David Hampton Leather Coat Wallet

No, I’m not breaking out into song, but……last Christmas (crap Wham reference there……)….I reviewed my current wallet as a possible gift idea for him - it was an expensive number (not as expensive as the Mont Blanc one I managed to lose) and one that has served me well. But, a certain little darling of a wallet has arrived courtesy of David Hampton - step forward stage left, the David Hampton Leather Coat Wallet in Malvern.

Well hello……

At £80 for a wallet this clearly is a luxury item but it does ooze class, and it gives off that reassuringly classy leather aroma. 

Now personally I’ve always been one for a rather chunky yet bulky wallets that fit neatly in the back pocket of a pair of jeans kind of guy but the chance to try out the longer wallet version was too good to pass up - so yes, this was a sample from the company, but I promise to be objective.

So, who are ya? Who are ya? This is what they say over on their website here:

'David Hampton, makers of superior leather goods since 1989: beautifully crafted wallets, purses, travel good and luxury leather gifts for men and women. David Hampton offers a selection of luxury ladies' purses, gentleman's wallets and business card holders, travel accessories and fine desk accessories created and available exclusively with a host of premium quality leather good to suit every taste.'

The wallet came gift wrapped, and as always, like a child I got giddy as I unwrapped the box and then removed the wallet from the dust sleeve (dust sleeve, yeah, a bit too classy for my blood). Loved it on first sight, but that just increased as I ran my hands over the outside before running my fingers across the lining, which is actually Champagne

With eight card slots, four pockets for cash (three of which will invariably be taken up by receipts) and a ticket pocket this can hold a mass of cards and cash. Had I not managed to lose all my cards on a recent trip up to Manchester (slow clap for Shawcross) the images would probably demonstrate this, but I’ve tried to show how many cards etc it can take using what I managed to retain while dodging protestors (and police), crawling from bar to bar or scaling a 6 foot (spiked) fence……

The neat David Hampton logo is embossed and incredibly discreet - I actually didn’t notice it at first.

I’m really pleased with my new wallet - it is perfect that use when out in a trench coat, blazer or lounge suit and has already drawn comments from friends (the only printable one is that it’s way too posh for me). At £80 I personally haven’t seen anything of this quality available which also has the functionality and looks to rival it. A perfect gift at any time, but now that Christmas is getting closer you could do so much worse than picking this up as a stocking filler for your fella.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

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Hanz de Fuko Gel Triq Extreme Hold

So many jokes with this product, particularly if you take it’s full name into account – "you can turn some ‘triqs’ with Hanz de Fuko" – boom boom! No, seriously, today and forever more (the Internet never forgets a wise man once told me) every time I apply this I pull my tee over my head and pretend that I‘m either Beavis or Butthead (of early 1990s MTV fame) crying out that they are the great buttholio!

Anyhow, I’m going off on one before I’ve even said what I’m going to be reviewing today – which is Hanz de Fuko Triq Extreme Hold Gel, which came as part of the beauty bag I lightly reviewed back in July here. Now, when I first wrote my review of the bag in July I hadn’t tried this so when I did finally get around to it I was shocked – especially when I saw that it was £14 for just 118ml of the stuff!

Dexter keeping guard over the gel.....

This is what they say about the gel over on the Selfridges website here:

‘Hanz de Fuko's Gel Triq extreme hold gel is perfect for short dramatic styles or for total control over longer hair for the entire day. It dries quickly, won't flake and leaves hair with a high-shine finish. A little goes a long way.’

Having never used (or heard of) this before I was expecting the usual 99p crap that you can find as a filler for any blokes beauty bag, but boy have I been shocked, and this is why……

While it does have the consistency of the 99p gel that you could find in a corner shop that is where the similarity ends – it is thick when it leaves the tube, reassuringly so in fact, so that when applied to dry hair it means you can instantly style. Apply it to damp hair and while it takes a few minutes, run your palm through three or four times and it starts to set, and set it does, like glue, no, like cement.

To the touch it isn't the greatest – personally I hate my hair feeling crispy to the touch, but if you read on you’ll understand why I tolerate it. After a weekend in Manchester with no rain (I know, that never happened in the 24 years I lived here) on the Tuesday (this Tuesday) the heavens opened and the rain came in sideways it was so hard. Now, my hair was spiked, and after a good twenty minute walk in the rain, a quick dog like shake outside my hotel door and lo and behold, the style has not altered one jot. Even better (and something that happens a lot with hair styling products) it hadn’t run down my face leaving it all sticky – happy days.

Pretty impressed that despite the monsoon rains the spikes remain....

When using in non-monsoon conditions (read London, rather than Manchester) this keeps short and spiky styles erect and looking good (with a wet look) for a good ten hours. In fact, I applied this at seven thirty on Monday morning and after waking on Tuesday morning my hair looked exactly the same – yes it had lost the wet look and had a matte finish but the spikes where still rock hard and stood up straight like a guardsman outside Buckingham Palace – excellent.

This isn’t cheap stuff, but for the fact that has the longevity of Tom Jones (if you don’t know who Tom Jones is, then please stop reading my blog) I can’t help but recommend it. Personally I find it has excellent hold, but for the price I prefer Osmo Clay – it does the same thing, in the same conditions for half the price. If you really don’t care about cost then go ahead.

I recommend this stuff, but purely down to the fact that it does what it says on the tube (not tin, sorry Cuprinol) and for that it cannot be faulted. Want a hair gel that will give you an extreme style? This’ll do the triq!

RECOMMENDED

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Acqua Di Parma Eau De Cologne

Another trip to Manchester, another funeral but it wasn't all doom and gloom, a lovely evening out with my Aunt really put me in the Italian mood (Puccini's in Swinton opposite the Town Hall is amazing). A brief shopping trip on the Sunday meant shopping in Harvey Nicols and in turn, me making a beeline for the aftershave section.

Acqua Di Parma was an aftershave I had wanted to try since February of last year after someone on Reddit mentioned in passing that it was their favourite and gave me a run down on the notes.

Fast forward ten months and as soon as I saw a bottle I knew I had to give it a whirl. The fact that I spent ten minutes talking notes with the gentleman with the tester says a lot about my obsession with all things fragrant. Needless to say, one whiff and I was hooked. £53 was parted with for a 50ml bottle.

Marketed as a timeless, refined Eau De Cologne, which is still created in the same traditional method and with the same original composition since it's creation in 1916. The smooth notes of Silician citrus reveal a rich heart of blooming rose and refreshing lavender, the precious woods offer warm base notes to this harmony of more than ten natural ingredients.

A delicate, fresh and elegant Eau de Cologne that embodies the Acqua De Parma brand.

Now my personal favourites in the cologne and aftershave stakes tend to err on the citrus side, with a few exceptions where they have rich and light top notes that dry down to a warm and earthy aroma. Given the patter coming from the salesman I thought to myself that this would be a perfect fit for me and my skin type.

First impressions in Harvey Nicols were that this baby comprised simply all of the citrus zest top notes on earth and they were very strong, really strong, yes it may initially come across as it leaves the bottle that you have just paid £53 for a bottle of orange rinds blended with lemon zest but almost instantaneously it hits the heart notes and within minutes the entire blend has dried down

As it dries down for around thirty minutes you can pull out incredibly subtle hints of the citrus and lavender and it does get a little warmer on the nose as the dry down woody notes come through, but then nothing, nothing I tells ya.

An old favourite of Cary Grant and Ava Gardner (the salesman had every fact in his arsenal) this is indeed a timeless classic with a wonderful fragrance. Yes, I’m in love with the actual fragrance but this is wear it all goes a little bit pear shaped - the staying power. It has none to be blunt and that is a massive disappointment. Within thirty minutes of applying I asked for a second opinion while out and about to be greeted with “are you wearing any aftershave?”. Not good, not good at all.

Still the same some 98 years on the mantra 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' really doesn’t work here. It needs tweaking so that it simply lasts longer on the skin and is more noticeable ten minutes after applying it. At £53 for a 50ml bottle I expect it to still be wafting around hours after application.

Putting all of my cards on the table I love the fragrance for the first half an hour but then boom, a reapplication is needed and taking the price into comparison this just doesn’t represent good value for money. Six to seven sprays and still no signs of the cologne after an hour. This is not good.

If you can afford to work through a bottle quickly then you probably won’t mind this but for me I expect some form of quality to go with the amazing fragrance and this is sadly lacking and therefore it is the first aftershave where I love the smell but can’t in all honesty recommend it. 

NOT RECOMMENDED

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Structure Paste Flexible Adhesive

First of all, if you think this is going to be about some form of glue, glue sniffing or tips on what adhesive will get you tripping the light fantastic I will ‘fess up - this is actually about hair paste, for styling your hair.

*Whoosh* and everyone moves their cursor to the back button on their browser!

For those still reading (and without a nasty red rash and spots around their mouths) I’ll continue.

I’m not sure how the two samples of Structure Paste Flexible Adhesive came into my possession. One day it was another of those brands I’d never heard of, the next, there were two 15 ml sample sachets sat by the basin in the bathroom.

Paste was a product I hadn’t thought of using before - I’ve been through mousse (no thanks Nicky Clarke), wax (a deffo no-no Mr Wella), gel, cream and clay. Hell, at one stage in my youth I used hair spray - readers, picture a better looking Shaun Ryder* with his curtain hairstyle and that was me.

Paste had passed me by - to my shame.

After losing the Madchester compulsory cut of the 1990‘s I went to short spikes and that is how it has remained for years, and years and god knows, years.….

I’m trying to grow my hair out to sample a new style but with that comes the comments such as “your mullet is out of control - (JB**, 24 April 2014)”, which means that styling is a must. Gel has been tried and failed - the hold fades after a few hours and it doesn’t hold the style, wax is pointless in hair over 4 inches in length and clay would require a team of navvies to apply.

I wanted a sort of Beckham look with my hair swept back and staying back.

Structure claim that their Paste Flexible Adhesive defines and creates texture with a firm but flexible hold and a completely matte finish. Their strap-line to this is ‘Style is about instinct, creativity, passion. We’ll provide the tools. You build the structure.’

This is the first time I’ve read that and it has brightened my mood - someone somewhere thought that sounded cool or mysterious, and they probably were sniffing glue at the time!

On opening, the paste was stuck to the side of the packet - it’s like Polyfilla (that’s for filling cracks for those not familiar) it’s so thick and gooey. Fingers were dabbed in and it was like iron to a magnet. My fingers were covered and I had to wipe some off. It all wanted out!

It doesn’t really have a smell, or so I thought. My other half suggested it had a smell like Fructis hair products, which tended to have hints of apple. Personally I couldn’t tell.

My hair had just been washed and was damp when I extracted enough to rub between my palms - it spreads really easily and as you apply it onto the hair it soaks in quickly and almost immediately makes the hair pliable. It’s awesome for styling people.

After rubbing it into the strands of hair and down the sides I brushed in the swept back style. It was instant - where the brush had been the hair stayed and it was solid. Jumping up and down didn’t move the style.

My hair however wasn’t rock hard to the touch and wasn’t shining off the lights - it does have a great matte finish and how it feels is well….weird city.

I touch my hair throughout the day, and when I touch my hair with this in it feels a bit greasy - it doesn’t look it but one brush through with the hand and you are off to the bathrooms to wash your hands. It comes off to the touch.

That aside, after 15 hours the holding power is still there and you can’t grumble with that. If you are looking for bonus points for this, well there aren’t the slightest hints of white flakes, even in the morning. So no white flakes in your hair making you look like you haven’t heard of Head & Shoulders and no embarrassing flakes on your clothes while at work or out on the town. Result!

A 75 ml tune of this can be bought for around £9. Personally I’ve never, and I mean NEVER found a product that holds like this and is so easy to wash out. The only problem I find is that first thing in the morning I wake up looking like this….

Source

Forget the morning look, Structure has a styling product here that is simply fantastic for use on longer hair. A 15 ml sachet has lasted me a week up to now and I expect about another 3/4 uses out of what is left so this actually goes a long way for the price.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

*An image of Shaun Ryder is below - he was the lead singer of popular Manchester band Happy Mondays during the 1990’s at the start the mental music scene in my beautiful home town.

Source

**Names have not been changed to protect the guilty.

Thank you for reading, before you go I would love it if you could answer the two easy questions below. Please leave your thoughts in the comments:

1 - Should I continue to grow my hair out or go back to spikes like in the picture on my homepage?

2 - Should I dye my hair again? I've been going grey for 20 years, but haven't dyed my hair since I was 28 (7 years). 

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IBP home blood pressure monitor

Blood pressure is the pressure of blood within the arteries, and is measured usually by a General Practitioner. The results are given as two numbers, the systolic pressure (the pressure on the arteries when the heart contracts) and the diastolic pressure (the pressure in the arteries when the heart rest in between each beat).

A reading over 140/90 is consider to be elevated and 'mild' high blood pressure, a reading over 160/100 is classed as Hypertension. High blood pressure can increase the risk of heart disease, strokes and other serious conditions that will ultimately do increased life expectancy no good at all and is known as the silent killer.

Since the age of 18 I have suffered with high blood pressure, truth be told, I actually now suffer from Hypertension which is stupidly high blood pressure where there is a high risk of continued damage to my heart and a significantly high risk of a stroke or heart attack.

Medication has been part of my life to try and control this but following a move from Manchester and London I took a break from taking it until a routine visit to the doctors 4 years ago revealed that my blood pressure was 185/110 - not good!

I was immediately put onto a course of medication of Ramipril (the side effects of which were truly unbearable) that ultimately did bring it down but I continued to develop headaches on a daily basis, an awful TB like dry cough and became incredibly fatigued. More recent visits have shown readings of 196/115 and 185/120. The elevated readings can be put down in part to my absolute fear of doctors, hospitals and the fact that my GP has medieval views of medicine that include blood letting at every opportunity (blood tests). 

To combat 'dodgy' readings I decided to buy my own monitor from Boots to keep at home leading onto the IBP home blood pressure monitor (IBP HL 888 JF the actual make and model) – a snip at £29.99 in my opinion. Small and compact, the monitor takes batteries and is pretty much fool proof. I’m no wizard with technology but the operation couldn’t be easier and the screen and reading self-explanatory. 

As with a blood pressure machine at the doctors, the readings are taken after a cuff is strapped around the upper arm and inflated automatically by the machine until a pulse is detected and blood pressure is picked up within the artery in the arm. A diagram on the cuff makes the process of strapping it on very straightforward and easy to do. As the cuff inflates the sensation is very strange and it does tighten to an extent that it feels as though the blood is being cut off to the lower arm and the feeling of a strong pulse in the arm is a tad freaky!

The cuff is plugged into a large LCD screen that records the blood pressure as the cuff inflates and slowly deflates. At the same time a little heart flashes on the screen in time with your pulse. As the cuff finally deflates the actual blood pressure reading is displayed on the monitor. The LCD screen is 12cm by 10cm and gives the date, time, systolic pressure, diastolic pressure and pulse. On the front of the screen are two large buttons, one to start and stop the inflation process and a memory button that allows up to 30 readings for up to 3 users to be stored over a period of time.

I have owned the machine for around 3 years now and it just keeps on going – great value for money, it gives readings that are accurate giving peace of mind. I’m incredibly pleased with the IBP monitor - it has taken on something of novelty value with friends and family (who think it's funny how high my readings go), but in short, it gives me peace of mind and will as I start to make further adjustments to my lifestyle (cutting down on the filthy cigarettes and alcohol) the machine should in theory allow me to record the actual benefits, making the suffering that little bit more bearable!

It’s worth noting that as around 50% of over 65's and 25% of those in middle age suffer from high blood pressure the chances are that you could be at risk without actually knowing and therefore this is an essential piece of kit for any home.

Do you have a machine like this at home?

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