As you come out of the walled entrance to Yves Saint Laurent’s Jardin Majorelle in Marrakech, where we spent a glorious afternoon wandering, the first thing that you see across the road are a series of design stores that wouldn’t look out of place in London, Paris or New York. On a dusty street in Marrakech they are…unexpected.

Of course it makes sense, given that if you are in Marrakech and have any interest in design or fashion, you’d head bee to honey-like to the Jardin Majorelle. So: the best shops we found were here.

My favourite was the Héritage Berbère Parfumerie, which sells dreams made of scent, which waft out of the door into the street. The tall glass tube atomisers of eaux de toilettes above are just 14euros. With a Moroccan green tea base, they all have fruit or flower notes.

All the scents were delicious: I remember Wild Fig, Tea Rose, Blackberry-Musk, Jasmin-Green Tea, Gardenia, Woody-Amber, Tuberose, Verveine-Citron and more. For my mother and for me I picked the deceptively simple Fleur d’Oranger, which is described as a ‘Fragrance florale, orientale et douce à l’huile essentielle de Néroli”. There’s a gentle musky sweetness under the orange, but it keeps its essential lightness. A lovely scent for everyday.

The store also sells more complex eaux de parfums, for men and for women, home scents in diffusers, candles & room sprays, and organic Argan oil. There are also pretty glass jars, some chic kaftans and accessories, and beaten metal cache-pots

I really can’t think of a lovelier souvenir of Marrakech. (They do also have a mail order service.)

Héritage Berbère
Villa Dar Sabah (prés jardin Majorelle), Av. Yacoub El Mansour, 40 000 Marrakech
www.heritageberbere.com

Given that for some trips it makes no sense to pack hold baggage, I have to be inventive when I choose & pack my  beauty products. Current airport regulations  for what you can take in cabin baggage change from country to country, so there is no hard and fast way to make sure you please all of the people all of the time, but one thing is a constant: since I moved to America in 2007 I’ve never once bothered with faffing about with plastic bags, and never once been stopped.  However I have started using Muji clear plastic zipped pouches, just so I can see what’s inside, and wipe them clean when I inevitably spill stuff inside.

Instead I keep an eye on sizes, keeping each container below the maximum allowed (currently 100ml). But this focus on size is also because, whether or not I travel in business class, I a) still have to lug my stuff around at some point, and b) fit everything I need for a two or three day trip in my Tumi cabin wheelie, so there’s no point in taking up valuable space with large amounts of product I don’t need..

This is where Muji comes in again. After a few problems with hard clear plastic mini bottles from Boots which were both impossible to fill and impossible to squeeze, I found squeezable mini bottles in Muji, which I use for my cleanser and hair products. I then label each one, so I don’t try to clean my face with hair conditioner and vice versa. I store all these in their travel pouch, so I can always travel at short notice.

From left to right:
Caudalie Micellar Cleansing Water in a Muji squeezie tube, which is gentle enough for my sore travel-weary skin, but still takes my makeup & travel grime off.

My recent best buy are these tiny Muji Acrylic Stacking Pots x5 (£2.50), which I fill with my five current travelling essentials, switching in products depending on destination. From top to bottom:
As I’ve just been in Montreal, I packed hardcore skin food to stop my skin falling off in the shape of Ren Mayday Rescue Balm,
which goes on over Jo Malone Vitamin E Moisturising Day Crème SPF15, which has just launched. It has a lovely silky texture and whacks some winter moisturising punch. Make up just glides on over it.
My face is quite red at the moment from weather & travelling & rosacea, so I have to have green L’Oreal Paris Studio Secrets Professional Color Correcting Anti-Redness Primerto get rid of my blotchiness.  Francois Nars Sheer Orgasm Illuminator perks up my complexion and adds a pretty glow. At the bottom is my favourite-est ever base: Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation. This stuff is proper magic.

Darphin Hydraskin Serum is a real winter wonder. Combined with the Jo Malone, my skin is looking better than ever.

In the last two Muji squeezie tubes are Frederic Fekkai Salon Technician Colour Care shampoo & conditioner. (Which I wrote about here.)

For about a year now I’ve been testing out shampoos and conditioners across every price point and every philosophy. There have been products for colour treated hair, and ones that promised volume. Some that were branded as ‘natural’ and were anything but, and some that were almost totally organic. There were bottles that contained rare and precious ingredients and others argan oils or flower extracts.

You name it, I tried it.

But the hands down winner was from Frederic Fekkai. To be specific, Salon Technician Colour Care. Absolutely the best shampoo & conditioner I used all last year. I first tried it last spring, loved it, but was fickle. Other new products arrived and I moved on. But last week, fed up with months of lacklustre hair and umpteen bottles of goop, I reached under the bath to the plastic drawer filled with products and randomly pulled out the remaining Fekkai.

My hair hasn’t seen shine like it since last Easter. So shiny you could practically see your face in. And bouncy. And silky. And none of that almost floppy feel that comes with too much silicone in cheap shampoos. And therein lies the rub. I’ve never been a big believer in forking out for expensive hair products, with such a proliferation under a fiver, but this stuff?

Oh this stuff is so good that when I had drained the very last drop of conditioner last weekend, I hoofed it to Space NK for another bottle at an eye-watering £20. I’ll be eeking that bottle out — to be honest, we all use far too much shampoo and conditioner, given the amount of lathering agents they all contain these days — so it should last a fair amount of time.

That being said, it’s a simple pleasure: how I look is an important part of my identity and I like having a healthy, shiny head of hair. So this is my vice of the moment. Better for me than alcohol or chocolate, that’s for sure.

I am so rarely in the proper heat of the sun that it’s taken me a while to get round to reviewing any suntan creams or lotions. I do know that for my Northern Hemisphere readers, currently wrapped in scarves, Uniqlo HeatTech and thermal knickers,  the thought of suncream is a little far off right now. But I have a lovely bunch of readers Down Under & on the West Coast and, of course, people take winter sun holidays. Like me in Morocco last week (sob — my head is refusing to compute that I was in glorious Marrakech ten days ago), where I took the above photo on the side of the wonderful pool at Les Deux Tours in the Palmerie (new favourite hotel).

I am obsessed with sun protection — and I’m living proof that using sun protection doesn’t just stop you getting skin cancer, it stops you getting wrinkles. I barely have any, because I have never gone in the sun without cream, sunglasses or a hat. (I’m a natural blonde with a morgue-like pallor under the fake tan. I burn. Fast. Ouch.)

Anyway, I didn’t apply a lot of thought to my suncreams, as I wobbled on a stepladder fishing bottles out of my holiday lotions & potions stash in a cupboard in my office. I just lobbed the first ones I pulled out in the direction of my cases and hoped for the best. (Packing? Meh.) These are all high factor, and suitable for super fair skin, as well as those lucky enough to have a darker complexion.

Ole Henriksen Protect the Truth, 50+£35
Lovely smell of oranges, great texture. You could easily wear this during the day in the city, as well as by the pool. Needs to be rubbed in, but absorbs really quickly and  doesn’t turn your face white at all. It’s oil-free, paraben-free, doesn’t clog and contains loads of anti-oxidants. Not cheap but definitely worthwhile.

La Roche Posay Sun Protection, 50+ £16.50
I ADORE this stuff. I buy bottles and bottles of it every time I go to France, although you can now buy it in England and America too, and make sure I have it in the car, handbag and bathroom. It comes in a tinted and in an un-tinted version. I like the tinted for holidays as it just evens out skintone, and I certainly don’t want to wear foundation by the pool. This is also the stuff I use everyday in  sunny cities and in London in the summer. It’s very liquid so you don’t need to massage it in, and you can wear foundation over it. I’ve also used it over my make up when out and about to no ill-effect. One of my hero products.

St Tropez High Protection For Face with Tan Enhancer, £15
I’m not so fussed about the tan enhancer part — my tan comes courtesy of St Tropez’s brilliant self-tan products, but I do think this face sun cream is excellent. (I always pack a lot of face protection because I get through a lot.) Again, no residue and quite thick  (but melts into skin) so my skin felt very protected.

Piz Buin Ultra Light Sun Spray, Was £15,99 Now £5.98
I do like spray lotions, much easier to rub in and a fair chance of covering the bits you can’t reach if you are on your own. I particularly like Piz Buins as they never feel heavy on the skin, and don’t leave a white residue.

Melvita Prosun, Was £22 Now £13.20
A more natural choice for those wary of chemicals that penetrate the skin. Contains some organic ingredients, and I have never burnt using this. It does take a bit of rubbing to get rid of the whiteness on the skin (it uses Titanium and Zinc as its main sunblock) and I found that it stayed on in the water too.

Today my skin is baby soft, and the typist knots in my shoulders have unravelled a little. That’s because we spent yesterday morning at Les Bains de Marrakech, one of the most recommended hammams in the city. As we discovered when we tried to book at a day’s notice, it is always fully booked, so that’s another thing to book before you arrive in Morocco. However, we did manage to score two 9am slots on Sunday – New Year’s Day, which suited us fine, as we were checking out of our hotel at midday, and we didn’t go out on NYE.

Of course there are any number of cheap and cheerful hammams in the city, but I appreciate a few more luxe trimmings as I get older, and Les Bains is a perfect compromise between local bathhouse and luxury spa – a la Dior Institut at the Hotel El Saadi or the Mamounia’s legendary pamper palace.

So at Les Bains the building is a traditional riad, with Moroccan lanterns casting a roseate glow through the corridors. There are flower petals scattered everywhere, soft chaises on which to lounge in between treatments, little glasses of sugared mint tea to keep your strength up, and massages in dimly lit, gently fragranced private rooms.

We had booked a hammam & gommage for two, followed by a massage each. (There was an option to have the massage together, but I prefer my privacy.)

Although a maillot — swimming costume is obligatory, the moment we got in the hammam room, we were sluiced with buckets of hot water and asked to remove our suits. (We were in a private hammam for two people.) Of course you can keep yours on if modesty dictates or you are in a bigger hammam.  If you don’t want to get down and naked with your friend, sister or partner, then make sure you request a private, personal session. Or keep your suit on.

(I also spotted a few local ladies in the changing rooms wearing shower caps for their hammams, which hadn’t occurred to me. Even with two hair washes, I had hideous oily hammam hair for 24hours afterwards so kind of wished I had worn one too.)

After the sluicing there is relaxing in the dim heat, then there is the application of black soap, more relaxing, then the gommage. (Exfoliation with a very raspy mitt. OUCH.) Although it is very satisfying to watch the curls of old grey skin appear. Then more relaxing, then an application of some more goop, then more relaxing.

Then you are done, and it’s time to shower and wash your hair in the adjacent cubicle. (If you are only having a hammam, I’d just wash cursorily, and then head to the changing room to shower thoroughly.)

After some more relaxing, this time on a chaise with mint tea, we were led off separately for very good massages. At this point I do recommend heading for the loo whenever you get the chance – you need to drink lots of water before and after a hammam, and I had to sprint for the changing room downstairs halfway through the massage, which rather killed the mood.

I had a very thorough relaxing massage – none of that stroke-y, stroke-y aromatherapy nonsense but a skilled, therapeutic, un-knotting one, and lil’sis had a draining one, which concentrated on lymphatic drainage and the stomach.

The whole process – hammam, gommage & massage took exactly two hours, and cost 500 dirhams each – 150 for the hammam & gommage, and 350 for the massage. here are lots of other treatments available, from facials and wraps to mani/pedis, as well as lots of packaged treatments and day programmes.

Things I wish I’d packed (but didn’t): a purifying shampoo – they provide their own, but even washing my hair twice didn’t get rid of the massage oil, hair conditioner, body moisturizer & deodorant for afterwards. I also wish I had slipped a comb into my robe pocket at the start, as there wasn’t an opportunity to go back to the changing room between treatments and I had a wet, tangled birds nest on my head after the hammam shower.

Les Bains de Marrakech are open every day from 0900-1930hrs. Book well in advance.
There is a very good website with treatment & price menu at www.lesbainsdemarrakech.com