Over rated luxury items?

[RoyalFamilyFan]

What things are luxury items that you think are okay, but are overrated?

For me, it is Molton Brown products. I have a relative who keeps buying me these for presents. They are fine, I use them happily, but no way are they worth the cost.

@onedayoranother that's what my DH says. He won the argument..our bed has 1000 thread count but the other bed has Primark sheets. I don't actually know the price of Molton brown but PP said it's £15 which seems a bit steep for handwash. I read in the Sali Hughes book that restaurants and pubs often replace Molton brown handwash bottles with cheaper handwash but no idea if that is true. Lol.

All these references to Badedas. I didn't know it still existed.

I remember the ads, though in magazines, not the the TV.

I was treated to a 5* hotel stay a couple of years ago. I mean....it was nice, I was grateful but it didn't blow me away. Obviously we weren't in the most expensive suite so maybe that would have made the difference. The tv only had freeview channels, the film options weren't working and they didn't have any kind of backup when we asked if there was a way of watching one. I looked up the pillows and mattress and they're the same ones as premier inn. As I say, it was nice but not earth shattering. My travel companion kept waxing lyrical about the level of service but again, I didn't notice much difference from any other service industry or hotel. Maybe I've just been lucky but I've stayed in nicer hotels that aren't blessed with as many stars

First Class on the Gatwick Express.

If you go First Class on, for example, GWR (these trips were treats, before anyone wonders), you get the lounge, the papers, the drinks, the snacks, and kind staff trying to force more of all of those nice things on you.

If you go First Class on the Gatwick Express, you get a hanky on the back of the seat. In our case, we also got some poor American tourist, almost certainly oblivious to the fact this was going to be a rip-off because we as UK residents certainly didn't realise, deluding himself into thinking this was worthwhile, and obsessively policing access.

[quote Missatkins]Agent Provocateur lingerie... Who the hell would pay £295 for this..

www.agentprovocateur.com/apm0080001710-babeta-demi-cup-underwired-bra-in-black-13020[/quote]
@Missatkins

Exactly.

And no pockets either to put your sandwiches in.

It would never survive a boil wash.

Another vote for Molton Brown bath and shower products.
Also Jo Malone perfume. Doesn't last 5 minutes.

@RJnomore1 which one? Was it the intensive hand cream or the skin protectant? My poor mum has terrible contact dermatitis on her hands which nothing helps

@TheLeadbetterLife my small pedigree dog was much cheaper then the current fashionable cross breeds. He is quite stupid but has always been very healthy. I was going to save up for an expensive moisturiser. Can anybody recommend a good cheaper brand for mature skin please.

I think I'm always sensitive to these threads as my dad is a nightmare for presenting his views as fact.

I'm astonished that apparently people can't tell the difference between 200 tc and 1000 tc bedding. I can only afford to go to 800 but I love it, it looks great and washes brilliantly.

I don't spend long enough in a shower to appreciate different shower gels, I like Dove soap so I use that.

I do love my Charlotte Tilbury lipstick. But I was bought a YSL one that I found really oily.

Love my Pentagon's perfume but perfume is so personal, doesn't mater how much you spend if you don't like it you don't like it!

I've just started on an expensive (for me) shampoo. Let's see.

L’occitane. Looks cheap and nasty and smells of nothing. Or maybe that’s just the set I tried.

All the luxury shower gels make me horribly itchy so it's a no no. I do pay £3.50 for a bar of lavender goats milk soap made by a local farmer. It's rich, creamy and lasts around six weeks used daily.

My loccitane hand cream with shea butter is the only one that stops my nails splitting so they're always on my Xmas list .

Some luxury items do last longer

Oysters - raw ones at least.
It’s not that long ago in the U.K. that they were poor people’s food. IIRC there’s a comment in Dickens’ Pickwick Papers about it being a ‘very remarkable circumstance how poverty and oysters go together.’

Smoked or cooked are quite nice though.

As soon as I saw the thread title I thought Molton Brown!

Chanel nail varnish, rubbish!

Liquid soap/shampoo/shower gel in general. We use bar soap, and bar shampoo in the shower. Cheaper as they last longer and far less waste. No plastic bottles to recycle or fill up landfill and the ones I buy come wrapped in paper..... (Oh and at the moment I'm using up all the tail ends of soap that I have brought home from hotels over the years. Once started they would only be thrown away so I bring them home with me).

Bar soap here as well, except in the kitchen and downstairs loo.

Tiffany jewellery, especially the silver stuff. A necklace worth about £15 selling for over £100. You are basically paying a fortune for the blue bag and the fact you can say it's from Tiffany.

Badedas is a blast from the past - I didn't know it still existed. I remember it from when I was a kid but I didn't know it was luxury.

@MsAdoraBelleDearheartVonLipwig

M&S food - I don’t see the attraction of playing 3x the price of a normal food shop just so I can pick up some Percy pigs when I get to the tills.

My cousin had a summer job in a chicken factory years ago, packaging up chicken dinners etc. He had labels for M&S, Aldi, Asda, etc. Exactly the same food but with different labels for different supermarkets.

Now you are talking rubbish. My OH business does alot in food factories and M&S will not allow other brands to be produced in factories where their items are produced, and this is obsessively checked. It is part of their contract. Their chosen producers have incredibly high hygiene standards too.

I thought that although some factories produce food for multiple outlets it doesn't necessarily mean they use exactly the same product/recipe for each?

@WowIlikereallyhateyou - the key point in Adorabel's message is "years ago". I had friends in the early 90s who'd worked in food processing plants in the early 80s in their uni holidays and same factory pit the same food in the same pies with different labels. M&S pies got more filling.

I was going to say the same, wow M&S standards are different, and higher.

I love M & S food...I can absolutely tell the difference. Sadly it is really too expensive for me to regularly buy it but if I ever win the lottery, my dream is to do my weekly shop in there!

[quote RosesAndHellebores]**@WowIlikereallyhateyou* - the key point in Adorabel's* message is "years ago". I had friends in the early 90s who'd worked in food processing plants in the early 80s in their uni holidays and same factory pit the same food in the same pies with different labels. M&S pies got more filling.[/quote]
We have done work for all of the food companies since late 90’s, and this has always for us been the case. I thought the thread was about luxury items now. Adorabel must have been talking about 25 yrs ago, not really relevant then is it!
For example, We will not eat any pork pies from certain brands, pre made deli curries from certain supermarkets, all number of things, because of what we have seen. There is a massive difference in standards in these places and that is what you pay for.