Empties July 2014

July involved a lot of travel for me so whilst I only used up eight full sized products there was a whole host of minis and samples that were used up. Look at all the empty Caudalies!

Nothing really blew my socks off this month but I did like the Caudalie Polyphenol C15 Eye Cream and the Radical Peptide Infused Antioxidant Serum was also very lovely.

I was impressed by the St Ives Fresh Hydration Lotion. Although it's quite a light moisturiser it gets points for being so quick and easy to apply and the continuous spray leaves no slick overspray on my bathroom tiles... And although I wouldn't get it again the Stila Lip Glaze wowed me with the way it dispensed the product, every last bit of gloss squeezed out - genius!

Yup, good packaging as well as products makes me happy.

A Little SpaceNK and Sephora Restock

Recently GiltCity (www.giltcity.com) were offering $100.00 of credit at SpaceNK  for $50.00. 

Needless to say this was an offer I couldn't refuse and it was well timed as I needed some new eye cream. The only restrictions were that you had to use the credit online at us.spaceNK.com, you had to use it all at once and you couldn't apply it towards sale items.

I was so impressed with Sarah Chapman's Skinesis Overnight Facial that I decided to get the Skinesis Eye Recovery. I've yet to try it but I'm hopeful that this eye cream may be the one.

I also picked up a Kevyn Aucoin Matte Eyeshadow in the shade Soft Clay. I had just hit pan on the one I'm currently using - it's the perfect nude rose colour for me and I get anxious without it in my make up bag! 

I managed to add a couple of sale items to the basket, Beautannia Scented Candles in Columbia Road (a floral jasmine)  and Brighton (a woodsy mineral rich scent).  You can never have too many scented candles IMO and I love the packaging and the jars that these come in. The fact that they were reduced to a mere $12.00 from $48.00 didn't hurt either. 

I also got three samples in my order from Bakel, Darphin and Eve Lom - nice. 

My husband needed more Bumble and Bumble Grooming Cream (not pictured), apparently, it's the thing to use if you have short thick hair... 

I decided to get it from www.sephora.com, I mean, you may as well rack up the points right?

 In order to get free shipping I slipped in a Nars Pro Prime Eyeshadow Base, I love this stuff and I've got a feeling that mine is about to run out. 

More samples, this time from Dior, Bumble and Bumble and L'Artisan Parfumer and a free deluxe sample of Alterna's Anti Aging Replenishing Milk.

All in all not a bad mini haul and a bargain to boot!

Product Love - Fresh Sugar Lychee Body Lotion.

Several years ago when I made a purchase in a Fresh store the assistant added me to their mailing list. From time to time they send me a card to exchange for samples of new or existing products. Handily, there's a Fresh shop right around the corner from where I work so I usually take them up on the offer.

 Now whilst I love the stores and the whole Fresh aesthetic, I have to admit to not being the biggest fan of their  facial skincare but their body lotions and shower gels... Oh my, are they good or what? Honestly if I were rich I'd use them all the darn time!

From time to time I feel a bit guilty for taking their samples and treat myself to a Sugar Lychee Body Lotion. 

It's not heavily scented but it smells divine, fresh and clean. It's not at all heavy or greasy yet it does a fabulous job of hydrating my skin and makes it feel really, really soft. It has tons of good stuff inside including shea butter, mango oil, vitamin C, vitamin E and brown sugar. It moisturises so effectively you don't need to slather it on so it actually lasts me quite a while. And just how pretty is that bottle?

If you don't live near a Fresh store you can order it here www.fresh.com

Smells Like Summer.

Just as my clothes change seasonally so does my skincare. Once warmer weather arrives winter's heavy moisturisers give way to lighter textured gel creams, I  may use a different serum according to my skin's seasonal needs and in summer I slow down on the retinoids and up the SPF.

My bath and hair product selection isn't so finally tuned according to the seasons but I like things to smell 'season appropriate'. In Autumn I favour woodsy scents, Winter gets positively spicy and incense like and Spring is all about greens and light florals.  In Summer I want to be at the beach, if not in person then at least in spirit, so I tend towards either coco-nutty suntan lotion like smells or fresh minerals reminiscent of a sea breeze.

Here are some of the summer scented products currently to be found in my bathroom.

1. SAI - SEI Mineral Invigorating Body Scrub is not only a must before any kind of self tanning it has the most refreshing spa like mineral scent.
2. Bumble and Bumble Surf Foam Wash Shampoo and Creme Rinse Conditioner satisfy my need for a sea breezy type of scent and they leave my hair looking wonderfully 'beachy'.
3. Fenjal Body Wash is one of my all time favourite shower gels. (I always pick at least one up when I'm in England as I can't find it in shops here.) It's not as overtly minerally as the SAI-SEI but there's a definite 'tang of the sea' type thing going on here, plus it always reminds me of beach holidays as this was the 'nice' bath product we always took on family seaside holidays when I was younger .
4. Oribe Cote D'Azur Hair Refresher does just what it says on the tin - it makes my hair feel and smell clean. It smells like summer and has a irresistible name.
5. Carol's Daughter Monoi Hair Mask takes care of hair that's had too much salt and sun and smells divine. Every time I use this I have to stop and just inhale - it's like the best sun tan lotion smell ever!
6. Skin Quench Hemp Body Lotion smells like fruit and coconut. Whilst it's not an after sun product I believe that you just can't go wrong with any type of moisturiser after sun exposure so go ahead and slather it on.
7. Champney's Shower Cream with Coconut Milk and Ylang Ylang smells like the beach and tropical flowers, simply gorgeous. It's creamy formula won't dry out sun kissed skin either.

I may not be at the beach but it sure smells like it!

The One Plus One

When I was in England, way back in March, I was happy to see that there was a new book by Jojo Moyes out. I rarely buy books, being fortunate to live very close to an excellent public library. However, I always pick up a few when I am in the UK as the selection there is obviously different from here in America. It's also good to have something light to read when I wake up in the middle of the night unable to sleep due to the time difference!

I've read all of Jojo Moyes other books and enjoyed them all immensely but this one just failed to hit the spot. Her other books all have a very well crafted plot line. This one just had a really quite unbelievable one that wasn't that interesting to boot. 

It was an easy read but I tended to pick it up and read a big chunk and then put it aside and not have any inclination to get back to it, I mean, I've only just finished it! By contrast her other books have been 'unputdownable' for me.

All in all, I was very disappointed by this book. I hope she gets back to her usual form with her next offering.   

The Best Way to Buy Perfume.

So I have often seen these boxes of perfume samples on sale in Sephora but what I did not realise until I was idling around on the Sephora website recently is that they contain not only the samples but also a voucher for a full sized bottle of your choice of one of the fragrances in the box. How did I not know that? I decided to investigate.

 I chose the 'Favorites Fragrance Sampler For Her' which retails at $65.00 and contains 14 samples.

It also contains the following make up bag (handy for keeping your samples in!)

The bag is actually much nicer than it looks in both my photo and on the Sephora site. The back is plain black whilst the front is made up of a laser cut layer in an intricate flower design which is laid over a gold and black 'crackle' effect layer. It has a sturdy zip and is lined with black cotton, it's a keeper!

As I said before the set contains a perfume certificate to swap for a full size bottle and also a booklet that describes each of the perfumes* and contains their print ad on the adjacent page to the description/notes.

*Great for people like me who have a hard time describing perfumes beyond 'it smells nice, like flowers' :)

'Florabotanica' was the perfume that I intended to buy when I purchased the box but after trying it again just to make sure I found that it reacted oddly with my skin and disappeared without trace within 30 minutes...which was really saddening as I loved the scent...but at least I found that out before I purchased it thanks to the box. Luckily there was another fragrance in the box that I love which was this...

The box allowed me to get a 1.7oz Eau De Parfum spray. Look how pretty the bottle is!

Of course this being a Sephora mail order I also got to pick some samples.

I chose a Nude serum, a Dior primer and a Tokyo Milk hand lotion. There was also a promo code for Marc Jacobs perfume and a sample of Bulgari after shave thrown into my order.

And there was also a weekly free gift to choose, I opted for this

A cute Pucci like ziplock containing yet more perfume

samples!

Honestly, when I look at all of this I can't believe what a fabulous deal this is. I have a bottle of perfume that retails at $105.00, 20 perfume samples, my regular sample selection and a cute new make up bag all for $65.00.

I think this is a great idea if you want to try a new perfume for yourself and it's a brilliant idea for a gift. Why not take a look at these in Sephora or check them out on sephora.com, they have various sets containing different perfumes, they even have a male version.

Now if only there were a Diptyque sampler set I really would be in heaven!

The Uncoupling.

Meg Wolitzer's 'The Uncoupling' is one of the books discussed by Nick Hornby in 'Ten Years in the Tub'. He made it sounded intriguing and so I kept it in mind to read. Recently I picked it up to take on a trip as it's a short book at 270 pages.

It tells the story of the women of a small suburban town and a strange malaise that overcomes them and closes their minds and bodies down to sex. At the same time the local high school are rehearsing for a performance of 'Lysistrata' an ancient Greek comedy about women who go on sexual strike in order to bring about the end of a 20 year war. On the night of the play's performance things come to a head and a conclusion.

I thought the idea for the storyline had much potential but found the book to disappointing, especially as it has been praised so much by other writers and publications. I found the characters to be uninteresting and I didn't really care what happened to them. The ending also disappointed in that all the loose ends were tidied up in a matter of pages, almost as if the author had tired of this book was rushing to finish it. All in all I considered it to be lackluster and a rather dull read.

Empties June 2014.

I didn't think I used up that much this month but it was a bit of a squeeze to get all the containers on the background mat so I guess I did after all.

Some old faves were Chantecaille Just Skin, By Terry Hyaluronic Hydra Primer and Royal Apothic Simply Amazing Hand Cream.

New discoveries that I really liked included Reviva Rosewater Facial Spray from Wholefoods - it's cheap, wholesome and smells fantastic. Bumble and Bumble's Surf Shampoo and Cream Rinse

were amazing - instant beachy hair as soon as you step out of the shower and another product that smells so good! Giorgio Armani Regenessence High Lift Eyes was a gorgeous eye cream , despite the long name - why do they do that? And if I ever become obscenely wealthy I will go straight out and get myself several pots of Chanel Sublimage La Creme!

Disappointing products included Caudalie The des Vignes Shower Gel - this was a product that I had been so looking forward to using but the fact that it hardly foamed at all meant that there was no way I could love it. Shiseido Future Solutions LX Sunscreen sadly made me greasy and break out, although I have to say that Shiseido have the best packaging for their samples, it's very luxe. The Bakel  Thio C Serum which consisted of a liquid and a powder that you had to mix looked very fun and scientific but was really just too much of a palaver, it's pretty expensive and it didn't do much for me.

This month was a bit of a mixed bag with some things I loved and some that were unlovable but nine full sized items got used up... I may well have to go shopping soon...