a copy of Fabulous magazine that someone had considerately left on the Jubilee line at Southwark.

There's something very Pantone about the design, which I love. The three soaps are the exact scents that you'd expect from the paper colours - violet, Mediterranean sea and wild rose. They're the ideal mix or modern design and classic perfumes and much classier than that bar of Imperial Leather you've used right down to the last scrap.

Usually toiletries with swish packaging is super pricey, but you can pick up this little soap for for £11.80 from Rose & Grace.

Baylis and Harding: Mandarin & Grapefruit

I have a confession to make: I'm a sneaky hotel toiletry stealer.

I have never been left in a hotel room without stealing everything not pinned down. Except the hotel robes. That's a step too far, crazy hotel people. But the smellies? Yeah, they're totally coming with me when I check out. Especially when they're Baylis & Harding.

I've been having a love affair with Baylis & Harding's Sweet Mandarin & Grapefruit scent for a while now. I go nuts for it. It actually wakes you up, and smells exactly like it should. Fresh and energising, yet still soft and sweet (unlike Original Source shower gels which basically make you smell like you showered in orange juice). The bottles are really swish, too. I do love me some nice packaging.

For some reason, Debenhams have been keeping their Baylis & Harding stock a secret. They've got loads of the range, and it's not a millionty pounds! Actually this hand wash and lotion set is reduced and it's just £7.50. I get to play pretend hotel bedrooms in my own house! Amazing. Although I'll be honest, now I know I can just buy these with my pocket money, it's going to make them infinitely less fun to steal.

Smell like Conran

Ask me to think Conran and first of all I think of the lovely Conran shop and exactly what I'd buy from there when I win the lottery. Then I might think of some nice chairs or tasteful kitchen utensils. But toiletries had never crossed my mind until I was sent some items from the new Conran bath and body range. Recently launched, it includes everything from hand cream to body scrub. It makes sense: why not well-designed toiletries to fit into a well-designed life?

My first thought on receiving the packages was "oh, it reminds me of CK One." That's perhaps not the best immediate reaction to a new launch but it was kind of a compliment: paired-back good-looking bottles, unisex, scents that are given a number (range '1' and '2') rather than a name. However, these Conran goodies are impressive through their substance with chunky tubs and bottles and a weight I'd probably associate more with food storage jars rather than toiletries.

I liked the way that the bottles looked in my bathroom - the green of the jars and bottles I sampled from range 2 looked fresh and clean, and the orange trim stopped it looking too 90s and my usually unobservant flatmate actually bothered to ask me about them. That wasn't the only comment on them either, as several work colleagues asked me what I was wearing, sniffing the scent after walking past my desk. That was the result from just using the bath wash and the moisturiser. While I normally go for quite girlie fragrances, this scent was a nice change. Containing lemon, green stems and mandarin, it smelt slightly heavier, and perhaps slightly more blokey, than you might imagine than those ingredients to be together (range 1 is probably even more potent as it contains cardamom, pepper and nutmeg).


My head had a little problem getting round the fact these were toiletries from a design brand, rather than a beauty company. I was especially suspicious of the body lotion: I suffer from quite dry skin and am using to coating myself in layers of thick creams. This Conran cream was light and runny and looked like it might not be up to the job. In fact, after application, I probably had the softest skin I'd had for a very long while. Reviews of the hand cream and shower gel on the John Lewis website seem to tell of similarly satisfied customers.

The range worked in term of looks, fragrance and doing what it was meant to. I'd tried it out before even looking at the price. I'm glad I did as the price may well have clouded my opinion: the bath wash is £16, the hand cream is £12 and the body lotion I'd become so attached to is £26.

I don't think a £26 body lotion would ever be part of my daily routine. But I do think this range would be a great present for any vaguely stylish dads, boyfriends and brothers you may have. Your bathroom will look a lot prettier for having these in there, the men in your life will smell much better, and then you can nick it and use it too.

Johnny's Sister Letter Soaps

I actually spotted these soaps over on Skin Deep Beauty Blogger's site. As I've got very seinsitive skin, I'm not a massive fan of soaps as I find them to be quite drying and my skin gets very unhappy. But I do like soaps that look pretty. Especially in pretty paper packaging.

And Johnny's Sister's letter soaps are really cute. Pick your own initials, give them as little gifts, or cute little wedding presents. His and hers soaps would be lovely. They're lemon and poppyseed scented, which actually sounds like they should be muffins, about I'm surprisingly OK with smelling like baked goods.

All you have to do is choose which letter you want, and then they're £5.99 each. Unfortunately I'll have to stick to initials. Spelling Domestic Sluttery would get very pricey indeed. Probably wouldn't fit on the bathroom shelf either.

Win! Lisa Stickley Goodies!

On the fourth day of Christmas, Domestic Sluttery gave to me lots of lovely Lisa Stickley goodies!

It's no secret that we're Lisa Stickley fans. Not only is she lovely, she's got a knack with her colouring crayons and her designs have us swooning. Charming and cute, without being twee, which isn't an easy thing to pull off at all. But she does, and we want everything on the website.

So, we're super thrilled that she's giving away lovely things for one of you to keep (not for us to keep, we're not allowed to keep your presents). You'll get the awesome washbag pictured above (worth £30) which is sure make any bathroom shelf look lovely. And these super pretty placemats (worth £12) as well.

They're gorgeous! (If anyone wants to enter and send presents to us, that would be fine too). What do you have to do to win these goodies? Just tell us your favourite thing about Christmas. Is it decorating the tree? Making mince pies? Opening presents? We want to know about all of it. Leave us a comment below before 8pm tonight and we'll pick a winner at random. Good luck!

The small print (yawn): The competition will close at 8pm December 6th. This prize is only available to UK readers! You must also leave a name as well to make sure we know who you are! If you're anon, your entry won't count. We're not allowed to enter our own competitions, but Siany's favourite bit about Christmas is wrapping up presents. We wish we could enter our competitions. Humph.

Fashionably Fragrant: Berkeley Square

One of my all-time favourite Domestic Sluttery questions is What do the Sluts smell like? And, if I'm truthful, at the moment I'm probably a bit sweaty from fighting it out in the shops and snowy streets, combined with a touch of spice from that sneaky Christmas rum I had on my way back home. All-in-all, perhaps not smells befitting a young lady.

From amidst the Christmas chaos comes a more elegant answer to that question, the Berkeley Square Natural Couture collection. It's possibly the key to solving both my pong and present-giving problems. Inspired by the V&A Museum's Golden Age of Couture exhibition a few years back, it captures some of the timeless glamour of that period. The range, which includes shower cream, body butter and eau de toilette, uses some of the museum's fabulous black-and-white John French vintage fashion photography to create a dressing table worthy product.

The fragrances are all based on natural oils and extracts and, though not attention-seeking, they definitely work alongside their look - classic scents that you can imagine linger seductively on a pair of perfectly tailored glove or glamorous lace handkerchief that's been set aside by its perfectly coiffured owner. My favourite is the White Bergamot eau de toilette which plays on the citrus scents of the white bergamot and orange to create a fresh and refined scent. The White Amber is a much more earthy smell, using mandarin and sandalwood. Finally to complete the trio, there's White Muguet, a floral jasmine based fragrance.

Available from House of Fraser, or Fortnum and Mason if you are in London, the range is ideally priced for gift giving. Prices start at £12 for hand cream and go up to £35 for the eau de toilette. Or treat yourself: you'll at least smell like a lady, even if you've got no desire to act like one. Pass the Christmas rum please.

You Scrubber: The Toast and Jam Bodywash Set

Make no mistake about it, Secret Santa season is fast approaching, and if your brain is already too frazzled by all the seasonal excitement to come up with anything more original than a toiletry set or some fancypants chocolate, don't despair.

This bizarre new Toast and Jam bodywash set looks like a twee pot of strawberry jam and a satisfyingly thick slab of wholemeal toast. But before you drool all over your computer and trundle to the kitchen to make the requisite accompanying pot of tea, look closer.

All is not as it appears. This breakfast of champions is actually a sponge masquerading as a slice of toast and a fruity tub of bodywash. The quirky presentation stops it from being yet another yawnsome toiletry set, but it's still a safe enough bet that you could bequeath it to someone you don't know so well without worry. And it's only £6.99, from Firebox.

Something... Soapy

It's been a while since I popped into Something... because their shop is just so darn yummy, I'll have spent all of my last pennies on little frifferies that I really have no need for. And that's my absolute favourite kind of shopping. But then they told me it's their 6th birthday soon and they're having a 10% off day on the 18th. You'll get free presents if you spend over £50 as well. And if you pop down on Thursday, they'll even spoil you with a glass of wine or two.

So now you know you want to go and say hello, what are you going to buy? My pennies are going on these fancy soaps.

Isn't the packaging beautiful? I love the wax seal and the paper.


Lovely interesting scents, for £15 each.


I'm not sure of the smell of Kale and Watercress (maybe it's better in the kitchen?) but I adore this packaging. My favourite of the three.

La Compagnie de Provence

To celebrate their 20th anniversary, fancy toiletry company La Compagnie de Provence have created some fabulous new designs for their bottles of soap.


Designed by Marseilles artist Stephan Mutiner, they feature traditional Marseille motifs like tattoed sailors and colourful fishes.


Like them? You can buy them for £15.90 from Lifestyle Bazaar.