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Well, no sooner do I demand make-up for women of a certain age, than the clever old universe drops the answer right in my lap. Elizabeth Arden! Of course. The skincare, scent and makeup brand may be over a hundred years old, but it’s still looking every bit as smart as paint. And, by lovely coincidence, the company invited me to their Christmas in New York party on Wednesday.
Now I admit I did scrutinise the invite rather carefully. Last time I got an email like this, mentioning New York, it was a real, live actual invitation to go to New York with the very lovely folk at Disney. This time, no matter how hard I looked, the venue was definitely more Tottenham Court Road-side than Stateside. Oh well, it was a fab evening anyway, with a beautiful, snow-encrusted interior filled with glittering white Christmas trees dripping with Elizabeth Arden’s trademark red baubles. We sipped apple mojitos and listened to the Elizabeth Arden story – there are two skincare lines, Visible Difference (which is apparently suitable for teenagers, and mine can’t wait to try it) and Prevage, which is pretty much just for me.
I have previously used (and loved) their Eight Hour lip balms and I’ve always liked the Red Door scent, but I had no idea the company also designs perfumes for celebrities’ signature ranges. Their Nicky Menaj scent was apparently the best-selling launch ever. I did go to an Elizabeth Arden launch many years ago, while working on a newspaper, for a scent called Sunflower. I probably shouldn’t have pointed out that sunflowers don’t actually smell at all. But, this time round, I can report that the new Justin Bieber scent, The Key, actually does have a very delicious smell indeed. An excellent teen Christmas gift, I’d say, and it even has a rather irresistible downloadable ring tone of Justin begging you to pick up his call.
Elizabeth Arden has always seemed slightly out of my reach before – it just does seem terribly chic and glossy – but I now feel I’m at exactly the right age for it, at last.
