The Saffron Experiment.

I try it, investigate it and tell you if it’s worth your money.

I had questions, a lot of them actually.

I’m investigating the things that promise to make life better, easier or more interesting, from wellness trends and beauty rituals to fitness ideas, products and suggestions that catch my eye. These are midlife experiments conducted in real life, not a lab. I’ll try things properly, look at what’s behind the claims and report back on what actually happened.

There is already quite enough being sold to women in the name of women’s wellbeing. I want to know what works, what doesn’t and, more importantly, what is actually worth your hard-earned cash. No miracle transformations or pretending something worked because somebody sent it to me. Just evidence and an honest verdict.

Was it worth it?

Did it make life better? Was it fun and would I do it again?

I have become increasingly aware that work, family, housework, gym commitments, and weekend shopping can get a bit repetitive. There is comfort in routine these days, I admit, but too much of it and I feel like I’m living in a well-organised waiting room.

My brain doesn’t help because it likes novelty, questions and new quests for answers. So rather than constantly trying to drag it back to the straight and narrow, I’m just going to give it a new job to keep it ticking over during my free time.

I don’t want to spend midlife trying to become younger. I want to find out what makes the life I have now bigger, healthier, stranger, stronger and more interesting.

The experiments will come from everywhere: things I discover online, things H suggests, Persian traditions I’ve inherited through marriage, conversations at the gym, fitness products that catch my eye and the occasional idea I probably should have ignored..