Behold, recent purchases from my favourite Destination Shop: the French Pharmacy in London’s Marylebone. The time has come once more for me to try (yet again) to kick my tobacco addiction, and these are some of the things I will be using to help me in that attempt.
Two of the things pictured above are not like any of the others, but two of those things are kind of the same … pastilles!
Not just one, but two different brands of pastilles!
Pourquoi? Because previous attempts at Giving Up Smoking have seen me spend almost as much on Haribo as I would have spent on cigarettes, so I’ve sought out an alternative. A chic, French alternative.
I haven’t tried either of these pastilles before, but I’m happy to spend my money on them, and here’s why.
La Vosgienne pastilles come in a Fancy Tin.
There are very few things in life I like more than a fancy tin. A fancy tin filled with essential things is much more practical for carting out and about than a humble packet of essential things.
Having a fancy tin to hand is a little bit like having a cigarette case to hand.
When I first started smoking I bought Embassy Filter, the little short ones, not Embassy No. 6, and as I rarely had enough money to buy a packet of twenty all in one go, I would often split a packet with a friend and decant mine into one of my cigarette cases. I use the one in the photo to hold hair grips now (not that I use hair grips). I still have my tiny, tiny Townsend Thoresen car ferries leather cigarette case. I have found no practical use for it whatsoever now that I smoke long cigarettes, not short ones, but I can’t bear to part with it.
I haven’t tried either of these pastilles yet because a) I haven’t yet got myself into the appropriate Samuel Beckett ‘try again, fail again, fail better’ mindset required to live without nicotine and b) I’m enjoying the final few of my lovely, lovely blackcurrant pastilles which came in a beautiful tin that could have been custom-made for me : a Capricorn born in a Fire Goat year. Once I’ve polished off the last few of these I will repurpose the tin to hold the Vichy pastilles when out-and-about.
I have slightly convinced myself that the Vichy pastilles will taste of mineral water.
Imagine a Fox’s Glacier Mint, but with the emphasis on the Glacier, not the mint. The sweet equivalent of a sparkling, crystalline ice cube. Hmmmm. If no-one has already created such a sweet, someone should.
One of my earliest memories of a #beMoreFrench beauty moment was in the mid-80s, when it became possible to buy a spray can of Evian Water in Boots the chemist. I bought one. I remember it being hugely expensive, and quite large, nothing at all like the handy little 50ml cans that I rely on to keep my cats under control when they decide to go full goblin in the bedroom in the early hours of the morning.
Mineral water was such a strange concept at that time. Perrier was the first big brand to break through, the pleasure of it slightly ruined by its immediate annexation by yuppies. I usually hate drinking water, but every now and again I get a craving for Evian, which I like because it tastes soft, and S. Pellegrino mineral water, because it tastes salty.
Thinking of S. Pellegrino returns my thoughts to Fancy Tins, of course. Dear old S. Pellegrino and his little foil hat. Still unbeaten in the packaging of European drinks, in my opinion, but OMG, nothing when compared with the treasures to be found in Chinese and Japanese supermarkets.
Talking of the power of pretty packaging
From fancy tins to fancy e-cigarettes: one of my stop-smoking aids is the ripple* FOCUS e-cigarette.
I have given this a quick experimental inhalation (sort of, you aren’t supposed to actually suck the vapours down into your lungs) and I like it every bit as much as my first ripple* purchase: the ripple* which has a jasmine aroma.
Dr Marine drew my attention to the ripple* as a possible cigarette substitute, and although I know there are cheaper e-cigarettes, I’m happy to fork out more for this one. Why? Because it is sleek and prettily packaged, I very much like the scents, and it feels both Fancy and French (because I insist on pretending that it is French.)
You might now be wondering about the poupées.
If you are a regular reader, you will know that I love a dress-up dolly.
I keep a small paper Nancy to hand on my desk, but she is more of a talisman and object of beauty than as a plaything (at least until her wardrobe expands).
One thing I need an endless supply of when attempting to lessen my cigarette addiction is Mindless Distraction, and I find it in the Covet app.
It works like this: Covet gives you a virtual model who you customise as takes your fancy with the skintone, hairstyle and make-up look of your choice. Then you enter ‘challenges’ to dress her up according to the strictures of the particular brief. See below for an example.
I discovered Covet during lockdown, when I was researching fashion and beauty games aimed at children and trying to decide how pernicious they were.
Covet is utterly, totally ridiculous, and therefore has a compelling hold on me. I might write more about Covet if I return to the subject of paper dolls.
For now, consider what balm it is to a mind consumed with the desire to set fire to a little stick of tobacco to be set the task instead of achieving an elegant look for horse riding armed with only a maxi-dress and some crap jewellery.
The final element in my stop-smoking bag of tricks is the tiny tube of Nuxe Rêve de Miel Clean Hands Gel (which you can see just peeping at you in the picture at the top of the page).
This was very much an impulse purchase, prompted by my long love for Nuxe and being intrigued by the promise of a no-rinse gel to cleanse and soften.
I am so bad at using hand cream. I have some gorgeous ones, and I just forget to apply them. So the softening part of this sounds good, and I could always do with a bit more cleansing, being naturally a bit of a filthy wretch. And as every smoker knows, when we give up, we need something to do with our idle hands. I might well be wringing my hands in anguish over the next few weeks as the agony of nicotine withdrawal kicks in, but at least tmy mitts will be be clean, soft and smelling prettily of honey.
I absolutely love smoking so it’s very difficult for me to contemplate living a life #SansCigarettes. Previous attempts at quitting have been horrible, and not stuck. However, this is the first time that I’ve thought of trying to boost my low spirits at the thought of being nicotine-free with lovely cute FRENCH things, so who knows, maybe this will be enough of a psychological trick to help me quit.
If I manage it, I might want to share more stuff about the process, so with a bit of luck that hashtag I just thought up might get a bit more use. Now all I need do is screw my courage to the sticking point, and start stopping, as it were.
Please wish me luck and if you have anything that helps you not miss smoking, please share with me in the comments – I need all the help i can get!
How much does all this cost?
How much did all these products cost?
Vichy Pastilles: £3.50 available here
La Vosgienne pastilles: £5.75 available here
ripple* FOCUS: £12.00 available here
Nuxe Clean Hands Gel: £3.50 available here
All bought from The French Pharmacy
The Grether’s Pastilles: £9.49(?) were bought from Stickland Pharmacy in December 2021. They keep very well in the tin!
I think this particular tin must have been a limited edition, because I can’t find a link online to purchase it. I certainly told myself it was buy it now or regret it forever, so that I could impulse-purchase it with no guilt! I do remember that they were more expensive than your average pastille, but I think the tin makes it totally worth it.
Covet app is free to download and free to play but it does have some interesting psychological tricks up its sleeve that can lead to you spending money on your dollies!
Ethical Stuff
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This post is not sponsored or paid for, and nor was it expected or the content directed by the French Pharmacy or any brand or retailer mentioned in this post.
