It was always going to be Zara, right?! I had gone in on the hunt for a black midi skirt in one of those fits of gotta-have-it pique that means you have tunnel vision until you acquire your target but had come away empty-handed. After browsing the rails, I asked a lovely sales assistant if they had a black midi skirt in store and, after she tapped away on her tablet, she told me they had 441 online but should look around the store if I wanted to find one in the shop. Goodness, why didn’t I think of that?!
Not the point of the story but will likely revisit ‘What has happened to customer service?’ in a different column, but as I left, something embarrassing happened. The alarm went off.
The red lights by the door started flashing, the siren was blaring and I spun around in an ‘it wasn’t me, Guv’ pirouette ready to prove my bag didn’t contain a hastily shoved-in Zara haul. I was in Zara though so the cashiers barely glanced up and the security guard was nowhere to be seen.
Still, I wanted to prove my innocence to a human being so I could walk out of the shop without worrying about being tackled from behind by store security with delayed response issues. A woman on my right shouted over as I walked back into the store so I blurted something about my innocence before she told me she was talking to her friend who was standing behind me. More embarrassment.
Then she came over and said something along the lines of, ‘But I follow you on Instagram and am so pleased you talk about hair loss’. I replied by professing my innocence while turning puce, then thanked her for following and being so lovely about my content.
Truthfully, it is not the first time I have set off the security alarms in shops as it sometimes happens when you’ve been at a press event and come away with a product from one store and then enter another. Given that I had just come from Selfridges (and when I think of it, they probably had more black midi skirts than anyone else!) for the lunch to celebrate the new launch of the Creed Amber Universe fragrances, it wasn’t unlikely that my goody bag had spooked Zara’s security system.
Worrying about an imminent false arrest was a bit of a record scratch to an otherwise lovely lunchtime at Brasserie of Light and excellent company, including Sasha Pallari, Gary Thompson and Sebinaah.
The two new fragrances, Centaurus and Delphinus, are woody amber fragrances; Centaurus is bold, fiery, spicy and leaves an impression and Delphinus, which was my favourite of the two, is leathery with incense and vanilla. I normally find Amber fragrances a little too much for me, like driving a car with too much horsepower, and that’s how I felt about Centaurus. I loved it but was a little scared of it and wasn’t sure I could pull off wearing it. Delphinus though was much more my speed and, as I explained in this video, the way to know if you love a fragrance, I think, is to sleep in it. If you wake up and don’t want to immediately change your sheets and get in the shower, then it’s a winner.
I also have to say a huge ‘thank you’ to everyone who commented on my Instagram reel about the kind of content you want from me. I’ve been feeling like an out-of-touch dinosaur on social media recently because I don’t lip sync, do dances or keep my posts to a snappy 90 seconds or less. I’m old-school and think that if I’m going to take the time to talk about something then I should at least do my homework so any viewer feels as though their time was well spent. The push to change was becoming slightly deafening so I ‘asked the audience’ and the feedback was to stay doing long-form content. This pleased me because that was my hunch. I don’t want to change for the sake of it, although it’s always important to adapt and evolve, but now, thanks to you, I have a far clearer idea about what to do moving forward.
Content though is an interesting topic at the moment because, since I started this Substack, it is posts about weight loss that have the most views. I spent ages agonising over my feature about stress I posted this week and the response was good but fairly slow. Then, on Friday, I posted this before and after pic with a feature on foods to avoid to lose weight and the traffic was startling in comparison. Thousands of link clicks on Instagram to the piece, people sharing and commenting.
Seeing as asking my audience on Instagram has helped me curate content moving forward, I’d be interested to hear what you’d like more of from me on Substack. One follower pointed out that I have very different voices depending on where you find me. On the podcast it’s a wide range of topics with a variety of guests, on Instagram it’s mainly beauty, fashion and lifestyle focused and here, well, on Substack, I haven’t settled into it so if you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them!
Anyway, I’m off to find that black midi skirt. See you next week. EG xx
I am enjoying your evolution as a content creator. Keeping some old, moving into some new. I'm excited about the mobility exercises, I love when other podcasts interview you. I think that's how I discovered you, something Nadine did years ago. You seem really happy leaning into beauty more, it suits you!!! I love your weight loss content, it feels real and sustainable and you're honest about still being on a journey. I also love longer form content, I make a tea and have a relax while watching them. Talk soon xxx
Have to say, I divorced Zara much like you did Free People - the sizes in Zara are outrageous (but dramatic but you know what I mean), and the staff so bored with what they are doing. Just no joy. I think, we enjoy your weight loss story because it proves to us what we already know, and we find comfort in that.