Best book shop in Sydney! Very well read and friendly staff, impressive range of stock, and great…read moreservice too!

In the heart of Marrickville, community bookstore Urchin Books has a terrific range of all sorts of…read moresecond-hand and antique books with great sections. They do a lot of stuff with Skid Row Radio (community radio station) and Marrickville Street Festival etc but don't assume this is your average political book store. There are sections on Sci-Fi, crime, music etc and really pretty bookmarks designed by a local artist. I'd love to see them install a little café in here, it's the kind of shop that would make a great café/bookshop/arts hub- it has that kind of vibe anyway. They frequently do events here so all the bookshelves are on wheels. They just roll them to the side and voila, performance space for slam poetry nights and the like! Check out Urchin if you like your bookshops friendly and artsy.

Our business - Ink Nurse (ink-nurse.com) launched just over 12 months ago and we could not have…read moregone global with the success we've had without the help from the team at New Directions. Our end product is great, has a real high-end feel to it and we are really filling a niche market successfully. Packaging is great, Our customers all love the product. Only reason it doesn't get 5 stars is because of the lead time for manufacturing, otherwise everything else, including everyone i've dealt with have been great.

I bought a Zen Deluxe Diffuser in December. About 5 months later, it broke down. It has a year…read morewarranty, so I rang and spoke to Kate who advised me to drop in and pick up a new one. I drove all the way down to Marrickville and was told they were out of stock. Donald, the sales manager said more stock will arrive end of next week. I emailed Donald about 2 weeks later, and he said another week. One MONTH later, I emailed Donald and he did not even reply. Concerned that I would not have my diffuser replaced and also losing $$$, I made a formal complaint with Fair Trading. Fair Trading contacted New Directions on my behalf and was informed new stock had arrived that very day - a little too convenient. I will never deal with New Directions again. I also agree with the previous reviewer regarding the quality of their oils which is why I have been buying oils from Sydney Essential Oil Company (SEOC) for the past 5 years. As SEOC did not sell diffusers, I made a huge mistake by going to New Directions.

Along King Street in Newtown there are a few natural skin care shops, they are all good as they all…read moreare a bit different offering their own products, which make them all stand out from each other. Lemongrass House offers handmade soaps, which are great because it provides an alternative to traditional soap, which is on its way to becoming obselete as now we are learning that although it cleans our skin it also irritates and dries it out. Lemongrass House's soaps contain high Glycerin content, which acts as a moisturiser so is replenishing rather than drying. The soaps are also offered in a variety of natural infusions including: Lemongrass, Mandarin, Jasmine, Wild Mint, Rose and Lavender. The other product which appealed to me were the aroma therapy room sprays, I honestly couldn't be bothered dealing with oil burners for aromatherapy, I would most likely end up starting a fire (which is not relaxing), but the room sprays (in the same scents listed for the soaps and a few more) are a great and easy alternative and are useful not just for spraying in a room but for use in the car and for spraying bed linen. I'm impressed.

I love walking in to a store that sells lotions and potions and NOT getting an instantaneous…read moremigraine from the chemical swirl of scents wafting up from products made by robots somewhere in a Viennese chemical factory. Lemongrass House sells spa products (shampoos, soaps, body creams etc) handmade in Thailand and which smell like they do in nature, ie: like they're supposed to. Case in point, the Jasmine soap smells delicate and elusive, like the real flower not some vat-made fake fragrance. The products are paraben and sulphate free, not tested on animals and packaged with minimal, recycled materials where possible. The staff was friendly, and I suspect they're going for the Spa-in-Phuket vibe. Not having been, I can't compare, but I'm about to go and bathe in ylang-ylang scented lusciousness.

The ol' airport shopping trap! You're early for your flight, food isn't taking your fancy but…read moreyou've just been paid and there's signs from MAC, Bobbi Brown and Benefit calling your name. Amuse is a newer retailer in the T2 domestic terminal and offers a range that I've only ever tended to see in international terminals. They're selling a large variety of perfume labels including Jo Malone and you can pick up any makeup bits and bobs you may have forgotten to pack from YSL or MAC, for example.

I just bought 2 Jo Malone candles as gifts for $240 and $300 of makeup at Amuse and realized that I…read morehad made a huge mistake with the gift of one of the candles to a friend who was afraid of fire. 5 minutes after purchase I tried to exchange a candle for some diffusers and they refused to exchange at all. Unbelievably inflexible. Not shopping here again. Be careful.

I always feel a bit too uncool to go into an Aesop store…read more But on the occasions where I throw caution to the wind and step inside, the staff are always very sweet and seem to have no inkling that I don't fit in. Aesop always smells so damn fresh and edgy. I really love their products, though mostly I've bought little parcels and sets of Aesop things for other people as gifts, and then I spend my time hinting to friends and family about how much I love Aesop products, hoping they'll get the hint. So far ... not a lot of luck, but someone gave me a travel kit once. The hair products weren't that super, but everything else was damn amazing. This is a great place to buy presents for people overseas, if you want to get something Australian that isn't tacky. The packaging is just as gorgeous as the scents ... Yes, it's pricy, but you walk away with a quality product.

One of the best natural face and body care stores ever. The ingredients in the Aesop range are all…read morecreated in a way to source the true potent essence of flower and plant extracts. There is a plethora of minerals and vitamins that our bodies thrive on from nature. Aesops range finds the best of it and bottles it up in the form of creams, lotions, face washes, shampoos and serums. I have tried many items from their range and I must say the people who work in their store have envious clear and healthy skin. I love their body creams and the essential oils that are used offer an aromatherapy kick that you can only wish for at about 3pm on a busy day at work. I would highly recommend any of their hand and body creams, as well as their face wash and facial serum.

You know those places you go to that as you walk past you stop, then you turn around and go back…read morejust to go find out what that smell is? This is one of those places. It's a small corner store just as you get out of Town Hall train station and walk into the QVB. However, don't be disappointed by its size, the smell is all encompassing. I will make a note here that these candles, oils, cremes and other beauty products are not cheap. There is a reason for this, I swear. It's because their products smell divine for hours after. The candles you pay $40 for a 300g but it goes for months and never once looses it's scent. Other candles you buy stop smelling nice by the time you burn it half way. Not so with these. The 350g ones come in a beautiful glass jar with a lid to extinguish your flame. It's double wicked and will have your home smelling divine in under 5 minutes of lighting them. Why the double wick? Well from what I gather a double wick means that it burns more evenly and that there's always a good liquid layer on top. It also burns all the way to the bottom so you don't waste any wax. A double wick also means that there's less soot and the scent, it releases the scent of the candles nicely. So do what I do, treat yourself on occasion. My next one will be the lemongrass. Or maybe the coconut and lime? Decisions!