Surf it like Beckham and flash it like Stodden?

When Becks took his boys swimming and surfing, he stripped down to his shorts and baseball cap and showed off his new tattoo … and there’s nothing sexier than a man in his underwear, is there? Our picture shows his latest H&M underwear line – with the incomplete tattoo concealed by his arm. Nice to see the finished article at last.

David even managed to pull off wearing a backwards facing baseball cap which, to be honest, has become such a joke that it’s difficult to do it without looking like a gangster rapper spoof.  We like our men in shorts too, although we also appreciate pouches and thongs as being part of the wardrobe of the well-dressed chap, although thirty-three tattoos (that’s the current total, but watch this space!) might be a bit much for the average guy.

Big Brother bikini bother

Blonde bombshell and Celebrity Big Brother contestant Courtney Stodden has been courting controversy! Her enhanced cleavage has been a talking point since she arrived in the house and it seems to have a bit of a life of its own, having tried to escape from her stunning black bikini while she applied suncream.  Whether you love or hate her double D breasts, there’s no doubt that Courtney has found many a way to pout her assets on the best possible display. Her candyfloss blonde hair is a perfect foil for her other chosen bikini colours of bright yellow and lipstick pink and while her platform heels might not be for everyone, she’s got a look that she knows how to work to the utmost!

For those of us who’d like to emulate the Stodden look, a primary-coloured bikini worn with big hair and bright lipstick gives the general impression of starlet glamour, and adding a pair of espadrilles rather than the standard flip-flops, and a couple of big bangles will give extra sex appeal to a sexy swimwear outfit.

Lingerie that’s as great to wear as it is to look at

But autumn is almost upon us and our thoughts are increasingly turning to bunny slippers, hot chocolate and romantic films on TV as we snuggle up with someone special. We’re looking forward to Gravity, starring Sandra Bullock and The Face of Love with Ed Harris and Robin Williams, and we’d like to watch both in our new fave, these gorgeously sophisticated Lise Charmel pyjamas. Who says you can’t be comfy and sexy at that same time? We might even team our jammies with those platform heels, after all Courtney probably won’t be needing them when she gets evicted from the Big Brother house…

How to deal with a fading tan, and Melanie Sykes and Javier Bardem in their underwear!

It’s that time of year when our summer tans start to fade … and it doesn’t always look great. Instead of hiding away in maxi dresses and cover-ups, use our tips to help you go from bronzed to pale and interesting without a difficult in-between stage.

First, if you want to lose a bad tan line, perhaps from a swimsuit or bikini that distracts from your lingerie, try this system:

1. Exfoliate the area at night and again in the morning, for at least two days, using a shop bought product or half a mug of brown sugar with a teaspoon of almond oil massaged onto the skin. Rinse thoroughly. After each exfoliation moisturise well.
2. When the skin is smooth and well fed gently tap some self tan onto the area that is lighter and allow to dry for around ten minutes.
3. Examine the tan line to see if you’ve got a nice blend, and if there’s still a difference, use a spray tan, the kind that washes off, to blend the two lines together with a small brush – a blusher brush works well for this as it blurs the margin of the two tans well.
4. If you have any streaky areas, use a hair remover (depilatory) cream designed for sensitive skin which will fade the fake colour almost instantly. Leave on the skin for just two minutes, rinse off, and start again.
5. Finish off with your blusher brush touching up the whole area with a little bronzing powder – hey presto! Perfect blend.

But if your whole tan is fading and you want to be rid of it, buy a body wash and make up remover containing alpha-hydroxy acid (AHA) which is a natural exfoliant and skin rejuvenator, but remember that some sensitive skins don’t cope well with AHA. Use these treatments every day to speed up your tan’s disappearance. If you’re really in a hurry, mix several tablespoons of baking soda (not baking powder) with cool water or yoghurt to form a thick paste, massage onto damp skin and then rinse in cool water – this exfoliates the skin and leaves it smooth and refreshed.

Javier Bardem

TV presenter Melanie Sykes has a long history of underwear modelling, she was a Berlei girl back at the beginning of her career. Now, aged 43, she’s starred in a new lingerie campaign for Adore Moi by Ultimo which shows off her washboard abs to best advantage! Melanie has had an amazing year, which has included marrying her younger lover Jack Cockings, who is 27 and whom she met on Twitter! Her wedding dress was pretty stunning too, being a jewelled peach gown on a corset body which made the most of Mel’s gorgeous curves.

And Javier Bardem stars in a promotional video for Agent Provocateur, which was directed by his wife, Penelope Cruz and features the L’Argent lingerie line also designed by Penelope and her sister Monica!

Twerking, how to wear nude lingerie, and another Royal wedding?

She may not be as much of a household name in the UK as One Direction but Miley Cyrus is a big star in the USA – and if you remember Hannah Montana, then that’s Miley …but boy, she’s changed! Now twenty years old, the former Disney good girl stripped down to a nude latex bikini to twerk with Robin Thicke. Okay, let’s break that down: twerking is a raunchy dance and Robin Thicke is the voice of Blurred Lines a song already made notorious for the original video which featured several Victoria’s Secret models twerking with members of the band.  With me so far? Good.

So Miley appeared on stage in a teddy-bear leotard (nothing wrong with that; we like dressing up ourselves although we prefer being cute kittens or powerful cougars to teddies, to be honest) and then tore off that already skimpy costume to reveal her plastic two piece undies, before gyrating her derriere into Robin Thicke’s masculine bits! This caused much outcry on twitter and several celebs in the audience, including Minnie Driver, commented on Miley being somewhat OTT.

So what was wrong? Well Robin Thicke is married, for a start, second, quite a few people commented on the way that Miley’s ‘nude’ didn’t really work, being the colour of a mannequin rather than either matching her own skin-tone or being a flattering shade in harmony with it, and third, a gape appeared in the waistband of her shorts whenever she bent forwards, which she did, a lot! Latex is very sexy to wear but we’d recommend that you test any latex outfit for exactly this tendency, before going out in public, or even showing it off in the bedroom, if you want to be sure you’re going to achieve the effect you desire.

Boy band One Direction have a cheeky new video out, to support their Our Moment perfume, and they’re going to be performing at a Victoria’s Secret fashion show in November! If you’re wondering exactly how you have an ‘our moment’ with five chaps, the video makes clear that they’ve each contributed some of their favourite fragrance notes to the perfume and their tongue in cheek performance also makes clear how easy it is to be both sensual and light-hearted in the bedroom, from the display of underwear (smelly white socks!) to Louis making off with the perfume bottle at the end, there are lots of fun ideas all the way through to bring your private hours to life.

And Prince Harry is rumoured to be getting close to proposing Cressida Bonas. The couple have been photographed together having moments of real tenderness and it’s reported that he may be about to pop the question. His fling with Florence Brudenell-Bruce, did the Bollywood actress no harm, she ended up fronting a La Senza underwear campaign and being the face of Aspinal bags, and Cressida is also noted for her underwear, although in a more low key way – several years ago she did some modelling for Beautiful Bottoms, a lingerie company established by three of her university friends. It just goes to show that Harry has an eye for female beauty!

According to the Daily Star, security teams have been drawing up plans in preparation for a royal engagement, with a Palace insider telling the publication:

'The way it's looking now people close to Harry and Cressida predict an engagement by the end of the year and a spring wedding.'

'Cressida is The One. He's so close to her. All the tell-tale signs are there. People have heard Harry talking about how special Cress is and about getting engaged.

'He says "They are all waiting for me to propose any day," then he grins. It's his idea of a joke. He takes everything like this light-heartedly. But we know his true feelings,' the insider continued.

Rumours started swirling that Prince Harry was getting super-serious with the society girl after the Prince whisked his girlfriend off on an African safari earlier this month in Botswana. Prince William proposed to Kate Middleton on a romantic trip to Kenya back in 2010.

Crop tops, cute bottles and clever science – news from the world of lingerie!

Sexy and short

Okay, the first bit of news isn’t exactly underwear related, but there’s a massive surge towards super-short hairstyles going on. There’s the classic crop worn by the sexiest mature star of them all, Jamie Lee Curtis, through to Anne Hathaway, then Jessie J’s amazing head-shave on TV for charity, taking in Miley Cyrus whose razored rock-girl quiff destroyed her previous Hannah Montana good girl status once and for all, and now …Charlize Theron.

Charlize shaved her head for Fury Road and fell in love with the look. She’s let the uber-short buzz cut grow out to a pretty little pixie style that flatters her face and is easy to maintain, and she says she likes the look so much it’s here for keeps.

Crop-top hair can be a wonderful way to show off the prettiest lingerie around, as it exposes some of the subtleties of the female form, such as collarbones and the nape of the neck which are highly seductive. If you have opted for short hair, or wonder if it’s for you, consider how you might pair your cropped look with a pretty necklace that highlights your breasts by dipping into your cleavage. Lipstick can be a key feature to complete the look when you’ve got a crop or pixie cut, and while the classic full red lips with black lingerie is a tried and trusted favourite, experiment a little – the same scarlet lips work well with green or navy underwear, while a subtle pink lip gloss can really illuminate the sensuality of grey, silver and baby blue. Coral tones, especially with a tan, work really well to bring white undies into the spotlight.

Minajesty – the new fragrance from Nicki Minaj

Nicki Minaj has been sowing some confusion with her new scent, her on-off engagement to DJ Khaled and a great big diamond ring!  Her new scent, Minajesty, is said to be sultry, captivating and powerful – by Ms Minaj herself!  The video proposal from DJ Khaled led loads of us to believe that when Nicki tweeted today it would be an acceptance … and she was seen wearing a stunning diamond ring that looked like the one Khaled was holding in his film. However, eagle-eyed fans spotted that the two rings were not identical, the one Nicki was wearing has more of a table cut while the one she was offered appears to be brilliant cut. So we’re still on tenterhooks to know if she’s going to say yes!

What she did tweet was her new scent, from Elizabeth Arden, and the bottle’s very cute. It features a different type of crop top – a sexy diamante-studded red bustier, very typical of the Minaj look, but with flowing curled pink tresses rather than the straight pink locks that featured on her previous fragrance bottle for Pink Friday.  If you love the Minajesty look, our Lise Charmel Ispahan Grenade Lingerie Bustier is just the job – pair it with some body jewels and plait long hair to get the rippled look the bottle features.

The science of fitting

Finally – just to prove we’re not all about fluff and frills (okay, we are mainly about fluffy, frilly, gorgeous things, we’re a lingerie blog, but there’s serious science behind what we do!) please go and read this amazing guest blog at The Lingerie Addict. We don’t often direct our lovely readers to go and visit other blogs, but this is just such a great piece of writing that we want every woman, and every man who buys bras for a woman, to read it!