This was ok, but I didn’t feel like it helped me realise anything new or that I haven’t heard before.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

3.5* upped to 4
When I'm stressed I read book like this that helps me to bring order to my world. There's a lot of ideas in this book and some of them are interesting, all are well explained.
It's not world shattering but it's well done.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I really enjoy Sali Hughes' writing, so I feel a little conflicted about giving a middling review of Everything Is Washable. Ultimately, it's a review of two halves: Hughes is absolutely superb on advice pertaining to beauty, skincare and make-up (and I really appreciated her attitude to wellness quackery). She's also strong when writing about fashion and clothes, and if the book had focused only on those elements it would have been a strong 4 stars from me. Alas, the sections on other elements - buying secondhand furniture, cooking basics, etc - didn't feel as strong for me, and the jumping around from one topic to the next wasn't helped by some formatting issues on Kindle. Hughes' weighing in on the over-saturated 'organise your life by tidying' market also fell a little flat for me; although her family background does leave her eminently qualified to comment, it wasn't saying anything particularly new.

Perhaps, at 44, and thus having a decent grasp on skincare, cooking and furnishing my house, I am not the audience for this book. I did frequently think what a lovely gift it would make to someone in their late teens or early 20s leaving home for the first time, but then wondered if said someone wouldn't be more likely to get their life advice from Tiktok and Youtube.

3 stars: I'll be interested to see it in book form and, if it's nicely designed, would certainly buy it for my teenage nieces, but it's of limited use to those of us with some life experience (and several series of Marie Kondo on Netflix) under our belts.

I've read so many books like this over the years but I am yet to find one that gives any helpful or useful advice or insight . Sadly this is still the case. It's not even clear who the target audience would be.. It starts off as a series of money saving tips for the affluent - how to repurpose Diptyque candle jars,, how to source vintage furniture, how to open champagne, how to hire a cleaner.. If there are any actual useful tips - stain removal, hot to descale a kettle. how to protect clothes from moths, they can be easily found on the internet without the need to purchase a £12.99 book.

It appears to be organized in a completely random fashion with tips scattered willy nilly with no clear theme or sectioning jumping from field to field completely nonsensically - from staircarpets to buying a pram, stopcocks to books. For a fashion and beauty editor it contains very questionable style and fashion advice. But this book gets even worse as the author dispenses "advice" on abortions , breastfeeding and depression which is inappropriate and she is totally unqualified to do so. Her comments giving direction on "how to grieve" are incredibly trite and extremely offensive to those of us who have actually experienced grief..

After finishing this book I am not sure what exactly it is meant to be - an interior design manual, a cookbook, a style and fashion guide. All of which are areas completely out of the author's wheelhouse. There are better titles out there in all of these categories. There are far too few handy hints and far too much of her personal anecdotes which add little to the content. Hughes is a beauty journalist and that is her area of expertise and from looking at photos of her online she appears to be far too young to have accumulated the gravitas and benefit of years of experience to advise on such serious matters as are contained in this book. The content could have been so easily contained in a short pamphlet - Wear sunscreen, don't be a slave to fashion and this is how you cook pasta.

I've enjoyed Sali Hughes beauty books and articles previously, so when I saw this I was intrigued to see her take on certain subjects.
I did enjoy the personal stories that were shared, such as finding out about her childhood, her father's hoarding and personal life, but these were far and few between.
Had it leaned more into the personal stories and their relevance to the topics this could have been so much better.
All of the advice provided was pretty obvious and I'm really not sure who it is meant to help or is targeted at.
Those who enjoy Sali's writing are no doubt of an age where they have learned 99% of what is included in this book already.
It also read from a very privileged white standpoint too, which I understand Sali is but when she showed vulnerability or the journey that she had been on to get where she is today, that is where this book actually worked.
Sadly this was not for me, which was a real shame.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

It was rather dull and not as witty as I was expecting. Some interesting bits about her father and her upbringing but everything else was just a bit obvious. I didn’t learn anything knew and not sure who it’s really aimed at?

Everything is Washable by Sali Hughes wasn't what I was expecting. From the description I expected funny and wise but the advice was all a bit obvious and pedestrian. The parts about her hoarding father were more interesting.

I just don't know who this book is for? Women and men of Sali's age know all (or at least most of this stuff), and young men and women simply don't seek advice from a book of this nature. I really don't think Gen Z needs to be told (again) how 'chic' navy and black are together or read an entire section on how to create a password system.

It is obvious that the book's delays throughout covid have impacted its relevance. It reads like a strange hybrid of Pool opinion columns, India Knight's thrift and 'The Shops' books and late-night chatter between Sali and her mates (who have all kindly blurbed her book to be clear). The order is strange and her advice veers between superiority, judgement and a more confiding tone. I was particularly irritated by her views on childbirth- that you move on from the horror of it because, um, baby- which is carelessly and casually dismissive of birth trauma and CPTSD. She writes, referring to her own births, "let me emphasise in the strongest terms that it is just one day....ONE DAY that you will barely remember beyond the arrival of your baby at the end of it."

The interesting thing is that occasionally we see flashes of vulnerability and signs of personal growth (when Sali talks about revisiting her childhood home, her father's hoarding, and her own parenting). But she (understandably) doesn't seem to want this to be a focus. In a media world where women are encouraged to mine their own trauma., this may be a wise move or possibly a decision to wait until the memoir-propre.

However, I did learn that the best supermarket queues to wait in are the ones where one person is putting through an enormous shop because there will be a steady flow. Not sure this is worth the cost of the book, though.